Our route from Huelva took us west on A49-E1 to junction 105 where we turned north on HU 3401 heading towards Tariquejo and San Bartolomé De la Torre. At the latter town we turned nothing west on A 499 to Villanueva de los Castillejos. Here we turned north still on A 499 until we saw the sign for the Ermita on our right hand side.
We knew that our route would take us through ‘steppe’ country where we could see Great Bustards. It was in the area of Villanueva on A 490 we saw two GB’s fly in the distance. They were only brief views, but another species for the list. We searched the surrounding fields for any more and found Golden Plovers with Lapwings.
We had various stops on route and saw Chaffinch, Buzzards, Blue Tit and Bryan heard a Wood Lark. Also there were about one hundred and fifty White Storks circling high in the distance. There were others on nests. Villanueva was one stop where we had coffee and there was a garage as well.
At the Ermita de la Virgin De la Peña there are panoramic views all around. In fact this is a site that is exceptional and it was special for us. Apart from Blue Rock-thrush, Black Redstarts, House Sparrows, Robin, Blue Tit, with two flying Jays, and a Great Tit called, with White Storks and Griffins overhead which would please most birders the star birds had yet to be seen. Today there were at least seven Alpine Accentors. These showed well feeding on a bank of bare earth, and trees and shrubs. This is a spot they continued to return to. They flicked through the vegetation at the base of a pine. In the car park, only a few metres away from the bank I stood still and they walked to with ten feet of me. There were four here paying only little attention to people. We took our time as our star birder and photographer needed to get the best photograph possible. The Accentors were our 99th bird of the trip. In the car park I spoke to two Spanish guys who told us that around the back of the rocky outcrop was an Eagle Owl site that can be seen from the road at the back. We were unsuccessful.
On a return southwards we saw a small area of water and there was a perched Kingfisher, and House Martins flew over on passage. In the margins a Ringed Plover fed. It does pay to stop and look!
Traveling towards home we headed again to Isla Cristina and this time decided to investigate Playa de Canela. (See Page 51 -Guardiana Estuary of Where To Watch Birds in Southern & Western Spain by Ernest Garcia & Andrew Paterson. The map on this page does give any idea of the distance needed to get there). It is almost a nine day camel ride to get to a view of the marsh. In winter it is empty of visitors and this meant that we could stop anywhere. Here we had our first Curlew and Whimbrel of the trip. They were brilliant views of several birds and comparisons between the species was easily seen. Flying over the harbour was a Sandwich Tern.
Further on into Huelva opposite LYDIA COCINAS and across the single railway track we traveled down a track and in the lagoon we saw about a dozen Shellduck. Twelve Ringed Plovers, Little Stint and Redshank. It was easy birding, but the temperature was dropping with a cold wind blowing. Upon leaving there were over 100 Cattle Egrets in a field. Our next stop was the Shopping Centre signposted Centro Commercial for a beer and a burger. New species for today were eleven with a trip total of 105.
The two photographers had looked enviously at the ‘nightscape’ provided by the Repsol site on our route to our accommodation. The security provided by Prosegur found us and suggested hat we move on and that photographs were not allowed. However, no signage and no one was arrested.
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