Christmas Cruise-day out in the Tagus Estuary area part two.

A very attractive habitat to birds in this area were the rice fields...

This flock is mainly Shoveler.

A Spoonbill flock crammed into another area of rice fields.

This field, being worked by a tractor, was proving a draw to Glossy Ibis, White Stork, Egrets and Grey Heron.

Huge numbers of Glossy Ibis were present, I must have had a least 800 during the day. I remember the excitement from me and my dad back in the early 1990's when we had a pair of Glossy Ibis in the Coto Donana. Since then this species has undergone a dramatic increase in Iberia, the breeding population in Spain became established in 1996 and increased significantly from 2006.