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Birding Cadiz - updates June 2018

20/6/2018

As noted in my earlier post about the Bahai de Cadiz I am always very grateful for any updates or feedback on the area. Along with Alf King, one of my regular correspondents is Richard Page-Jones. Richard and his wife Michele have a casita just south of Chiclana and in one of those serendipitous events that make life more interesting, we met thanks to a mutual friend of my sister's rather than directly via birding. Amongst other things Richard has discovered an excellent area for Rufous Bushchat and has been able to explore parts of the province I know less well than I should. Rather than make a digest of his points I've reproduced his correspondence below adding only, for clarity, references to my notes, highlighting the species mentioned and adding newly redrawn map of the Lagunas de Chiclana showing the Cañada de Marchantes (not named in earlier editions of my opus). Naturally I am extremely grateful for Richard's valuable input and most of the photos that grace this post.

Hi John. Back home now, and while its fresh in my mind I thought I would send you a few updates on Cadiz Province.

It had been a very wet spring. The flowers and vines have really benefitted but in some of the lagunas; in particularly our local one at Chiclana (NW 16.5 Laguna de Paja), the reeds have grown very high making visibility difficult and we couldn't see much at all.

Cañada de Marchantes and the Lagunas de Chiclana

Rufous Bushchat habitat by the Cañada de los Arcos - one of the many side tracks along Cañada de Marchantes. (Photo Richard Page-Jones)

Our favourite area has been the Cañada de Marchantes (NW 12 - Lagunas de Chiclana). There are very good breeding birds. Rufous Bushchat, Black-eared Wheatear and Stone Curlew. Good raptors including Montagu’s Harrier and both the lagunas had water and the usual suspects. There is now a car park at the top of the path down to Jeli, which is now a footpath only. There is a new viewing platform half way down which gives good scope views. Its difficult to get near the water and if you can visibility is poor due to high vegetation. The road to Montello has excellent scrub for warblers, and the Stone Curlew were in the low lying reedy bit to the right of the road. Overall the Cañada is a great place. Lovely views and great birds, particularly during the passage.

Lagua de Jeli (Photo - John Cantelo)

Rufous Bushchat - a scarce and declining species in Andalucia (Photo - Richard Page-Jones)

By contrast, in May, La Janda (SW 7 - La Janda) was something of a disappointment. It was dry and dusty and if its windy, finding birds in the reeds is difficult. Very few waders. The Egret nests are impressive, but there were few raptors. Over the top and down the hill to the small pond was better. Decent numbers of raptors. The road to Celemin is now gated just before the dam, but the gateway was our most productive spot for raptors. Small groups of Black Kite and Booted Eagle passing through with Egyptian and Griffon Vulture and the odd Short-Toed Eagle. There seems to be more dark phase Booted these days.

Slender-billed Gull at Bonanaza (Photo Richard Page-Jones)

As usual, Bonanza and La Algaida (NW 2 - Sanlucar – Bonanza - Trebujena Area) were really excellent. No problems getting to the the small pumping station, but the track round to the Guadalquivir was impassable even in a 4x4. Huge tractor ruts following the spring rain. Overall this remains the most productive birding area in all seasons; as you point out in your excellent recent article. You get very close to waders and the raptors are always good. Incredible numbers of Flamingo and Slender Billed Gull. There is now a very large and impressive heronry at the end of the pinewoods by the picnic site. Grey Heron, Spoonbill, White Stork and Black Kite all nesting close together in the tops of pine. Spectacled Warbler is a banker in the gateway on the left of track from fish farm toward the salt pan by the river. Also this year Gull-Billed and Black Tern, and in the past Orphean Warbler in trees by river and Wryneck by the disused holiday camp. But never had a sniff of a Sandgrouse.

We enjoyed our trip to the Salina de Chiclana at the Salinas Santa Maria de Jesus (NW 16.1 - St Maria de Bartivas Salt Pans). There is the museum, restaurant, and you can buy sea salt. There was a very impressive Little Tern nesting site with about 100 birds. A local birder said it was good for Caspian Tern and Stone Curlew in the winter.

Collared Pratincoles at El Canillo, Barbate (Photo - Richard Page-Jones)

Another favourite is El Canillo near Barbate (SW 6 - Barbate Estuary (d)). This now holds very large number of breeding Collared Pratincole. Also very good for Audouin’s Gull and in the winter Stone Curlew. The fields have impressive number of larks and the trees have a god range of passerines.

Audouin's Gull at Conil (Photo - Richard Page-Jones)

Conil is (SW 4 - Los Naveros- Conil area) also very good for Auduoin’s Gull, Slender Billed Gull, Caspian and Sandwich Tern. There were huge numbers of Chiffchaff in February and an Osprey was fishing in the river.

Our big disappointment was Brazo del Este (SV 2 - Brazo del Este). A disaster. Dry and dusty and a steady procession of lorries and tractors down the main drag made birding uncomfortable and difficult and the pools held nothing we could see more easily elsewhere. This contrasted totally with a wet day in April two years ago when it was awash with birds.

Chipiona (NW 1 - Chipiona Area – Chipiona, La Jara, etc) was nice for tapas and Little Swift.

We dropped in at La Cazalla (SW 10.2 - Cazalla). The migration had almost finished; just a few non-breeding stragglers. A very nice young guy called Diego gave us some very helpful info on best viewing points depending on wind and time of year. The site is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 11.00 to 18.00. Not sure what months it is open, but I would have thought during migration times. He said that there was no problem going to Cueva del Moro, despite the sign (SW 8 - Bolonia - Atlanterra – Sierra de la Plata). We went up there. Just a few odd Honey Buzzard with the Griffons and a few Egyptians. No sign of the Little Swift. Diego confirmed they had not been seen in the last few years.

Red-necked Nightjar over the garden fence (Photo - Richard Page-Jones)

Finally, around our house nice to see the usual Red-Necked Nightjar, Spotted Flycatcher, Iberian Green Woodpecker, Nightingales, and a very elusive Golden Oriole (we heard it most days but difficult to see) and the surprise drop ins - European Nightjar and Reed Warbler.

Thanks again to Richard not only for his excellent resumé but also for putting Cañada de Marchantes firmly on the 'birding map'. It's an excellent area not only for birds but also for affording exceptional views across Bahia de Cadiz and its hinterland. I will be returning to this topic in a future post.

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Birding Cadiz June 2018 - E-bird edition

11/6/2018

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Although I had been vaguely aware of "E-Bird" (http://ebird.org) for some time until late in 2017 I hadn't really appreciated its usefulness. Once I did so I realised that adding references to that resource would greatly enhance my birding guide. However, realisation and actually doing something about it are two different things! Unfortunately, a series of domestic events forced me to put the idea on the 'back burner' for six months or more so I returned to it only in late April of this year. Even so, the process of incorporating the information from E-bird took a lot longer than I had hoped (with external factors again hampering progress). In addition to adding links to E-bird for those sites that this resource covers, I have also added links to relevant posts on my blog. This seemed to be the only way I could give readers access to photos of some of the sites mentioned in my guide (although my plans to cover the principle sites with photos and a more discursive account has had to be postponed until I can return to Spain regularly). It also draws attention to my discussion of various points of interest - tricky bird ID (e.g. larks & swifts), particular species of bird (e.g. Bald Ibis), the historical context (both ornithologically and in general), expand on points made in my introduction and a number of book reviews.

So how and why can E-bird be so useful? Well, it allows you to generate useful checklists for whatever region you're visiting. Hence a few taps on the keyboard allows you to discover that Spain as a whole has a checklist of 589 bird species of which Andalucia has 424 species (the highest total for all Spanish provinces), 346 species have been reported on E-bird from Cadiz "county", a figure exceeded only by Malaga with 355. (Note: the raw figures generated for provinces and individual sites appear to include undetermined species pairs and escapees which inflates the totals but this is countered by the omission of those extreme rarities not reported to E-Bird. However they should still be useful for comparative purposes). It also gives information on species reported for individual sites with, for example, 233 species being reported from the Canal principal area of La Janda (and, I note, another 11 checklists submitted since May when I originally wrote my notes!). From the data available you can also generate useful bar charts not only of any of the above regions but also specific sites. In additions to indicating temporal presence, these bar charts give you an idea of frequency (from rare to widespread). Naturally, how accurate these are depends rather on how many checklists have been submitted so only really works well for larger regions and frequently visited locations. You can also hone your search down to look at a specific time frame. Fortunately, each for each 'hot spot' the total number of submitted lists is given allowing you to make a reasonable judgement about how accurate they might be. From my perspective, it saves the drudgery of composing a more detailed species/seasonal occurrence list for each site (and it's not difficult to extrapolate from well-known locations to similar areas nearby). You can also generate data on particular species (including a map). This is hugely useful if you want to find your 'target birds'. It's not perfect and information remains patchy and should be used with some caution but it's a huge advance and one to be nurtured and valued. Note that the details (number of checklists & species) given in my guide are accurate only up to May 2018 so you'll find some discrepancies between the quoted and current figures given but should still be adequate to give the reader a good idea of what to expect. (Note - E-bird was developed by Cornell Lab of Ornithology in the USA so American bird names are used - loon, jaeger, etc - but this shouldn't cause much of a problem).

La Janda is one of the best documented sites on E-bird Spain (in Andalucia it's bettered only by Desembocadura del Guadalhorce)

The most important element, though, is not what E-bird can do for you but what you can do for E-bird and, by extension, the wider birding community. Accordingly, I urge all birders to submit their checklists so that the resource can grow both in size and functionality. Here in the UK we are fortunate to have a long established network of county bird societies to provide information but this is not (yet) the case in Spain (and elsewhere). In many, but not all, respects E-bird can fill this gap. Going through old notebooks is tedious and easy to put off as I well know since I still have much of my own checklists to submit ..... when I discover where the hell I've squirrelled away most of my notebooks ... but it's well worth it!

Addendum - since publishing this post I've had a typically encouraging and helpful message from Yeray Seminario who reminds me that when he, Javi Elorriaga and Miguel Gonzalez started collaborating with the E-bird about five years ago, they were amongst the first to really engage with this project in Spain. I've not had the pleasure of meeting Miguel but Yeray and Javi are two of the finest birders in not only in the province but in Spain. We are extraordinarily fortunate in Cadiz province to have two such experts supervising the input to this scheme. Fortunately, for hopeless monoglots like me, they are both fluent English speakers and very helpful too. As noted above, they and Miguel were three of the first reviewers involved in Spain but numbers have now swelled to 50 odd. It is they who review information to ensure any errors are picked up and weeded out making the resource as reliable as possible. As Yeray observed, the quality of the data is constantly improving whilst its volume is growing exponentially. This means that researchers and conservationists are already putting all this data to good use. The importance and potential of this project simply cannot be understated!

E-bird bar chart for Laguna de Medina (left) and maximum listed counts at Cazalla (right)

E-bird maps: left 'hot spots' and right species map for Glossy Ibis

These points aside, the only area whose coverage I've revised to any great degree is in the Bahía de Cádiz. Changes to my coverage of the San Fernando Marshes (NW 15) - mainly an improved map and better directions - have been set out in my previous blog. However, I have also added an entirely new site the Marisma de las Aletas (NW 14.4) entirely derived from E-bird which, thankfully, I could add to a redrawn map of the Los Turunos area (Map 23). This is based on a couple of checklists submitted to E-bird by Rafael Garcia (see https://ebird.org/hotspot/L5561089). I don't know Rafael but I hope he doesn't mind my using the information he kindly put in the public domain and thank him for his efforts. Surrounded by busy trunk roads, this site will never be a huge draw but it does allow another point of access to the habitat in the bay of Cadiz and seemingly attracts sought-after birds such as Slender-billed Gull and an excellent opportunity to get to grips with lark identification as Greater & Lesser Short-toed, Crested & Thekla Lark and, in winter, Skylark can be found there. Since I've not been there as yet my directions are necessarily tentative so any feedback would be welcome.

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Birding Bahia de Cadiz - updates

8/6/2018

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I'm acutely aware that of all the areas described in my birding notes, I know the Bahia de Cadiz least well. This is partly because exploring them usually requires a drive along busy suburban roads and partly because other sites are more conveniently explored from my base in Alcala de los Gazules. Another consideration is that the most significant birding experience of the area (large numbers of waders) largely involves species familiar to UK birders. They do hold more exotic species (Audouin's Gull, Caspian Tern, Kentish Plover, etc) but these are just as easily found in the Bonanza area or Barbate (which also tend to have more exotic birds and, in the case of the former, offer better views of waders). I had intended to explore the area more fully but, with circumstances dictating that I've not been able to get out to Cadiz province for the last three years, such plans remain "on the back burner". Accordingly, I depend more than ever on correspondents and users of my site guide to update me on corrections/changes. Disappointingly, I never hear back from most of those who use my notes presumably (or should that be hopefully?) because they don't encounter any problems with them. Thankfully a handful are regular correspondents one of whom, Alf King, has kindly pointed out some errors in my description of San Fernando marshes.

Armed with this new information I have fully revised my notes and redrawn my map of the area (see above). Despite several sources (inc Wikiloc on GoogleEarth) indicating that the sendero at the Tres Amigos saltpans offered an 8 km circular route, this is not the case and visitors have to content themselves with a 3 km route (a) that loops around part of the site. In the process of revision I also noticed that the northern 'arm' of the Tres Amigos sendero appears to be accessible off the CA 33 (f). Google Street View shows cars pulled off here by derelict buildings by the 6 km marker but great caution is needed if turning off and back on here (only possible as you head towards San Fernando) as this is a very busy road. Not having explored it personally I'm unsure about access details so use at your own risk! I have also revised access details in general. Alf also tells me that the board walk along Punta del Boqueron (c) was badly damaged by tidal surges in early 2018 so access might be limited until it is repaired.

Addendum - on reading the above the ever helpful Alf King reminds me that the Visitors' Centre here has maps and leaflets about the area including one that shows the 'northern arm' of the Tres Amigos sendero as being legitimately accessible. He also tells me that the principal interest here isn’t ornithological but historical as the site has a late 13th century flour mill powered by the rising and falling tides. This was one of a network of hundreds of such mills stretching from Faro to Cadiz Bay and they were the main means of milling in that period.

'Puerta de Carboneros'

Having revised access to and details of NW 15, I also took the opportunity to revise my notes on the following site (NW 16). Little needed to be changed for NW 16.1, 16.3 & 16.4 but NW 16.2 was more tricky. First, though, those curious about what facilities are available at NW16.1 (particularly if you have some Spanish) might like to view this short video on the site (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm6MuJjCSPo).

On paper at least, NW 16.2 has good potential but access is problematical and I've not been able to check in person. Only one of the three suggested walks (Collejon del Mollino) is featured in the “300 senderos” booklet (https://issuu.com/cadizturismo/docs/300senderoscadiz/1?ff=true&e=3220287/1858612), the others being derived from a search of GoogleEarth. This suggest that access may not be straight forward. The 6 km walk through Salina de San Ramón y la Pastorita (b) takes you to the main channel and should allow good views across of the centre of the marshes. In all likelihood you’ll see few birds you won’t find at the more convenient NW 16.1 (which also has the advantage of offering refreshment and a panorama across the salinas from a covered viewpoint) but may interest the adventurous. About 500m further along the Calle Molinos another sendero, Collejon del Molino (c) - Walk 167 in the “300 senderos" booklet - also promises a route into the salinas (but is not shown on GoogleEarth). The wild card here is the Coto de la Isleta, a wooded island in the centre of the marshes, which should be an interesting destination but access is open to doubt. “Wikiloc” shows a sendero linking it to the village of La Coquina (d). However, a close look at GoogleEarth seems to show that the causeway connecting the island to the village has been breached and therefore that the island is inaccessible. I've left it in just in case foot bridges have or may yet be constructed. Even so it may still be worth exploring this area as some roads/tracks may offer good views over the marshes/salinas. Another option for the adventurous....

I've tried to drive through Los Gallos to (e) several times but the maze of narrow one-way streets in the urbanisation are such that I've got lost every time! I've revised my directions to take what seems a longer, but should be quicker route (as you're less likely to get lost!), via the suitably named Calle Carboneres, which involves only two turns and no one way routes! Essentially, you head north on the Avenida de la Diputacion and when you've negotiated roundabout betwixt the Mercadona and Lidl supermarkets the left-hand turning into Calle Carbonares is another 650 m (although it may be easier to continue a further 150m to a roundabout and return the way you came to make it an easier right-hand turn). Follow this road almost until its end (c1 km) and then turn left and shortly afterwards right into the Calle Codorniz where you can pull off onto rough ground and explore the sendero. Access via (f) is much less complicated since the white 'Puerta de Carboneros' makes the start of the sendero obvious whilst parking in a nearby side road is convenient. You can even reach this starting point by bus (routes L8 & L11).

Alf has also pointed out that many of the information boards that dot many sites listed in my guide now boast QR codes which helpfully allow you to download information onto your mobile phone.

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Birding Cadiz - updates June 2018

Birding Cadiz June 2018 - E-bird edition

Birding Bahia de Cadiz - updates

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