This summer has been a quiet time for birds, especially as the temperatures are hotter than ever before. July has felt like August last year, and August is usually the warmest month.
Gular fluttering is seen every time I go out (when birds open their mouths and flutter their neck muscles, to promote heat loss). We are having to replenish the bird water at least twice a day to keep up with them in our garden.
It's a time when the remaining ducks are here for the period, those who migrated, have gone. Common and Red-crested Pochard become hard to find, most changing into eclipse plumage.
That red eye and brown head on the Common is so distinctive.
The one duck everyone comes to see in our area is the rare White-Headed Duck. In America they have the Ruddy Duck which is smaller, has a shorter tail and the beaks are concave, whilst on White-headed they are convex.
Here is a male showing off his cartoon blue beak. Again this year, we have seen many ducklings, some schools of up to 10 following a mother or aunt around the lake.
Talking of ducklings, Marsh Harriers have been hard to find during June and July, not something I have noticed in previous years. Often we can see up to seven drifting along the reed beds at the same time. Here's one I did manage to catch at El Hondo at the southern hides. That look!
The ever present Eurasian Kestrels are always wonderful to watch, with several pairs on our patch. This male had just caught an unsuspecting Wood Pigeon and immediately the female came down to carry off the food.
Of course, it is the time for all the Martins, Swifts and Swallows, the speedsters of the sky. I look forward to their return every year and soon they will be off again, the Sand Martins already are nowhere to be seen. House Martins are starting to fledge and they too will be starting to leave in a few weeks.
Hawking for bugs in the setting daylight. I always think they have round, chubby heads and small beaks compared to the others.
Pallid Swifts come in good numbers to our area but are difficult to distinguish against Common Swifts, this one is definitely a Pallid. The yearly challenge of trying to capture the speedsters with the camera is continual learning cycle. Most images end up on the cutting floor!
This is one of my favourite pictures of a Pallid Swift so far, showing his fish scale belly and white chin. Sometimes I am up at a shutter speed of 1/5000 trying to catch them. Fortunately, we are blessed with lots of light and the ISO remains pretty low (~400).
The usual suspects still hang around in the cooler pine trees, Greenfinch, Long-tailed tits, Spotted Flycatchers (one of the best looking birds ever), Serins, Great Tits and Goldfinch. By July the Corn Buntings have moved on, I have only seen a few this year but the Common & Greater Reed Warblers came back, in good vocal form as ever. One bird I haven't had any sightings of so far, is the Yellow Wagtail, normally seen everywhere.
Other Warblers around include, Sedge, Moustached, Savi's, and Melodious (although I haven't seen the last two recently).
The Greenfinch sure are green. Our resident yard Sardinian Warblers and regular visiting Black Wheatears both raised families this year. Nesting in a bunch of tall Yuccas. In there, they are safe from everyone and we don't try to look, incase we scare them off. I have yet to see a Black Wheatear anywhere else except in our garden, how strange is that?
Missing my favourite group of birds, the waders/shorebirds. Off elsewhere in their best clothes and colours, which we don't often get to see. Sometimes Godwits start turning into their summer plumage before heading off but generally, it's all the standard winter camouflage. Those who stay, (many Avocets, Black-winged Stilts, Kentish Plovers for example) provide enough action on the water as nests and chicks abound.
Avocet chicks are fluff balls on long legs, with that characteristic decurved bill. Quite happy to go off early on their own and explore, whilst feeding themselves. Smaller cotton balls aren't as safe and the gulls take a toll. I can't get over them taking Kentish Plover chicks, so valuable and rare, uuuurgh!!
Stilts are the lake bullies. They will get together and fly out of their way to attack innocent ducks or other waterfowl. Avocet mothers are fierce and will defend against any number of these devils!
We can't leave summer without talking about the Grebes. The Great-crested Grebes arrive and immediately start their weed dances and water running in tandem. Spectacular to watch but so difficult to capture when they are hundreds of meters away. Little Grebes have had another good season, dabchicks are literally all over the waters at the moment. Black-necked likewise and always a beautiful bird to watch.
Kingfishers get scarce this time of the year around the lakes, as if they aren't hard enough to find at the best of times. I mustn't forget to mention the Eurasian Rollers And Bee-eaters, perhaps the same numbers as seen on previous years, from my observations. Every night a flock of Bee-eaters fly over the house, off to roost, up to 20 of them together.
For the first time I saw Common Cuckoo this year. Don't they make a great loud call to give themselves away! Similarly, I've heard many more Nightingales than before but yet to catch one with the camera. Like Cetti's Warblers, they hide deep in the shrubbery. Great Spotted Cuckoos continue to visit and breed, big fledglings to be sure. Which makes it so odd to see a small Warbler, trying to keep up feeding one of these monsters.
Glossy Ibis numbers continue to astound me. During the one visit to El Hondo, I gave up counting once I reached 300 birds. They kept arriving in waves of about a dozen birds, quite extraordinary and something to see.
Dragonflies abound right now, often the larger species eating bees and smaller dragonflies.
Black-tailed skimmers, Long skimmers, Scarlet darters and Lesser Emperors the most common.
And finally, I can't leave out our Greater Flamingos. They breed down south and this year I was privileged to see a pair of Lesser Flamingos. The images were even published by AHSA We have also seen Greater Flamingos return to La Mata lake, as the salinity has dropped.
Here's one coming in to the water, a few skips and it's down. I don't think people realise how fast they fly considering how large they are. They make Egrets and Herons look pedestrian.
I leave you with a portrait of a juvenile, yet to gain the colours the adults are so famous for.
Thanks for reading and I will see you in the autumn, hopefully it has cooled down by then.
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