We arrived in Osuna the night before and set foot to explore the town itself, which proved to be very interesting, given the historical importance and quite recently, having starred in the popular series of ‘Games of Thrones’ as a mediaeval fantasy scenery. After discovering the town’s culinary and architectural gems, we went to sleep early to be on time for the exciting Field Meeting of the Andalucia Bird Society.

The morning was quite chilly, cloudy and foggy and we started to worry how this may affect our birding day. We set off onto a SE-715 road passing by the Antequera – Sevilla railroad through vast cereal fields and olive groves. Despite the clouds we could already see numerous red-legged partridges, buzzards and kestrels on the way.

Our first stop was on the rail bridge from where we could set scopes into a very interesting scene happening at the cereal field. There was a great buzzard male displaying and above we could see a black kite approaching and foraging not too far away from the male and a group of females. Given the fact that me and my partner come originally from Poland where, despite the historic presence and abundance of the species, great bustard became extinct in the early 70s of 20th century due to DDT usage and the industrialisation of traditional agriculture. Having read that Spain and Portugal nowadays account for the majority of great bustard’s European population, we were very excited to see this bird for the very first time, and even more so: displaying! We spent some time there observing the situation until the male gathered the females closer to the olive groves, not too keen to share the details of their potential mating scene. Unfortunately, we were slightly too far away to hear great bustard’s mating calls, which may seem like exploding, flatulent sounds. 

On the other side of the road, we also observed a dramatic scene of red-legged partridges approaching the rail trucks, frequented by the speed train to Seville. Fortunately, the partridges fleed the danger and hid in the bushes, joining a tea party of wild rabbits. 

From there, we came back on the road, and climbed up the second rail bridge, leading our way towards Arroyo del Alamillo where we took a nice stroll on the field road, which offered interesting sightings of the calandra and crested larks, singing cheerfully in their nuptial flight. An old field well attracted a beautiful male kestrel to sit back at the outpost, observing potential prey. During that walk, the sun went out, and we noticed numerous species including once again great bustards, black kite, but also stonechats, booted eagle, corn bunting, marsh harrier, swallow, white wagtail, spotless starling, blackcap, spotted flycatcher and iberican grey shrike, notorious for its horrid habits of impaling its prey. Although one may argue it’s actually shrike’s culinary art of cooking a la Michelin star chef. 

After taking this nice stroll, we went to stop by some abandoned buildings close to Lantejuela, inhabited by various pigeon types: feral pigeon, collar doves and woodpigeons. Most of us carried packed lunches and after a short stop, we decided to take a break at the picnic area next to the Ornithological Observatory in Lantejuela and skip visiting Venta for lunch. At the end of the day, the curiosity of spotting more birds prevailed over hunger, as usual!

The Observatory is situated next to the Laguna del Gobierno, a part of the Complejo Endorreico de Lantejuela which serves as a water basin for the migrating and wintering species when the area lacks water, like this year. We all noted that this year the whole region of Andalucia has been missing the rain for a very long time, except for 3 days of showers in 9 months’ time! This is a serious ecological threat to the region, including the lives of multiple wading species. 

We weren’t sure if the Laguna would be open but a friendly employee of the site let us in for only 3 EUR/person. 

Laguna del Gobierno consists of several basins, coming from the residual depuration of Lantejuela, using an innovative, ecological way of water management through algae and microspecies helping to clean up the water. We could see the effect of it by having various species residing at the cleaner basins’ area. I was particularly lucky to catch the flying flocks of glossy ibis, and greater flamingos in my camera lens and later on, set the scope into the following interesting species: shoveler, gadwall, pochard, white-headed duck, black-necked grebe, cattle egret, ruff. As we strolled through the area, we noticed also Cetti’s warbler calling and spotted a colourful pair of common waxbill, an introduced species from the Atlantic Ocean and Subsaharan Africa. 

In one of the lagoons we saw a green sandpiper alongside with avocet and black-tailed godwit foraging, using very specific movements of its legs to search through the mud for its food. It was a very special moment to watch this intimate scene. 

At the end of our visit, the employee showed us his stunning photos and a taxidermy workshop, and gave us a flamingo feather for good birding luck!

On the way back we met a group of local birdwatchers, admiring marsh harriers and griffon vultures in flight, and we stopped in a few spots in search of sightings for the birds of prey and the birds of steppe. In the afternoon sun, we saw ravens, goldfinch, linnet, and most likely, an Eurasian eagle-owl taking off through the olive grove but this couldn’t be confirmed.

Back in Osuna, we could also see a pair of white storks, so popular on the Sevilla fields, and also, a honorary resident of various churches in Osuna. The couple was preparing their nest with a lot of care, which resulted in a few beautiful pictures we managed to take. In the evening, we bumped into some fellow friends from ABS enjoying the nightlife in Osuna, and the next day, many of us returned to the first rail bridge in search of the great bustard male but without much luck.