Best Of The Rest

A round up of a few other images that didn't make a post in it's own right, like the mating Black-winged Stilt were no more than grab shots before it was all over, or, just that it was too few photo ops on the day....hey ho !

Red-knobbed Coot

Image of a Red-knobbed Coot was about the only images I managed at San Felipe being surprisingly quite, also as the water levels were so high lacking the usual mud edges all the waders were occupying the nearby flooded fields, some day's are just like that !

Black-winged Stilt

Three images of mating Black-winged Stilts, unfortunately it was around midday by which time the sun was out big style and the light was way to harsh.

Ruff

Image of a very confiding Ruff taken at 3-4 meters distance, at one point it got to close. I've managed to get the sun somewhere behind me with this shot hence the colour looks pretty good.

Crested Lark

Taken early morning around 8.0 am as you can probably tell on a drive around Lo Romero Golf, at the time I was trying to get images of a Southern Grey Shrike I had seen the day before, then I found a Woodchat Shrike never managing to get images of either. This Lark just popped up on a stump...lucky to get an image of something !

Little Owl

On my drive I usually come across this chap at the less developed far end of the coarse but getting near can sometimes be difficult, other times will just site on a rock or wall as in this case...get out of the car and he's or she is off

September's Very Quite !

San Felipe Reserve - 20.9.18

The last time I was at San Felipe was back in April, then it was a cacophony of sound with a host of summer migrants either singing on territory or passage migrants on route to their northern breeding grounds, today it's silent. With water level high there's no mud fringes to attract migrant waders apart from a few stilts and the absence of ducks is notable, no Red Crested Pochard, Marbled Teal or Black Necked Grebes.

Being September its over 32 degrees and hot, too hot really for trekking around the reserve, back in April I was photographing Whiskered Terns, Little Ringed Plover and Collared Pratincole and the above now all departed south to their winter grounds, all very disappointing.

But if there's one success story for San Felipe then it's the reintroduction of the Red Knobbed Coot with a successful breeding program, up until recently the only RK coots you would likely have seen would have numbered neck collars fitted so it was a surprise to catch up with this bird lacking that ugly white band.

Other birds of note were a single juvenile Black Crown Night Heron that remained motionless in a tree for over an hour before flying to the reserve centre pool never to re-locate, and around thirty Bee-eaters high in the sky keen no doubt to depart south.

From a birding point of view San Felipe in September has been very disappointing, it would always be my recommendation that a spring visit would be far more productive during the months of April/May possibly incorporating access to the main reserve's North Gate....every time !

Red Knobbed Coot