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How a Bluethroat led to a new record

While some people were still recovering from a hangover after celebrating New Year's Eve, I decided to go on a birdwatching walk around the Torrox lagoon. I was secretly hoping to catch a glimpse of a Bluethroat, and after checking observations from previous years, I thought it was well possible to see this precious little bird now, in the first week of January.




Kingfisher between some branches
The second (male) Kingfisher of the afternoon

I usually go out with the intention to take as many good photos as possible, but today I focused more on counting all the birds as accurately as possible, thereby assisted by the freshly installed eBird app and Merlin's sound ID app. I used to use Birdnet to identify calls. Although Merlin's app works slightly different, I enjoyed it and found it very useful. The app was listening pretty much all the time and observed different species that escaped my attention. A clearly distinguishable Kingfisher call for instance would have gone unnoticed if it hadn't been for Merlin's app. Not that I wouldn't have recognized it, but I was focusing on many birds at the same time.


The first time I heard a Kingfisher, near the bridge that separates the two lagoons, I was unable to see it. But the second one was clearly visible. I took several photos of it seconds after it had caught a little fish.




Kingfisher with a little fish in its beak
Ready to devour its meal



Kingfisher in the reed
Waiting for the right moment to dive in the water again


The over three hours long census proved to be quite exhausting, but was definitely worth the effort. I consider the Torrox Lagoon to be my local patch and I now know pretty well which species to expect and in which part, but I had never counted each individual species here. I only had experience with this practice because of the SACRE projects.




Male Stonechat sitting on a branch
A male Stonechat




Spoonbill
Close-up of a Spoonbill


The precise counting resulted in a whopping total of 48 different bird species, the highest number I have ever counted in one and the same place. 587 was the number of individuals. The White Stork flock I observed circling in the sky was the largest group of one species today, roughly 100 individuals strong. I looked carefully for a sign of the Great Crested Grebe, but couldn't find any of these birds. Hopefully they'll be back soon.


Unexpectedly I saw one Squacco Heron land on a branch in front of the reed beds. It was pretty difficult to get it in the viewfinder to photograph it, because of its amazing camouflage.




Squacco Heron
Squacco Heron



A pair of Glossy Ibis wading through the shallow water
A pair of Glossy Ibises



Cormorant landing on the water
Water skiing Cormorant


Only five hundred meters away from the corner where I expected to see a Bluethroat, I saw some small bird with a brown back jumping into the bushes. I could easily get it in focus, but wasn't sure what it was. A brave Cetti's Warbler maybe? Only later at home I found out it was a Bluethroat! They are quite indistinct seen from behind, but the photo is clear enough.




Bluethroat standing in the grass
Bluethroat


I carefully looked around in the corner where I had seen this little jewel on previous occasions, but didn't find it there. Instead, I noticed a brown bird of prey, perched on a branch on the little island in the western sector of the lagoon. After later inspection that bird turned out to be a Red Kite!



Red Kite hiding in a tree
Red Kite


On that same island there was a relatively big group of Black-crowned Night Herons.



Black-crowned Night Herons hiding between the bushes
Group of Black-crowned Night Herons



Swamphen swimming in the water
Swamphen

587 birds, more than enough for the first day of another promising year of avian pleasure. But the next trip will be a more relaxing one!




Black Redstart standing on a branch
Black Redstart

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