Bird Watching or Twitching in Andalucia Southern Spain

June 2008, Dunlin, Calidrid alpina

This small wading bird is very familiar to twitchers in the UK where it inhabits estuaries all around the coast in its thousands. Here it is much less common with perhaps 800 in winter split between the Doñana and the Bay of Cádiz. During summer there are even fewer dunlin migrating down from their breeding grounds in Scandinavia but, due to their habit of migrating in stages, adults first followed by juveniles, over a period of months, there is an almost constant flow of dunlin through this area, the northward migration barely finished before the southern starts. In winter the plumage resembles that of a Sanderling with which it is often confused but during the summer the black belly and reddish brown back is distinctive. In the photograph the birds at left and top are starting to show their summer colours whilst the bird at front right is still in his winter plumage.