A 3 day recce to Gabo de Gata with Trevor, John, and Michelle The weather forecast was not good for our planned trip, and with dip in temperatures and with a very strong gale force winds, driving cold rain, made birding difficult, just holding your binoculars "still" was a major feat, using a scope was almost impossible for most of the time. but undeterred we soldiered on.
We birded from first light till the sun went down, I feel a little disappointed, even though Trevor's trip list ended up a health 121 only 71 for the Gabo de Gata trip.
Birds on list include Golden Eagle, Short toed Eagle, Black kite, lots of waders Great white Egret, male Hen Harrier, Spoonbills, but i did expect to get a few photographs and I didn't. I took only1 bird photo in 3 days not much reward for lots of effort, nothing really showed well and everything was distant and flighty in the gusty wind.
Curlew
We didn't expect to see any new species, and we had a good look around for the elusive Trumpeter Finch and Dupont Lark but no luck in finding them. Stunning scenery, sea scapes, desert and vista's. A place I'd go back to, but next time in the spring, you could, just do a two night stay over, this would be plenty of time to see all the birds.
Although we didn't get our target birds on this trip, we'll have to leave that for another time.
But with the Birding banter and buzz of a new Birding recce it was still a very enjoyable trip and well worth it, and despite no photos of any notable species.
Despite the bad weather, It was great fun and also frustrating, we had lots of good laughs, about how bad we were doing regarding the birds, the bad weather, and how the gods were against us. I did ask the question about what was our combined birding experience, it turned out staggering 140 year's of birding which is amazing. And on the last afternoon the sun came out and I managed a few scenic photographs.
A few grogs of ale at the end of the birding day was a fitting end to our recce at
Gabo de Gata
For a more detailed information on Gabo de Gata with
Site directions and GPS and so much more info
see link below
John Edwards Notes from a Birder and writer
John and Trevor
Happy days
Cheers Bryan
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