Page 18 - Out Birding Spring 2024

The GBC and Friendship
The club has always been not just about birding, but birding in company with others in our LGBT+ community, feeling at ease and making friends. Twice last year I’ve had extra special experiences because of the GBC friendship network.
For some years, I’d thought of spending a couple of winter months in Spain, and ~January and February 2023 was finally the 􏰀me. Being based within striking distance of the centre of Malaga gave an opportunity for cultural and social things as well as some birding. A week with Inglorious Bustards exploring the Coto de Donana fulfilled one life􏰀me ambi􏰀on, while having the nature reserve at Guadalhorce a bus ride away, and with Black Redstarts, Monk Parakeets, Spotless Starlings, Sandwich Terns, Sanderling, and all manner of gulls and the odd pelagic to be seen from the balcony, there was pre􏰁y sa􏰀sfying birding to be had. I happened to put a post on the GBC Facebook page that I and a friend were based in Malaga for a while and if anyone wanted to get in touch they would be welcome. I also knew that one very long stand- ing member of the GBC was now based in southern Spain somewhere, but had no idea of exactly where – Doreen. (one of the first 2 women to join the GBC: ed).
Happily, Doreen responded to the Facebook alert, and we arranged to meet. We decided on the Fuente De Piedra lagoon, about an hour north of where we were. Not having a car, we were very happy to be offered a li􏰂 by a colleague of Doreen’s, a Father Louis, who we were to meet outside the English cemetery, in the centre of Malaga, itself a good place for birding. I have to admit I was expec􏰀ng an older padre to appear, when up bounded a young-looking and (am I allowed to say this?) very handsome gay priest, who turned out to be Louis from England, now working as an Anglican priest in Andalucía and who was keen to pick up his interest in birds that he’d neglected over the last decade or so. So it was with a friend new to the GBC, Louis, and with a friend new to us, Doreen, that we had a lovely mooch around Fuente de Piedra.
This reserve will be familiar to many, billed as having the largest flamingo colony in Europe a􏰂er the Camargue. Although the water levels on this 4-mile long saline lagoon are lower than they used to be perhaps, there are a good number of Greater Flamingo around. Of great interest too are the freshwater pools around the edge of the lagoon. On arrival there was a distant Marsh Harrier on the exposed mud of the lagoon ea􏰀ng what looked like a Shoveler but most of the lagoon birds were just that – distant.
The pools yielded Ken􏰀sh Plover, Ringed Plover, Black-winged S􏰀lt, Lapwing, Common Sandpiper and a range of other birds, the best of which was Marbled Duck seen very close from a boardwalk across one of the ponds. Just as Gadwall can be much more appreciated when seen close up, these small ducks have the most beau􏰀ful plumage when you have the privilege of ge􏰃ng so near.
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