Category Archives: Spain Birding

Visiting La Caleta Once More

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La Caleta, seen here from our apartment. It is of our favorite walks here.

Perhaps you can see the autobus in the lower right.

It’s about a mile walk with a steep downhill. Our plan today was to return on the local bus, avoiding a tough climb.

Along the way, there are lots of flowers on vacant lots and buildings.

Mangos here are tasty and cheap.

We saw a few birds along the way including these two Western Cattle Egrets.

La Caleta was home to the only sugar mill in Europe making sugar, honey, and molasses for 150 years. Now its smokestack and buildings remain and we love to have breakfast outside at a little bar in Lavadero Square.

And a historical note: A local fiesta is held each in honour of the Virgen del Carmen (the patron saint of fishermen) and is celebrated in a special way. A procession of small boats devorated with garlands set sail from La Caleta with cheers and fireworks. Here is one of the prints on the walls of the square.

After tostados and coffee/tea, we caught the bus, paid 60 centavos each, and ended our last visit to a special place.

Last Charca Birds This Trip

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One of the neat aspects of our Charca outing was seeing dozens of Glossy Ibises.

Ibeses are distinctive in flight
One of many with poor lighting

Several Gray Herons, similar to but smaller than our Great Blue Herons, were on the far bank nearly out of camera range.

One of the prettiest birds we see here is the Little Egret, similar to our Snowy Egret. Stealthy, striking with power, posing handsomely – enjoy.

Patient and alert.
Action!
Success?
Pose for the camera time.

In a few months, when it’s snowing in Vermont, I need to remember these hot dayss and cooperative birds.

Big and Little Charca Birds

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Here are two birds that are a challenge to photograph. Greater Flamingos are always moving, feeding, or tucked into a resting pose. We saw three at Charca but there are many larger colonies in souther Spain.

Little Grebes are tiny, always moving, and constantly diving.

So, a trivia fact: flamingos weigh 2-4 kg and grebes weigh about 110 g so the Little Grebe is around 1/25th the size of the big bird. They are both wonderful to watch.

Visiting Charca Again

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Every trip to Spain, we bird at the wonderful little preserve in Motril – Carcha de Suárez.

Tucked in between high-rises and businesses, it’s a treasure with lots of birds. Here are a few we saw the other morning, starting with a couple of Western Swamphens.

In the same family, Eurasion Moorhens add noise and color to the lagoons.

We saw 31 species including the Red-gnobbed Coot which is endangered. Stay tuned for a another nice mix in the next post.

Buena observación de aves, dondequiera que estés.

Watching Kestrels

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Every evening we can see Eurasion Kestrels out hunting. They live in the cliffs and castle walls behind us, putting on a great show that is tough to photograph with my point & shoot. Let me share some shots from our deck

Notice the teepees for pole beans

As a pilot, I love to watch these aerial marvels.

Dropping a Travel Bug

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As I noted in a post last year and another further back, I am a on and off geocacher. However, prior to this trip to Spain, I decided to initiate a travel bug and place it somewhere Salobreña, the town where we stay.

I named it “Fanática del fútbol” and the objective is to visit mant places and give the team names and favorite “equipos.”

My soccer fan travel bug.

Once we were here, I needed to find a cache big enough to hold it and be one that is visited regularly. I selected one and a couple of mornings ago, Sally and I went looking for it. Geocaching’s tracking system is awesome worldwide and we found it easy. I retrieved it, inserted the TB, and replaced it.

Photo by Sally Cargill
Here it is, a easy find. Photo by Sally Cargill

So, with its trip from Vermont, the TB has already logged 3,638 miles. Hopefully, folks will move it around Spain and Europe. I get a notice if and when it moves.

Que comiencen los juegos!

So, I just got a message “Du kommst jetzt erstmal mit uns mit… 💪🌸” which means, “You’re coming with us now” so the TB is on its way!

A Couple of Gulls from Spain

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It’s been very hot and aside from birding from the apartment in early morning, I haven’t been seeing a lot of birds. Here is a shot from our casa.

Looking west from our terrace. We often walk to the village (La Caleta) but the walk back into the sun is challenging.

One of the common gulls here is the Yellow-footed Gull. This one was just floating off the beach this morning.

Another gull we see is the Audoin’s Gull. Full confession, this may be a European Herring Gull. Comments are welcomed.

Of topic, here’s a little spanish lesson I learned today. At the supermercado, I bought some eggs, onion, and tomatoes for an omelet for supper. I just took the carton out of the fridge to start and noticed “huevos cocidos”, cooked eggs. So, we are having egg salad for dinner. No hay problema, esa es mi nueva palabra de hoy.

A Walk to La Caleta

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In order to beat the heat of Southern Spain, we get out for walks and birding early. Twice now, we’ve made the half hour walk to the Village of La Caleta, seeing agriculture workers harvesting mangos, planting beans, herding goats.

La Caleta in the morning.

The other morning, after having coffee and toast at a sidewalk cafe, we walked a scenic path along the ocean, passing by some local fishing boats and an angler.

The tide was receding leaving many small sardines trapped in pools. I rescued several as my good act for the day.

Later, after buying some local produce at the small fruteria, we walked up around the neighborhoods, coming across a large group of schoolchildren at recess. Activities included jumping rope, tag, tug-of-war, wrestling , and just being noisy kids. No devices in sight.

It’s a good climb back up to our casa but like in Vermont, you don’t walk very far here without some hills. We saw Sardinian Warblers and other little brown birds and the ever-present soaring Eurasion Kestrels.

First Days in Spain

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After a long trip, we’ve setted into our apartment and with nice views and weather, are seeing a nice mix of birds from our terrace.

We have an artist friend here from past visits and this montage of his captures much of the flavor of Salobreña.

One of my favorites is the eurasian kestrel which we see daily. I’ve yet to get a good photo but did capture this one yesterday at long distance.

A European Turtle Dove overlooking things.

Last night, one of the large field below us was irrigated and this morning a few Mallards arrived. Then a group of Cattle Egret showed up for desayuno.

As I watched them, this large group of dark birds appeared.

Glossy Ibises, probably on their way to Africa, were foraging all day.

Our landlord left instructions to close windows when we left the apartmento because when the folks are away, guess who comes in and plays?

Who, me?

Charca de Suárez -Motril, Spain

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On our first trip to Spain in 2018, we discovered this gem of a wetland refuge not far from our lodging in Salobreña. Nestled into an area of apartment and industrial buildings, it is a wonderful network of ponds, shady paths, and streams that during the week, is not crowded. The ten or so “hides” attract birders and many serious photographers – you can see a great array of birds, some of which I’ve included below.

Apartment buildings surround the refuge
Picturesque scenery and great birds.
Grey Herons are native to Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, and parts of central and southern Asia.

Here are a few of my favorite birds we’ve seen here:

The folks who bird the refuge have named the White Stork which winters there Margarito (Daisy). This is the bird we saw – one of the most-photographed birds in Spain.
The only Eurasian Hoopoe I’ve seen was on a refuge road.
The Common Kingfisher is small (sparrow-sized) and flies fast so it is a challenge to photograph with the Canon SX-60 but he gave us some nice far-away looks.

Charca de Suárez is on the coast, a little over an hours drive from the Malaga airport and less than that from Granada. This little spot (40 acres), which has plans for expansion, is a perfect place to spend a few hours. Check the opening times, they are often rather late during the week. I hope to make it back to this delightful place.

****** Covid-19 has put a halt on most of our traveling so instead of planning journeys, I am electronically revisiting some places that I would like to return to once the pandemic is over.