Coto Donana december 2016

Coto Donana december 2016

Laguna de las Madres, the mother of marshes, at El Rocio.

I have been to Coto Donana several times, but never in december. Donana has always been famous as a wintering quarter for Northern European birds, so it was about time to see the importance with my own eyes. And I was lucky. The area was teeming with birds. (except for, in fact, Laguna Madre seen on the photo above...).

Little owl

The main reason for seing birds everywhere, was the heavy rain that has been pouring down for the past week. The marshes has not been so wet for 6-7 years. It also meant, however, that several of the roads in the area were not driveable or even completly blocked by masses of water. It was no problem for me. The first day I drove on the dykes of the northern marshes, from Vilmanrique de la Condesa towards Isla Mayor. The second day I was together with José Antonio Sánchez from Discovering Donana, and we were able to go into the closed area between El Rocio and the Jose Antonio Valverde center, through Coto del Rey, Hijonos, La Vera and Lucio del Lobo.

On day one, in the northern marshes, I was struck by the total number of birds, including thousands of gulls, hundreds of white storks and glossy ibises, egrets and herons and large distant flocks of ducks. I was driving along the Brazo de la Torre/Entremuros on the western dyke. However, it was not possible to get over to the rice fields on the other side; the road to Isla Mayor was blocked by water. Due to the high water level, it meant that a lot of birds were sitting along or on the dyke. I had 4-5 Black-winged kites, sitting or flying next to my car as an example.

Floaded track in the Coto del Rey pine forest

Day two- with calm, sunny and warm weather, we drove from El Rocio and east towards the Valverde visitor center. On the way we had Iberian grey shrike, Little bustards, Pin-tailed sandgrouses, Stone curlews and lots of Greylag geese, cranes and white storks. The Valverde center gave little, except for some flamingoes. However, after the coffe break going further east, It got exciting again with five Short-eared owls, a Barn owl and totally 4 Little owls. On the raptor side, there were 20 or more Lesser kestrels, two Hen harriers, a lot of Marsh harriers and a wintering Short-toed Eagle. 

Little egret

To summarize, I can really recommend going to the Donana in december. I have been there three times earlier in the spring, and one in the autumn. But to enjoy it in winter is something special. Remember that the Coto Donana partly was protected after pressure from organisations like WWF, for its importance for wintering birds from Northern Europe. Let us hope it can stay that way. One little contribution can be to be a visitor in the "low season" of december and january. It is worth it!

More photos here