Last week, during our visit to Andalucia, we spent some time looking at gulls, terns and waders around the Guadalquivir estuary. In just half a day we found six ringed birds, originating from various European countries.

First up, a Black-headed Gull – ringed in the Czech Republic – click here for details

Next, a Kentish Plover ringed at Marker Wadden, Holland, in May 2020

A Redshank ringed in Kragero, Norway in August – it travelled 2,700k in a month

Sanderling – no detail received yet (Post-script – ringed on Sanday, Orkney, Scotland – but no further details available)

A Lesser-Black-backed Gull – also of Norwegian origin

And finally, those orange-billed terns! Soon after arriving at La Jana beach I picked out a bird of Sandwich Tern size, with a long, slightly drooping, orange bill – surely an Elegant Tern. We watched it for half an hour, moving from on spot to another – along with a hundred Sandwich, several winter Common and a couple of Caspian Tern. Only when I was looking through the photos that evening did I realise that there must have been two Elegant Tern in the flock – one ringed – the other not! From my blog back in September 2013 – “The male was first ringed in Marismas del Odiel, Huelva (SW Spain) on 8 October 2002 as a Lesser Crested Tern, but when it was re-trapped in 2006, it’s  identity was questioned, DNA was taken and the identity awaits confirmation – though is leaning towards Elegant.” If the ringed bird in my photo was this original bird, it is now two decades old at least!

The second, un-ringed bird.

Any observations or comments on these birds welcome.

We’ve just finished a week birding in Andalucia, our favourite autumn migration location, accompanied by our long-standing birding buddies Bob and Sue. We flew with Jet2 from Stansted last Friday but had to sit on the tarmac for a couple of hours before departure due to the French air traffic controllers strike. We eventually made it to Malaga and drove to our old town Tarifa apartment, arriving for supper. The following day we stayed local, visiting the beach at Los Lanches, La Pena raptor watch-point, the greatly improved salt marsh reserve at Barbate, finishing with a visit to La Handa to check on the extent of any flooded rice paddies. With generally unfavourable raptor migration conditions and little or no water on La Handa, the following day we opted for a trip out west to the Guadalquivir estuary area, including the Bonaza salt pans and the beach at La Jara. The next two days were a combination of raptor watching and looking for migrant passerines at a number of sites close to Tarifa. Our last two days were spent inland in the mountains of Los Alcornocales and Grazalema. As well as using local knowledge, built up over our many previous trips, this time we used the Crossbill Guide to Western Andalucia – co-authored by our good friend John Cantelo. His generosity of knowledge, advice and assistance for us is now captured in a book – packed with everything you need to know about the diverse wildlife of this great area. The book navigated us to several sites we’d never managed to find before and helped us identify plants and insects, previously overlooked – well done John.

By the end of the week we’d amassed a creditable total of 164 species, but with so many ‘stand out’ birding moments it’s hard to pick out the highlights. 16 raptor species from La Pena watch-point in one session – including an eye-level encounter with a Long-legged Buzzard and 235 Black Stork is definitely up there. Back in September 2013 we found a couple of Elegant Tern at the mouth of the Guadalquivir river – super-rare birds originating from the west coast of the Americas. We’ve been back several times without success but this week lightning struck twice – two Elegant Tern at La Jana! (for a fuller account see my next post covering ringing recoveries in Spain). Common Bulbul and Little Swift have a European toe-hold in Andalucia – we caught up with both species at their regular haunts. Other highlights included: White-headed Duck, Marbled Teal, Black-shouldered Kite, two dozen wader species, Audouin’s and Slender-billed Gull, Bonelli’s, Olivaceous and Spectacled Warbler and Rock Sparrow & Rock Bunting.

Just a flavour of the delights of an avian Andalucia autumn – until the next time.