Birds on Saturday

This morning I started re-organising the apartment, ready to welcome Eddie and Ann arriving Malaga on Monday from East Anglia, via London City  airport. Linda came in and made up a couple of beds in the second bedroom and I transferred all my goods and chattels to that room to free up the one with the double bed in it where I've been sleeping for the past month. Then I went up to the office to collect my alb, print off my sermon for tomorrow, and do the first half of the food shopping for the week ahead. After lunch, I did the second half of the shopping in the local Mercadona, and then went out for a walk, two kilometres along the coast towards El Faro, to see what birds I could photograph.

There was a strong breeze, but fortunately it was warm enough to walk along the exposed path alongside the N340. On the rock where I snapped a single Cormorant a couple of weeks ago, there were two at first.

Then, a third joined them. All three were breeding females, judging by the unusual display of white feathers on the neck, head and flank.

On the way back, I heard what I thought was an Oystercatcher's call, then saw a group of four wading birds feeding on the edge of the shore, which I didn't recognise at all.

I went through a list of the various suspects on an Andalusian visitor website, and Google Images gave me a selection of photos to compare with my own. My best guess is that they were Sanderling, a new bird to me.

These birds are so well adapted to sea shore survival that they aren't at all easy to spot among the stones and vegetation, except when they move about. Altogether I was pleased with the pictures I got today. My new camera is giving good results on Auto, but I must make an effort to learn how to manage its control settings as well.