Larks at Sunrise.

Despite forgetting to change the clock forward an hour we managed to get up early and arrived at the reserve a little after sunrise.

El Planeron

Walking around we heard lots of short-toed larks singing but nothing that sounded like a Dupont's. After nearly an hour we were about to give up, thinking that the lost hour getting up had spoiled our chances when I heard the unmistakable sound of a Dupont's singing. It seemed to be coming from a clump of grass a few feet away, so I signalled to the others and waited until we were all close. The bird sang on and off and though we followed it across the 'field' we had no luck with seeing it. A very frustrating half hour or so followed when we could hear but not see birds singing. Finally we decided they must be singing above and one was eventually located about 500 feet up. Even then the sound seemed to come from the ground. We watched it slowly descend and then plummet to earth and crossing the vegetation we managed to locate it and watch it well for a short while.

Pam found another one running through the vegetation and we managed to watch that one getting a few pictures as a record. We kept wandering around seeing Pin-tailed sandgrouse, black-bellied sandgrouse but by around 10.00 it had gone very quiet and we returned to the hotel for breakfast.