DOÑANA TODAY (Olivers story II) And there we go again the following day. I met Oliver and Ben, his father, at 7:30 at our offices in El Rocío. Oliver had two things in mind, to find a Lynx and to visit the rice fields. Not in vain I had talked to him about them the day before to let him know that all the water birds that we were not going to see in the dry marshes would be there waiting for us. We went in the land rover over Ajolí Bridge just when the coming sun gave us light enough to start the lynx search. I set my camera’s ISO speed to poor light just in case we were lucky. All heads shacking from one side to the other and hearts full of emotion contained. But I always have one more angle to check, the one that take my eyesight down to the ground, and there they were, a fresh lynx track moving in the opposite direction to our movement. A fresh track early in the morning never inform you about the exact time the lynx was there, it just tell you that it happened some time during the night. When the some comes out and start drying out the upper layers of sand, prints on the sand start losing their shape but during the night they keep it for hours. At this point, you never know what is best but you have to decide in a few seconds what to do and I decided to turn around and follow that track. It took us to a secondary sandy track that I don’t do very often. I drove the land rover as slow as I could along it for about 100 metres and stopped suddenly because I thought I had seen something, I drove reverse gear to confirm the sight and yes, there it was, an Iberian Lynx lying calmly down over the sand about 50 metres from us. I stopped the engine and left Ben and Oliver enjoy the moment. I didn’t even take my camera because I wanted to try and get closer to it but this time that was the wrong decision because after about 25 seconds the animal looked at us, stood up and walked back into the bushes. We may see another one, Oliver said, when went back to the main track. We may see it, said I, thinking that the chances to see two lynx in a day are much lower than those to see one. One mission accomplished, now we headed for the rice fields. As we were leaving the cork oak forest behind and entering the marshes we found two Wild boars feeding at a certain distance and several groups of Reed Deer grassing quietly. A large flock of Bee-eaters overflew us while I was opening La Escupidera Gate. This was the day when I took the photos of the weird mirage effects. We all enjoyed them very much. No Spanish Imperial Eagles around today as we moved fast trough the dry marshes. Montagu´s Harriers again and Common Kestrel on the wires as usually. A group of Griffon Vultures circling in the distance and herds of cows and horses moving heavily across the dusty plains accompanied by the usual Cattle Egrets. I took the shortest way through the Park to the rice area northeast of it. It took us along the Caño Guadiamar where we stopped to look at the Lesser Kestrels that still remain at the breeding colony in the old pumping station and a took some photos of them. We found again several Short-toed Snake Eagles sat on pylons and groups of Little Egrets, Spoonbills and Great White Egrets feeding in the ditches around the cereal fields. We went over the Two Bridges and kept going towards the Pumping House at Entremuros. Before we got there I pointed a large raptor sat on a pylon that was not big enough for a Snake Eagle and whose silhouette was also different, specially because the size of the head did not match either that of the Snake Eagle. When we approached it we found a beautiful Osprey that quickly set off as we passed by it. In the rice fields at last, I showed them the vast green extension before us and pointed out a couple of Gull-billed Terns searching for breakfast over the half a meter high and dense crop. Soon Oliver indentified the first Squacco Heron among Cattle and Little Egrets and they kept coming as we moved through the rice plantations. It took us longer to get the first Purple Heron, a juvenile that was standing just at the end of a line of Grey ones at the edge of a field. Several kilometres later I turn right and down, leaving the asphalt I had been driving on in our way to Dehesa de Abajo, to check a section of the Brazo de la Torre, where the natural vegetation of phragmites and bulrushes attracts a good variety of water birds. There we found the first Collared Pratincoles that Oliver hadn’t seen before but was ready to identify at first sight. Groups of Glossy Ibis and Black-winged Stilts using the some open water at the edge of a field as a result of a crop failing. There we also found many Sandpipers of the three kinds we normally get in Doñana, Green, Common and Wood. I took some photos of the last ones. Yellow Wagtails, many of them juveniles, Cetti’s Warbler singing from the reeds and...surprise surprise, a bright yellow bird with black cap on top of a reed. This time Oliver could not identify it, no blame, in fact I don’t think he expected to find anything like that in these latitudes. It was a beautiful male Black-crowned Bishop; escaped from cages a couple of decades ago, breeding in the wild now in many areas of southern Andalucía and Portugal and spreading very quickly. We also managed to see several Common Waxbills with their elegant red masks and pinkish bellies. Back on the asphalt next to the reservoir at Dehesa de Abajo we went off the land rover, set the telescope and begun checking the flocks of flamingos, white storks and waders using the shallow water left at the end of the summer. Black-tailed Godwits in good numbers, a huge flock of Avocets, Shoveller, Mallard, several Red-crested Pochard, Whiskered Terns, Black-headed Gulls, Moorhens and Coots, Grey Herons, Spoonbills, a few Ruffs and huge number of other small waders using the far ends of the lagoon, too far to be identified. Among the flocks of duck I found two that looked different and showed them to Oliver. After doubting for a couple of seconds, not more, he said, Marbled Duck! A good species for him and for Ben too. After trying without success the Red-knobbed Coot and waiting for a Purple Swamphen to come out of the reeds, we found some 15 more Marbled Ducks together in a group; a very good number for our area. Back in El Rocío, Oliver asked his father if they would be able to come back to Doñana in spring. I’ll be waiting for them should they manage.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 11:46:05 +0000
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