A Day in Doñana

Regular readers of this blog and those who have visited the Algarve will know that our base in Tavira is only 30km or so from the border with Spain.  This allows us occasionally to make a day trip to Doñana, still regarded as one of the most important wetlands in Europe and an excellent location for all sorts of wildlife.  We were there just recently and although only a small part of the area can be seen in a single day, we had reasonable success visiting the Dehesa de Abajo and the José Antonio Valverde Visitor Centre.

There aren’t many bird species available in Doñana that don’t occur regularly in Portugal but notable exceptions are Marbled Duck and White-headed Duck, both of which are classified by BirdLife as Globally Threatened, and Red-knobbed Coot, which is widespread in Africa but scarce in Europe.  However, finding any of these in Doñana isn’t guaranteed and on this recent occasion we found only one of them: there were four White-headed Ducks at Dehesa de Abajo, three males and a female. It’s quite possible that there were Red-knobbed Coots present, too, but on this occasion there wasn’t much enthusiasm for standing in the blazing sun peering through a telescope trying to find them amongst hundreds of distant Eurasian Coots.
  
What Doñana does offer is better opportunities to see species such as Great Reed Warbler, Savi’s Warbler, Black-crowned Night Heron, Squacco Heron and Black Kite, which are not ‘every day’ birds in the Algarve and much greater numbers of European Reed Warblers, Purple Herons and Glossy Ibises.

 Glossy Ibis

Purple Heron

We have written before including  here, here and here about previous visits to Doñana.  One of the features of visits in the breeding season has been the spectacle of hundreds of nesting herons, egrets and Glossy Ibises at the José Antonio Valverde Visitor Centre so it was disappointing this time to find virtually none there at all.  Fortunately, it wasn’t long before we were able to at least find where they had re-located to but it is no longer possible to view them at such close range.  However, there were countless birds constantly flying to and fro and endless opportunities for flight photography.

 Squacco Heron

Black Kite

Short-toed Eagle

Other than Lesser Kestrels and hundreds of Black Kites we saw disappointingly few raptors but at least one Short-toed Eagle allowed close approach.

Mid-June would not be our recommended time to visit Doñana but if you can put up with temperatures of 40ºC and higher, it still offers some good birding.  Better, though, to go in April or early May when more birds are singing and there’s the prospect of seeing some migrants.

Two days in Doñana

We can always find more than enough in Portugal to keep us interested and occupied but now and again we do like to pop across the border into Spain, usually to the Doñana area in Andalucía.

It takes only a two-hour drive from Tavira before we can be through Villamanrique de la Condesa and heading for the Dehesa de Abajo or to the José Antonio Valverde Visitor Centre.  We usually see a few bird species in Doñana that are seldom found in the Algarve or that occur in Doñana more frequently or in greater numbers than they do here but as much as anything it’s nice to have a change of scene occasionally.

 Doñana has huge numbers of Glossy Ibises

Our visits to Doñana are usually day trips, which limits how far we can travel so it was nice this week to have a two-day trip over there with an overnight stay in El Rocío.  This gave us time to have a look at sites that we have been to less often and some we haven’t visited for quite a while.

We saw exactly 100 species over the two days.  The highlights were probably White-headed Duck and Red-knobbed Coot, simply because they are birds that don’t occur very often in the Algarve but it was good to see our first Northern Wheatear, Sedge Warbler and Collared Pratincole of the year and to hear our first Nightingale and Savi’s Warbler. 

Red-knobbed Coot

Another highlight was to look out of the window of our hotel room and see Greater Flamingos, Spoonbills, Glossy Ibises, Common & Red-crested Pochards, Northern Shovelers and Black-tailed Godwits.  We fell asleep to the ‘honking’ calls of Flamingos and the croaking of frogs!  The shallow lagoon and marshes right beside the village of El Rocío make a marvellous sight at this time of year with countless hundreds of birds.  It does seem strange that the place is best known for the annual pilgrimage that attracts one million or more people in May every year.  The object of the pilgrimage is a 13th-century statue of the Virgen Del Rocío and you can read more about it here.  Suffice to stay that it is a date that is always in our diary…as a time to stay well away from the area!

 Ermita de la Virgen del Rocío

 Las Marismas Del Rocío

The view from our hotel room

Close to El Rocío is the La Rocina Visitor Centre where the boardwalk trail known as the Sendero Charco de Boca was well worth the visit and nearby the Palacio del Acebrón has an interesting exhibition depicting the history of rural life in the Doñana area.

 Palacio del Acebrón

Inside the Palacio...

...and on the roof

Taking the little ferry across the Rio Guadalquivir, we made the long drive to the Bonanza saltpans and the Laguna Tarelo and we also managed to spend an hour or two at La Dehesa de Abajo Visitor Centre where it’s nice that you can now get food and drink.

 Bonanza saltpans

Other than Great Flamingos, Slender-billed Gulls were the most numerous species at Bonanza

La Dehesa de Abajo has a huge breeding colony of White Storks

Two days were better than one but still nowhere near enough to fully explore this wonderful area.

Days out from Tavira

Last week was a busy one for us with days spent in the Castro Verde area of the Baixo Alentejo and across the border in Doñana as well as around some of the usual sites in the Algarve.

The Alentejo is at its very best right now.  Both Great Bustards and Little Bustards are displaying and easy to see, there are raptors everywhere (13 species this week), Calandra Larks singing, Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Collared Pratincoles, Great Spotted Cuckoos, Rollers, Black-eared Wheatears and more.  However, what makes this time of the year really stand out is the amazing display of wild flowers – carpets of yellow, white and purple with patches of red.  Truly spectacular!

Alentejo flower show...

...too many to name!

Black-eared Wheatear

Lesser Kestrel

Doñana, too, is really looking good.  In complete contrast to last year’s disappointment following the drought, currently there is water everywhere and, as a result, lots of birds fixing to breed.  In particular, there were hundreds of Greater Flamingos and Glossy Ibises and seven species of herons and egrets.  Throw in a few Gull-billed & Whiskered Terns, some Greater & Lesser Short-toed Larks, Red-knobbed Coots, Great Spotted Cuckoos and an assortment of raptors and waders and it makes a great day trip from Tavira.  There was even a Long-tailed Duck at the Cañada de Rianzuela.

Great Spotted Cuckoo

Little Ringed Plover

In the Algarve, we’ve been to Ludo, Quinta do Lago, Olhão and, of course, Tavira, all of them within the Ria Formosa.  Highlights for our visitors have included Collared Pratincoles, Little Bittern, Bee-eaters, Caspian Terns, Slender-billed Gulls and Stone-curlews.  Just as much as those, we’ve enjoyed hearing the air filled with the songs of Nightingales, Cetti’s & Reed Warblers and watching Black-headed Weavers busy building their nests.

Collared Pratincole

Black-headed Weaver

Finally, news of the colour-ringed Common Redshank, H19, which we previously blogged about here.  This bird, which has now spent three winters in the saltpans here, is so faithful to one particular area that when we couldn’t find it on 15th March we were confident that it had left to start its migration to The Netherlands.  At the time, the weather there was awful with temperatures down to minus-3 and it didn’t seem like a good place to be going.  We were worried!  Anyway, the good news is that ‘our’ bird (which we share with Wim Tijsen who ringed it) arrived back on the breeding grounds on 9th April having presumably stopped somewhere on the way to wait for better weather.  We hope for news of a successful breeding season.       

Doñana

Yesterday we crossed the border into Andalucia and spent the day in the Doñana area. It was only our third visit there this year but our second this week! In January we managed to choose a foggy day, last Sunday it was cloudy and it rained; at last, yesterday was sunny and warm!

Squacco Heron

White Stork

We often wonder what the Algarve would have been like for birding 50 years ago, before the tourism industry took it over and destroyed so much of the habitat. To some extent that same question about Doñana is answered by Guy Mountfort’s book, Portrait of Wilderness, an account of three expeditions to the area in the 1950s which helped establish the Doñana National Park as one of western Europe's outstanding natural areas. Doñana is unrecognisable now as the wilderness that was explored by Mountfort and his colleagues. Since those days, the area has suffered, like the Algarve, from tourist development and human encroachment, wetlands have been drained, river water has been diverted to boost agricultural production and there is also pollution from surrounding agriculture. In 1998, the area was threatened by a huge spill of toxic sludge from a reservoir at the Aznalcollar mine into the Guadiamar River. Having identified such a wonderful area and recognised its importance for wildlife, how could it be possible to allow so many negative impacts to continue over the following 50 years?

Northern Wheatear

Black Kite

The good news is that, in spite of everything, Doñana is still a wonderful area for birds and other wildlife. There may be times when it is dry and maybe seems rather uninteresting but right now it is teeming with birds, many that are there to breed and many that are just passing through. We had a great day and the question now is how soon can we go again?

Corn Bunting

Greater Short-toed Lark

If you haven't read Guy Mountfort's book, you really should! Likewise, if you haven't been to Doñana...

A Day in Doñana

We spent yesterday in and around Doñana National Park across the border in Spain. Although we drove through thick fog on the way there, the day turned out warm and sunny, thankfully lacking the cold wind that has been a feature here recently.

We always enjoy Doñana. We regularly see there species such as Red-knobbed Coot, White-headed Duck and Marbled Duck that are found only rarely in Portugal and others such as Glossy Ibis, Purple Heron and Whiskered Tern that occur there in greater numbers than we ever see them in the Algarve. Yesterday we also saw five Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, a species that we have never seen in Portugal.

Purple Heron

It is difficult to think of a day when we saw over 100 Black Kites and more than 50 Griffon Vultures as a poor day for raptors, but numbers of the other regular species were fairly poor.

Black Kite

On the other hand, we saw plenty of migrant passerines, a nice selection of waders and four species of larks - a total of 87 species in all.

Greater Short-toed Lark

It is impossible to do justice to Doñana in a one-day visit but we never come away disappointed.