Sierra Morena spring birding trip - day 1; a bedazzlement of Bee-eaters

Welcome to the first installment of my slightly time-lapse write up of this week's short birding trip to the beautiful Sierra Morena area of Southern Spain. I had planned to do live daily updates (with a little help from my editorial assistant). However, after a very stressful two-hour game of hunt the passport seriously eroded my already limited pre-trip sleep time on Monday night, I was so flustered that I managed to leave without my memory-card reader, or my spare battery!

After flying into Malaga on the first flight out on Tuesday morning, my 3 guests and I met our local guide, Agustin, for a pleasant drive up into the Sierra Morena mountain range. The trip got off to a great start, with plenty of sightings along the way, including Black Kites, Buzzards, Griffon Vultures and Imperial Eagles. 

Arriving into the area, we spent some time driving around the Finca looking for the local male Lynx, as Agustin had had an amazingly close view the previous evening, and it had been spotted again earlier in the day. No luck, but we did see lots of other wildlife, including Barn Swallows, Red-Rumped Swallows, House Martins plus Common, Pallid and White-Rumped Swifts, Ravens and Hoopoes. A highlight for me was spotting a tiny Hare Leveret by the side of the road. Obviously only a few days old, we weren't 100% sure that it was a hare rather than a rabbit, until it put it's enormous ears up - just before dashing off into the undergrowth!

We also had some great views (through a scope) of one of the pairs of Spanish Imperial Eagles on their nest, with the chick clearly visible. It's wonderful to see these iconic birds doing so well in this area. We also saw several Little Owl nest sites, and one of the birds close to the side of the road.

We then split into two small groups for the afternoon, to visit our choice of bird hides. I had a fantastic few hours watching a Bee-Eater colony at their nest sight on the river bank. I absolutely love Bee-Eaters; they are one of my favourite birds and always a pleasure to send time with. From my pop-up hide, I had over 20 birds directly in front of me most of the time, with well over a hundred zipping around in the fields & scrub.

Interesting displaying posture, which was followed but the male catching a bee and feeding it to the his partner

Passing a ladybird to the female

Bee Eaters copulating

There was lots of courtship behaviour going on, with the females begging the males for food, and pairs displaying to each other. Some pairs had clearly already established strong bonds already, spending all their time close together and much passing of food going on. We also witnessed lots of mating activity. It was really interesting to see how similar much of their courtship behaviour is to kingfisher - their close relatives - albeit passing insects to their mates as little billet-doux, rather than fish! I was also surprised to see them eating ladybirds, as well as the more familiar hoverflies, dragonflies - and of course, the eponymous bees.

Bee Eater with no blue colour

There was lots of other wildlife to be seen along the river bank, too. At times, there was a veritable frog chorus, with what sounded like hundreds croaking away merrily. Lots of waders in action too, including Little-Ringed Plover, Common Sandpiper, Black Winged Stilt, several Little Egret and a Grey Heron fishing. A kingfisher passed by several times, and on one occasion, landed right by my hide - however as soon as I moved my lens to try for a shot, he was off in a flash of electric blue! It was also nice to see both types of Yellow Wag-tail & Hoopoes darting back and worth caring various insects to their waiting chicks.  

Little Ringed Plover

Common Sandpiper

Iberian Yellow Wag-tail

Yellow Wag-tail - Juvenile 

As the evening wore on, the softer light showed up the dazzling colours of the Bee-Eaters to best advantage. There is lots of variation in their plummage, with some being really intense azure blue, with vibrant coppery backs & wings, and other being much more slately blue-green on the body. It was interesting to also see one with no blue at all (photo shown). Needless to say, I took rather a lot of shots of the course of the session! 

My other guests,Piotr and Manny also had a great session in the Bebedero (woodland drinking pool) hide, with 5 visits from their target species, Hawfinch, as well as Jays, Nutchatch, Greenfinch and other woodland species. All in all, a brilliant first day. Check back tomorrow for the next installment! 

Hawfinch (I took this one at the same hide back in February)