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.

La Dehesa de Abajo

We’ve been across the border to Spain a couple of times recently, to the Marismas del Odiel, to Doñana and in particular to La Dehesa de Abajo.

Usually our trips to Doñana are one-day affairs involving early starts from Tavira and returning late.  Our most recent trip was like that.  However, a few weeks back we had a leisurely journey, stopping off on the way for some birding at the Marismas del Odiel and then staying overnight in Aznalcázar at the very nice Hacienda Olontigi.

Our main reason for the overnight stay was to give ourselves several chances to photograph Iberian lynx.  We went with three friends from Tavira and in Aznalcázar we met up with Beltran Ceballos Vazquez and Sergio Asian González, both of whom are involved in the lynx re-introduction project and whom we know from previous trips to Andalucía.  This trip was the result of a conversation that we had with the two of them at the Birdfair at Rutland Water in August.

Sadly things didn’t work out quite as we and they had hoped.  Partly this was the result of the weather - there was persistent rain that really didn’t encourage us or any lynx to be out and about; also there was some bad luck in that we visited several potential sites and were simply at the right place at the wrong time.  While we were at Site A, what looked from the photos captured by a camera trap to be three different lynxes were at Site B!

In spite of some miserable weather and missing out on our main target, we had an enjoyable couple of days.  The birding at La Dehesa de Abajo was very good - thousands of roosting White Storks were quite a sight and there was a good selection of waders and ducks.  We also took the ferry across the Rio Guadalquivir at Coria del Rio and spent an afternoon in the Paraje Natural del Brazo del Este where Glossy Ibises were particularly numerous.  There were no rarities, just plenty of birds, amongst them Black Stork, Osprey, Great Egret, lots of Marsh Harriers and various common passerine migrants.

La Dehesa de Abajo

Last week, we didn’t take much persuading to go back to La Dehesa de Abajo just on a day trip.  On this occasion the weather was superb but we were there for the birds and there was no chance to look for any lynx.  If anything there were even more birds than earlier - just by counting five species (White Stork, Greater Flamingo, Glossy Ibis, Northern Shoveler and Black-tailed Godwit) we estimated more than 12,000 birds.  The departure from the lagoon of several thousand White Storks was followed by the arrival of wave after wave of Glossy Ibises, a spectacle that on its own made the journey worthwhile.  We also saw there a Red-knobbed Coot, a late Bee-eater and lots of waders that included several hundred Avocets; not too far away, we watched a Spanish Imperial Eagle.

Red-knobbed Coot - from a hide that faces into the light

It’s great to see the visitor centre at La Dehesa de Abajo open and being able to buy some lunch there made a change from the sandwiches that we’ve been having day after day.  The new regime has plans for more hides to be provided at some stage and it would be nice if there could also be some modifications to the two existing ones which like most hides in this part of the world are poorly designed and badly sited.

We will be planning an early return to La Dehesa de Abajo and to other parts of Doñana.  It won’t be long before Common Cranes arrive!  And, of course, there’s also the lynx to be photographed.