Birding in Donana National Park, Spain

We were standing just outside the hotel in the darkness of a nippy winter morning. To make the things worse, it started to drizzle. Anoop had to struggle to protect his camera (along with a newly bought lens) from the raindrops. We had planned this birding excursion to Donana national park in Spain and were waiting for Mr Juan Matu who would be our guide there.

Matu arrived at 7:35 am and soon we were in the back seat of his car making introductions even though we did have a few email conversations before. I could still hear the pitter-patter of the rain drops falling on the glass. But Matu assured that we don’t have to worry about the rain as it will stop in a while. Like he said, within the next half an hour when we reached the entrance of the park, rain had automatically stopped as if it didn’t want to spoil our excitement.

When we arrived at the national park, the whole place was still submerged in dark but on the horizon dawn was breaking with colours. The faint light grew stronger spreading across the sky and slowly regaining its power over the darkness. The daybreak chorus of the birds had soothing effect. Matu was very eager to show us around and stopped at every possible place.

At the beginning on a swampy ground, waders like lapwings, sandpipers, Bluethroat, wagtails along with big birds like Spoonbills and Glossy ibis were busy feeding. There were Common Buzzards, and kestrels hovering over the area in search of prey. Matu helped us to spot other raptors like Marsh Harrier, Hen Harrier, Red Kite, Juvenile Spanish Imperial Eagle and so on. We were expecting to see Griffon Vultures, but they decided not to show up.

As we moved further, there was a big lake and we could hear the honking of the birds from far enough. Greater Flamingos, not just one or two but in huge numbers were on a early morning parade. It made a nice pink spot on the lake. That was the first time I got to see flamingos in the wild.

There was a visitor center on the edge of another small but well protected lake. We sat inside, with a nice view of the lake in the front and had a warm coffee and were hoping to see Marbled Teal, Redknobbed coot and White-headed Ducks but that became a wild goose chase. Having the buzzards and Kestrels as a common sight, we also came across some hunters. Anoop spotted a Red Fox which was looking at us in awe. Both he and Matu tried to take some pictures before it ran away. Then there was a fallow deer pair.

It was getting darker bit early and we wanted to try our luck with Iberian lynx. But though we roamed in the woods for more than an hour we couldn’t get a glimpse of that rare cat.

We didn’t spot many rare species but there were lifers. Matu was a very skilled, veteran birder and was super supportive. We wanted to spend one more day at Donana but couldn’t as the future trips were planned already. Matu dropped us to our hotel at night and I would say it was one memorable birding day which we would like to cherish every now and then.

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Some clicks from the trip.

List of birds spotted during our trip 🙂

1. Barn Swallow
2. Black Redstart
3. Black Stork
4. Black-crowned Night Heron
5. Black-headed Gull
6. Black-shouldered Kite
7. Black-winged Stilt
8. Bluethroat
9. Calandra Lark
10. Caspian Tern
11. Common Blackbird
12. Common Buzzard
13. Common Chiffchaff
14. Common Crane
15. Common Greenshank
16. Common Kestrel
17. Common Kingfisher
18. Common Linnet
19. Common Moorhen
20. Common Pochard
21. Common Ringed Plover
22. Common Snipe
23. Common Waxbill
24. Corn Bunting
25. Crested Lark
26. Eurasian Coot
27. Eurasian Hoopoe
28. Eurasian Jackdaw
29. Eurasian Magpie
30. Eurasian Spoonbill
31. European Golden Plover
32. European Goldfinch
33. European Greenfinch
34. European Robin
35. European Serin
36. European Stonechat
37. Gadwall
38. Glossy Ibis
39. Great Cormorant
40. Great Egret
41. Great Tit
42. Greater Flamingo
43. Green Sandpiper
44. Grey Heron
45. Grey Wagtail
46. Hen Harrier
47. House Sparrow
48. Iberian Grey Shrike
49. Lesser Black-backed Gull
50. Little Egret
51. Little Grebe
52. Mallard
53. Meadow Pipit
54. Northern Lapwing
55. Northern Raven
56. Northern Shoveler
57. Peregrine Falcon
58. Pied Avocet
59. Red Kite
60. Red-crested Pochard
61. Sanderling
62. Song Thrush
63. Spanish Imperial Eagle (Juvenile)
64. Spanish Sparrow
65. Spotless Starling
66. Western Cattle Egret
67. Western Jackdaw
68. Western Marsh Harrier
69. Western Swamphen
70. White Stork
71. White Wagtail
72. Wood Lark
73. Wood Sandpiper
74. Zitting Cisticola

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