12 – 16th December 2019, Andalucía, Spain
Doñana might host Europe’s rarest mammal, but it is most famous as a sanctuary for birds. And what birds! Swaying in the reeds, wading in the marshes, laughing in the trees.
Greater flamingo
Stonechat
Iberian magpie (formerly known as the azure-winged magpie)
Iberian grey shrike
White storks
A Walk with Wildlife 
Beautiful bird photos, Adele! I’m a bird lover and these bring a smile to my face. Wish I could have been there to take the pictures myself.
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I highly recommend going to Donana, if you should find yourself in southern Spain! It’s the first time I’ve seen flamingos in Europe.
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It sounds wonderful and your photos confirm it😊
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Thanks Belinda 🙂 Very interesting part of the world. Spain has Europe’s most unusual wild mammals too, including mongoose and a very odd little creature called a desman. Might try looking for those next year.
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Beauty photos – delightful. 🙂
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Should say beautiful. 🙂
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Thank you Lynette! It was good to have a chance to use my new lens.
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Quite an unusual looking magpie, never seen it before in southern Europe. Now, after I googled it, it seems that azure-winged magpie resides in eastern Asia and that one that you photographed might be Iberian magpie. They look similar but Wikipedia says they are different specie one from the other. Quite interesting bird, anyway.
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Ah, I see there’s been genetic analysis separating them from the Asian population – that must be recent. The name ‘azure-winged magpie’ is still often used, confusingly. Anyway, they are a colourful and social resident of Iberia. They are harder to photograph than Eurasian magpies because they don’t like staying still! And they don’t seem to follow foxes…
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“And they don’t seem to follow foxes…”
😦
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