Male Common Crane - grus grus Having been away on a cruise with Bob and Jenny Wright there has no photography or birding activity for a while. However, while Elena was at the Orthodox Church in Marbella I drove over to Fuente de Piedra for the December outing of the Axarquia Bird Group.
A good day was had by all with over 50 species sighted, including an abundance of common Cranes, some of which were even visible from the Visitors Centre as they had ventured down to the edge of the Lagoon.
A good day was had by all with over 50 species sighted, including an abundance of common Cranes, some of which were even visible from the Visitors Centre as they had ventured down to the edge of the Lagoon.
Crane Flight - grus grus
Shelduck on the shoreline It was a cold, overcast day, the light not good for photography, but still enjoyable seeing large numbers of Flamingo spread right across the lagoon. Other waders however were almost entirely absent as all the fringe pools around the lake are still dry. A few Shelduck were visible, lots of Shoveler, Gulls galore, flocks of Lapwing and Marsh Harriers were the main birds of note visible from outside the Visitors Centre.
Black-necked Grebe - Small birds were few and far between with a pair of linnets being perhaps the highlight. The pool around the side of the building was full and from the hide we could see Black-necked as well as Little Grebe. Pochard and Teal added to our list and the resident Little Owl was roosting in a small tree visible from the hide.
Little Owl
| Next we checked the fields to the right of the access road where Bob picked up a distant Stone Curlew, sitting up quite conspicuously giving good views through the telescope. | 
Stone Curlew
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Marsh Harrier We drove around to the Mirador which provided great views of a pair of white faced Marsh Harriers quartering the reed beds. A Black-shouldered Kite was also spotted which together with Kestrel and Common Buzzard added to the list of raptors.
Common Cranes - grus grus
Further along the road the fields revealed Cranes in the hundreds. It is encouraging to see so many here this winter, they are obviously breeding successfully and numbers appear to be up on last year.
Axarquia Bird Group at Fuente de Piedra, December 2013 A good day was had by all fifteen members of the Group and we enjoyed lunch in the Town Square, just in time to miss the onset of some pretty heavy rain which persisted for all of my trip back to collect Elena in Malaga. Perhaps it will fill some of the wader pools around the edge ogf the Lagoon to make Fuente even more attractive to birders.
