Andalucia 20th to 23rd February 2026

Day 1 Friday 20th February 

Just a lone short trip to Andalucía flying into Malaga, and stopping again in the TRH hotel atop of Mijas Pueblo. 

Arrived in Malaga at 12 from Stanstead, picked up the car and headed straight to Parque del Guadalhorce nature reserve, in Malaga. 

It wasn't surprising to find it warm sunny and alive with birds especially chiffchaff and Zitters along with Black redstart but fewer than I found this time last year. 

The first hide over looking the deeper pools was great as it had a few flamingos, Pochards Shovelers and the mesmerizing White headed duck, probably 8 mixed male and a few females. Watching the males displaying to the female was awesome and something id only seen once or twice before. I watched the displays for  good hour before leaving for the mound picking up 10 Marbled duck, they too were displaying although nothing quite as elaborate.  

Back around to the large lagoon where many Med Gulls were bathing when I was please to pick out an Adult Winter Bonaparte's Gull, only my 2nd self found bird and an excellent and RARE bird for Spain.

There was also 50+ Flamingos, many Black winged stilts with greenshank, Redshank and Oystercatchers. A pale phase Booted eagle sat watching over the lagoon and an Osprey distantly out at sea. Just 7 Black necked Grebe this time many more last year.  Big numbers of gulls, mainly lesser black backed, with some Yellow legged, lots of Med Gulls as mentioned of all ages and some with full black hoods. 

I walked out to look over the sea but just a Great Crested grebe of not and 10s of thousands of large gulls. No Shearwaters or Razorbills this time. I think the Weather Spain has had and this coast has certainly had an impact on birds on the site, it seemed quieter. The beach was gone so i had to walk back the way i came but glad i did as my first male lesser Kestrel over and many White Storks in the distant sat on the lights of the AP-7. 

Headed for the hotel to check in and get some dinner, Mijas is wonderful the hotel is great as in the grounds were Black Redstart, Crossbill, Serin, Firecrest and many Crested tits. I dare not walk around the hotel with the scope and camera out unfortunately. 

Day 2 Saturday 21st February

Headed for the nature reserve Laguna de Fuente de Piedra this was an hours drive where i picked up crested larks and the Vultures were up and about, many birds heard along the way with my window cracked open enough to pick up more Crested tits, Short toed treecreeper and serins everywhere. At the nature reserve i would guestimate 20000 Greater Flamingos, this is the largest saltpan in Andalucía and I'm not sure anywhere else in Europe has as many Flamingos. By Autumn 50000 present, the breed here too although the water level was too high for that currently. Anyway started on the small pool first where 4 Marbled duck was a great start. The Black winged stilts showed well but the rest were mallard, Coot and Little grebe. Loads of Chiffchaffs. 

Back on the Saltpans 17 Black necked grebe was the only thing of note alongside the 15-20000 Flamingos. There is 2 Lesser Flamingos mixed in with the group somewhere but the site was so big and there were so many birds and too great a range to pick these out. I had a chat with the reserve warden to check on numbers of Flamingos where there last count last week was upwards of 15000 with lots arriving daily, so I was happy with my 20000 estimate.  

I move around to a couple more pools not part of the saltpans, where i had a great count of 38 White headed ducks, another 8 Black necked grebe and a male and female Red Crested Pochard.  

There was much more to this huge reserve so drove around the area doing the full circuit, i stopped to watch 500+ Common Cranes, again a bit on the distant side but some were closer.  Originally 80-100 in flight  but then more on the deck. 

I started checking the 12 Kestrels that were hunting the area behind the tractor that was ploughing the fields, i checked a couple realising the were in fact Lesser Kestrels and eventually on checking all 12 they were indeed all Lesser's.  Id now seen more Lesser's than Commons. 

A "great" surprise was a Great Spotted Cuckoo calling behind me which then flew past me into distant dead trees, Good scope views had but too far for decent pics. Other Raptors were many Common Buzzard and plenty of Red kites.

I continued around the saltpans to the other parts of the reserve but just a flighty Iberian Grey shrike to add to the tally ands some Woodlarks under the trees. Lastly there were some Stone Curlews calling but i never managed to find them. Certainly an incredible reserve and somewhere i will definitely visit again. 

Back to Mijas where it was dark when I went out for dinner but I could still see 3 Sand Martins hunting and the Crested tits were still calling. 

Day 3 Sunday 22nd February

Today i made the 1ookm trip to Osuna which is popular for Bustards and Sandgrouse so my targets were the Great and Little Bustards and if I was luck maybe a Sandgrouse or 2. I left a little earlier skipping breakfast so the Griffons weren't up yet however 1 raptor caught my eye looking different to the many Buzzards id see, I pulled over when i could and scoped a nice juv Bonellis eagle, pretty much the only raptor on my journey to Osuna.  Anyway stopped at one bridge to watch another Iberian Grey Shrike but the 2nd bridge had my first target the Great Bustard, a nice male slightly displaying with its tail feathers fanned, no female in site although after a while he did walk about a km to 6 more mixed females and males.  2 Hoopoe was nice flitting around whilst I was watching the amazing Bustards. Spanish Sparrow were common here and 40 Golden plover in a distant field.  I moved onto a second bridge where a dirt track meant i could stop and look as i went, found a bigger group of Great Bustards of around 30 hard to count in the long grass, then superbly my 2nd target of the day 3 or 4 Little Bustard one doing its little jumping display as it called, they were much harder to spot in the long grass and only getting glimpse of them moving between gaps. I was just about to move on after checking the pylons, another target I sort of had on my list Black Winged Kite, boom... Then to my surprise a Black stork flew passed distantly, mind you everything was distant here unfortunately, but it was good scope views, and it was just nice to watch all these birds in there natural surroundings. The Calandra lark were putting on a good display chasing each other and seeing of the Skylarks and Crested larks. I picked another spot that someone had told me about for Black Bellied Sandgrouse, it was a large area to cover but I did get extremely lucky by picking 6 up flying into a muddy field and just disappearing without a trace. 

As I had gotten all my targets for the day and the Flamingo reserve was on the way home I did give the area another look just incase the 2 Lesser Flamingos had miraculously appeared by the visitor centre,  I wasn't lucky this time. It was a long way home so headed back for dinner. 

Day 4 Monday 23rd February

Last morning before head back home, just had an hour after breakfast at the quarry Cantera de Los Arenales the target was Rock bunting again as id found this site in December, at least 6 birds were still present although not showing very well. Anyway back to the airport and home, a great short trip and some very good birds found.