The Lesser Flamingo at la Mancha, Spring 2001

Original photos by Juan Carlos Marín Santos. 
Scans 2400pp and comments by Ricard Gutiérrez

These are three scans of the original slides showing the Lesser Flamingo Phoenicopterus minor seen in La Mancha during March - May. The bird was originally seen in Laguna de Villacañas, Toledo, on 29.3. It stayed there with ocassional movements to Manjavacas lagoon (see april bird news) until it was last seen on 12.5. It is worth mentioning that on 13.5 (another?) Lesser Flamingo appeared in Galicia (see may news) and perhaps it could be this bird as further searches in La Mancha produced no results.

All photos ©Juan Carlos Marín Santos

The bird was unringed and behaved normally. Some Spanish records well could refer to true vagrants as Greater Flamingos P.ruber reach the areas within the range of minor in their normal movements along the Mediterranan basin and NW Africa.  El ave no estaba marcada. Alguans citas de flamencos enanos en España podrian corresponder perféctmente a aves salvajes dado que el flamenco común alcanza áreas dentro del área de distribución de minor en sus movimientos. L'ocell no estava anellat i es comportava amb normalitat. Algunes de les cites espanyoles podrien correspondre a ocells salvatges ja que els flamencs comuns arriben a les àrees de distribució de minor al NW d'Àfrica..