9 September 2024: Day 3, birding in Chipiona and driving to Tarifa, WINGS Spain in Autumn
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Yesterday we went birding at native hotspots close to Chipiona. Top-of-the-line was Playa de Montijo on the mouth of the Guadalquivir River. We arrived simply after excessive tide so the cobbles past the sand (not proven above) have been uncovered but the birds have been nonetheless shut.
(embedded Google map of Playa de Montijo, Chipiona, Spain)
Since I wrote this text earlier than this journey, the birds proven under are a number of what was seen a 12 months in the past in September 2023. We noticed them!
Of the 11 species of dwelling oystercatchers, solely the Eurasian oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus) has a distribution in Europe and Asia north of the equator. It’s a Close to Threatened species. We noticed a number of noisy teams bowing and shouting, 25 in all.
A number of whimbrelds fed close to the oystercatchers. Curiously the whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus) has lately been break up into Eurasian whimbrel and Hudsonian whimbrel. Some taxonomic authorities don’t settle for the break up and have stored them as one species. Alas, eBird is one in every of them so I received’t achieve this Life Chicken till eBird says modifications its thoughts.
The bar-tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica) is essentially the most cosmopolitan of godwits, breeding in northernmost Eurasia and Alaska and spending the winter on the coasts of Africa, southern Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Its shut relations — black-tailed, Hudsonian and marbled godwits — are all New World birds.
The widespread greenshank (Tringa nebularia) resembles a higher or lesser yellowlegs besides that its legs are inexperienced. All of them are within the Tringa genus.
Final September there was fairly a group of birds on this rocky bar together with Eurasian oystercatchers, a black-bellied plover, widespread terns and the rare-to-the-area elegant tern. We noticed all of them plus a uncommon roseate tern.
A bonus for me was the slender-billed gull (Chroicocephalus genei).
Nice birding from the seashore.
