Near Valdoviño, Lagoa da Frouxeira and Praia de San Xurxo in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain.

A double Bunting dip but caught up with a few nice ducks.

Ebird List for Valdoviño. 

Ebird List for Lagoa da Frouxeira. 

Ebird List for Praia de San Xurxo.

 

I started the day with a 35 minute or so drive up to some fields near Valdoviño where I was hoping to see one at least of 2 reported Little Buntings (Escribano pigmeo / Emberiza pusilla), on the way there I made a stopped at Bar A'Cotorela for coffee and food, the coffee was very nice and as they had no bread for a tostarda I had some Churros instead.

I had the coffee and these 6 short lengths of Churros, which certainly hit the spot and when I asked for the bill I questioned it and reminded the lady what I had had, and she repeated €1.60 which I could not believe.

Anyway, happy with my bar choice I continued on to the area of fields for the Buntings, as I pulled into the area I found another birder, Pablo García Rivas who was also looking for the same birds so after parking we wandered around the area checking out anything that moved.

Winter ♂ Common Reed Bunting (Escribano Palustre / Emberiza schoeniclus) one of quite a few seen in the fields.

We could see a good concentration of birds along a short track between two harvested fields so started to check through them finding Meadow Pipit (Bisbita Pratense / Anthus pratensis), House Sparrow (Gorrión Común / Passer domesticus), Common Chaffinch (Pinzón Vulgar / Fringilla coelebs), European Greenfinch (Verderón Común / Chloris chloris), Common Linnet (Pardillo Común / Linaria cannabina) and European Goldfinch (Jilguero Europeo / Carduelis carduelis).
After a while I walked back to my car and got the scope, as I walked back it absolutely threw it down so I spent a while sheltering under a tree where I saw a couple of calling Red-billed Chough (Chova Piquirroja / Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) before it eased off, I returned to the spot along the track and we started to get views of several Common Reed Buntings (Escribano Palustre / Emberiza schoeniclus) which had been seen in the same spot as the target birds.

After some time we dropped into the harvested Maze field below us and scanned the trees from there and found more Common Reed Buntings but just then the heavens opened again so we decided to head for cover in our cars but by the time we had got there it had pretty much stopped again.

We returned to the Maze field adding Dunnock (Acentor Común / Prunella modularis) which was calling from one of the piles of brash dumped in the field, we were soon joined by Dorindo Pérez Fernández but as hard as we tried we couldn't find the Bunting so we returned to the track where we had been earlier and again found even more Common Reed Buntings as well as a flyover Peregrine Falcon (Halcón Peregrino / Falco peregrinus), Great Tit (Carbonera Común / Parus major), Eurasian Wren (Chochin paleártico / Troglodytes troglodytes), Common Blackbird (Mirlo Común / Turdus merula), European Stonechat (Tarabilla Europea / Saxicola rubicola), White Wagtail (Lavandera Blanca / Montacilla alba) and European Serin (Serin Verdecillo / Serinus serinus).

Other species seen included Common Woodpigeon (Paloma Torcaz / Columba palumbus), Eurasian Collared Dove (Tórtola Turca / Streptopelia decaocto), Yellow-legged Gull (Gaviota Patiamarilla / Larus Michahellis), Common Buzzard (Busardo Ratonero / Buteo buteo), Carrion Crow (Corneja Negra / Corvus corone), Common (Estornino Pinto / Sturnus vulgaris) and Spotless Starling (Estornino Negro / Sturnus unicolor).

At 12:00 Pablo and I left the site, I dropped from this site to the nearby Lagoa da Frouxeira but as I turned to go along the edge of the lake I realised I was going the wrong way along a one way road, so I did a quick U-turn and as I went back up the hill to find another way around I saw Dorindo coming down and warned him about it, he said that it must be very new as he was only here a while ago and it was two-way then.

Anyway, we headed to the beach end of the Pool where we parked and walked down the length of the pool to the hide finding Mallard (Anade Azulón / Anas platyrhynchos), Yellow-legged Gull, Great Cormorant (Cormorán Grande / Phalacrocroax carbo), European Stonechat and Eurasian Magpie. 

Eurasian Teal (Cerceta Común / Anas crecca).

Northern Shoveler (Cuchara Común / Spatula clypeata).

As we cleared an area of wooded dune and could see the water again there were a good number of wildfowl including Eurasian Teal (Cerceta Común / Anas crecca), Gadwall (Anade Friso / Mareca strepera), Mallard (Anade Azulón / Anas platyrhynchos), a ♀ Greater Scaup (Porrón Bastardo / Aythya marila) and both ♂♀ Ring-necked Ducks (Porrón acollarado / Aythya collaris) but these were way out on the water.

♂♀ Ring-necked Ducks (Porrón acollarado / Aythya collaris) and a ♀ Greater Scaup (Porrón Bastardo / Aythya marila).

♂♀ Ring-necked Ducks (Porrón acollarado / Aythya collaris).

As we walked to the hide we also saw Eurasian Coot (Focha Común / Fulica atra), Common Sandpiper (Andarrios Chico / Actitis hypoleucos), Black-headed Gull (Gaviota Reidora / Chroicocephalus ridibundus), Little Grebe (Zampullín Común / Tachybaptus ruficollis), Carrion Crow, Eurasian Crag Martin (Avión Roquero / Ptyonoprogne rupestris), Common Chiffchaff, Long-tailed Tit (Mito Común / Aegithalos caudatus), Eurasian Wren, Common Blackbird and European Robin.

Common Sandpiper (Andarrios Chico / Actitis hypoleucos).

From the hide we saw Mute Swan (Cisne Vulgar / Cygnus olor), Western Marsh Harrier (Aguilucho Lagunero Occidental / Circus aeruginosus) and a more unexpected big female Northern Goshawk (Azor Común / Accipitor gentillis) which Dorindo saw fly in and I had nice views of in the scope. 

The view from the hide.

and again.

On the walk back we added Grey Heron (Garza Real / Ardea cinerea), Common Kingfisher (Martin Pescador Común / Alcedo atthis), Zitting Cisticola (Cistícola Buitrón / Cisticola juncidis), Eurasian Blackcap (Curruca Capirotada / Curruca capirotada), Short-toed Treecreeper (Agateador Europeo / Certhia brachydactyla), Song Thrush (Zorzal Común / Turdus philomelos) and Meadow Pipit (Bisbita Pratense / Anthus pratensis). 

Back near the cars we took a boardwalk out to view the sea and some rocks where we found Grey Plover (Chorlito Gris / Pluvialis squatarola) and Sanderling (Correlimos Tridáctilo / Calidris alba) and on the way back to the cars ♂♀ Black Redstarts (Colirrojo Tizón / Phoenicurus ochruros).

I said goodbye to Dorindo and headed off to another spot that Pablo had told me about where he had seen 2 Snow Bunting (Escribano Nival / Plectrophenax nivalis) yesterday, I arrived at Praia de San Xurxo where after parking I walked out onto the beach finding 4 Eurasian Skylarks (Alondra Común / Alauda arvensis) and ♂♀ Cirl Bunting (Escribano Soteño / Emberiza cirlus) which were new for the day as well as an Iberis species which still needs a name.

Iberis species which still needs a name.

As I was searching I noticed a storm approaching but too late so I sat behind a steep sand dune hoping it would protect me a bit, but I actually got absolutely soaked to the skin, so when it eased I made a run (well a quick walk) for it and went back to the hotel to get dried out.