Bonete and Great Bustards

Part 1

A few days Birding with Dale Kelly on his tick list was to see and photograph Great Busted and Little Bustard and anything else that we could bump into 

No pressure then?

Arrived at Bonete at about 9.15 and the first stop 6 Great Bustard, "that was easy I said" Dale had an issue with his camera and wouldn't focus so I reset his camera and took the battery out, and the camera started focusing and we were off more on that later.

Great Bustards

Dale was busy taking photographs of the Great Bustards, In the air plenty of Calandra lark singing, Woodchat Shrike on the wires, and good numbers of Rock Sparrows, Hoopoe.

Rock Sparrows

Hoopoe

On route to

Corral Rubio

All the seasonal lakes are completely dried out and have been ploughed for planting, I've no idea what's going to grow as the drought continues in Spain. Back at Gran Alacant, we've not had any significant rainfall for over 12 months.

Another 10 Great Bustard, Lapwing, Marsh Harrier, Glossy Ibis, Green Sandpipers, Corn Bunting, Swallow, to be honest, the lack of rain is having a major influence on the birds in the area,  the evaporation of Patrola lake is gathering pace, see the photograph.

Patrola lake

In the past, I've seen thousands of Greater Flamingos on this lake and today hardly any birds, a few Yellow-legged Gulls, Shell Duck, Black-headed Gull nothing much else just a smelly evaporating mass of water.

Lapwing

We left Petrola and headed across the plains to Higuriella and on to the Estación for little Bustard, lots of Hoopoe around today and good opportunities to photograph Thekla lark,

Thekla lark

Dale found the little Bustard while driving, and an emergency stop followed, which caused I little chaos as Dale exited the car rapidly while it was still moving and I photographed the little Bustard from a driverless moving vehicle.

Little Bustard

Anyway no harm was done and Little Bustard was under the belt, and as we were almost back at our starting point Bonete.  I suggested we should visit Yecla and give it a go, I pre-warned him that I was there 3 weeks before and it was incredibly poor

Yecla

Thekla lark

And so the afternoon was taken up covering the tracks of Yecla there were a few stand-out moments, and we worked hard for those moments,  plenty of Thekla lark, Crested Lark, Calandra Lark, Lesser Kestrels, could be 5 pairs, at the Barn, Stone Curlew, Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, Chough, Swallow, Pallid Swift.

Calandra Lark
This bird has a deformed bill at first I thought it was carrying food

 I've not mentioned every bird seen

Calandra Lark

And that was our long day out with a few mega moments 

Pin-tailed Sandgrouse

And what will our next Birding Adventure bring 

Pin-tailed Sandgrouse

See part 2

Have a great day

Cheers Bryan