Bird Watching or Twitching in Andalucia Southern Spain
June 2004, Black Winged Stilt, Himantopus himantopus
During winter there are less than 50 pairs of Black Winged Stilts resident in southern Spain. This increases to over 120 pairs in summer as the migrants arrive from the southern Sahara regions. You will see this bird on coastal lagoons and some inland lakes. We spotted a pair on the lagoon at Sotogrande on the 9th May 2004. With their thin red legs and sharp jerky motion they are easy to recognise. When looking for food, small crustaceans, they will often pose with one leg bent, absolutely stationary, until they stab into the water for whatever caught their eye. During the summer they are a very smart bird with glossy black wings and back and immaculate white head and breast. In winter the head and neck grow grey feathers that often forms a patch around the eyes and the back feathers have a dull look. In flight the long legs stick out behind like streamers
Possible sighting On the same day we think we saw a very shy, rare in this region, purple heron hiding in the reeds at the same place.