Med cruise May 12th-29th continued.

As mentioned in my first post our first port of call was Cadiz where I met up with Javi Elorriaga of Andalucian Guides for a day in the Coto Donana Natural Park (A kind of buffer to the Coto National Park where nature conservation runs alongside human activities e.g horticulture). I covered one of the highlights, the delightful Little Swifts in the first post but there were many more fantastic birds and other wildlife to be seen.
The Bonanza Saltpans area provided the best variety of species. Common species here were Greater Flamingo (1000+), Slender-billed Gull, Black-winged Stilt, Spoonbill,  Avocet and Kentish Plover. It was nice to see Little Terns, a species that is very uncommon where I live in Scotland.

One of the great things about Spain is how easy it is to see raptors and even at the saltpans we had four species in the same field of view at one point (Osprey, Booted Eagle, Black and Red Kite-the kites has a fight). For the time of year the Red Kite was the most unusual, this species is commoner in winter but in the summer a few non breeding immatures remain.

Passerines at the saltpans included Iberian Yellow Wagtail, Lesser Short-toed Lark, Zitting Cisticola and Sardinian Warbler.