San Felipe

 

Yesterday at San Felipe and the surrounding areas we went to our furthest point and Birded back to GA.

On the road passed the north gate (El Hondo) we decided a quick visited to the fish farm our first of 3 squacco Herons pasted by also a Common Sandpiper on a muddy margin.

Things got a little better at San Felipe.

Curlew Sandpiper

Curlew Sandpiper's 25+  Greenshank, Wood Sandpiper, Black tailed Godwit, Redshank, Collared Pratincole, 150+ Whiskered Terns, Common Sandpiper, Little Bittern.

Curlew Sandpiper

All the usual suspects,  including Marbled Duck, Red knobbed Coot, Purple swamp Hen, Great reed Warbler, Cetti's Warbler.

Whiskered Terns

Marbled Duck

We hit a bit of a dead patch for an hour or so after we left San Felipe, we did come across  a few Stone Curlew and one of, who thought  he was concealed

Stone Curlew
we can see you

Stone Curlew 

 But little did he know he was being blasted by Canon and Nikon. 3 Common Cuckoo sounding off along Bellavista road.

Common Cuckoo

 We approached lower la Marina more Great spotted Cuckoo's these were very vocal and easy to locate and a completely different area to the previous day sighting, and more birds heard much further away. 

Great spotted Cuckoo

 We always like to end on a high sometime we do sometimes we don't  light rain had started and decided to call it a day, hang on Trevor said is that a Roller sure enough there it was, there we're at least 2 around the monastery. Happy Days.

Roller

Also few Bee-eaters about.

Another good mornings Birding

                         Ibrean green woodpecker                                   

Have a great day

More fun tomorrow but where?

Watch this space

Cheers Bryan.

Coming soon a review Canon 30d 8.2 maga pixel a twenty year old camera? Any good in 2022

Summery of last week's birding

Overly busy last week and did not have much time to update the blog and it looks that way for a while.

19th April

The 3 Amigos went to Yecla.

There's been major road works around this area for 2 years now and the road number has changed and easy to miss the exit it's now renumbered to exit 171.

Black-eared Wheatear

We worked hard for what got and no major moment of the day and nothing out of the unusual, Short-toed, Thekla's, Crested, and Calandra seen, Black-eared Wheatear, Black Wheatear, Chough, Jackdaw,  Black Cap, Lesser Kestrel's, Common Kestrel's, Woodchat Shrike, Mistle Thrush, Corn Bunting's everywhere, Rock Sparrow, Tree Sparrow seen in Good numbers and also Linnet and Gold Finch,

Short-toed Lark

Calandra  Lark

Heard only Bonelli's Warblers.

Friday 22nd

Lower La Marina, Pallet Road, El Pinet.

Mark and I went searching for European Roller? We manage to locate 2 birds which promptly flew off.  Bee-eaters seem to be settling in now with plenty around. A Common Cuckoo was sounding off, also heard in several different places Great-spotted Cuckoo. The highlight was the 6 Monk Parakeets at Pallet Road. We did see 2 birds there in the same place last week.

 Monk Parakeets

 Monk Parakeets

Not mentioned every bird seen.

Sunday 24th April

Montnegra

A morning birding there to see if the Trumpeters Finch's have arrived back?  No show again that's twice. Nightingale singing in the reed beds, a Black-eared Wheatear showed off in front of us.  Black Wheatear, Red-rumped Swallow, Coal Tit, Great Tit seen.

Black-eared Wheatear 

 Alpine Swift's was the surprise of the day and despite chasing the cloud of Pallid Swift's they were mixed in with, we didn't catch up with them again, blimey they can shift when they want to. We did find good numbers of Subalpine Warbler and one bird sat on the fence when I was having a pee? I think probably 6 in total along just one track, not very obliging singing from within the scrub/bushes. I wonder just how many birds are in this Valley?  Earlier we had some fun trying to photograph a very mobile pair of Spectacled Warblers

Black-eared Wheatear 

Today 26th

Out Birding with Trevor, Mark and myself was a bit of a better day nothing mega but the views of the birds were very good.

Birds seen

Santa Pola Salinas including El Pinet.

Maybe 10+ Great White Egrets, Little Terns, Whiskers Tern, Sandwich Terns, Common Tern, Yellow Wagtails in very smart plumage, Kentish Plover, Curlew Sandpiper, Dunlin, Greenshank, Collared Pratincole, Mediterranean Gulls almost everywhere around El Pinet and sounding off.

And all the usual breeding suspects.

Lower La Marina, Pallet Road.

Great Spotted Cuckoo

It was good around this area Common Cuckoo, Woodchat Shrike, Great-spotted Cuckoo, Monk Parakeets, 14+ Turtle Dove,

No sigh of Rollers anywhere but tomorrow another day

Mediterranean Gull

Not had a chance to go through all the photos but at some point

I'll update

Thank you to all who keep logging into Birding Costa Blanca.

 Of interest.

Photos were taken with a Canon 30d. 8.2-megapixel 20-year-old camera or the Canon 1D MK ll 10-megapixel camera. review coming soon. To be honest these cameras never miss a flying bird and log on fast to the flying subject with no problem (So Easy)

thank you

Have fun

Cheers Bryan

A Re up by popularity ( most viewed ) 2021

Good morning

FAKE NEWS

Google Reverse Image Search helps you quickly discover visually similar images from around the web. Upload a photograph from your desktop to Google Images and it will show you related images used on other websites and also different sizes of the same photo almost instantly.

What Is a Reverse Image Search used for?

Journalists can use the reverse search option to find the original source of an image or to know the approximate date when a picture was  first published on the Internet. Photographers can use ‘search by image’ feature to know about other websites that are using their photographs without permission.

 

Fake news is all around us, but now it's descending to even lower depths and into Bird sighting, bird news, and also photos.  It's such a shame that an individual feels the need to do this, and sink so low, also steal photos from the web to falsely and corroborate and confirm their fake sightings.

This individual must feel a need to be the top birder, top dog etc at any cost or lose face.

 There's another element to this,  I've met several birders who have spent many hours looking / search/ travelled for the claimed bird sightings, The web site in question has used fake photos, many times, to support there claims and fake the news and still does,

 It is so easy to check for the origins of the photographs, using the right software, Reverse Image Search. (It's  so Simple)

This is the latest bit of fake bird news a Trumpeter Finch allegedly photographed at Montnegra.

Trumpeter Finch
Morocco April 2010
Photographer Michel Carre

 So how can this be, claimed to be photographed a Montnegra, Alicante, this week on the 19th of April 2021?

The fact the original photo is from Morocco in 2010 and used to corroborate the fake sighting at Montnegra.

Here is the link to the web site where the original image was stolen from, click the link below

https://www.oiseaux.net/photos/michel.carre/trumpeter.finch.2.html

MAKE YOUR MIND UP

I've not named the person or web site involved to save them the embarrassment ( but perhaps I should of ) and labelled him a Stringer and lose any credibility as a tour guide they still have?

(The term stringer usually denotes people who intentionally mislead and falsify bird sightings, as opposed to well-intentioned mistakes made from lack of field experience.)

hopefully, this will put an end to the fake sighting and stop the steal of images from the web. 

At least there less fog

And with over almost 40 thousand hits on Birding Costa Blanca the news it out 

 Have a Great Day 

cheers 

Bryan

An Unexpected Journey

An unexpected email arrived? fancy a few hours Birding this afternoon, okay I answered see you later on.

And so very productive 3 hours Birding with No bins member and top Photographer Mark Etheridge link below. 

Mark Etheridge web site 

Mark also writes a monthly Birding Article for the very popular Gran Alacant magazine link below,and read his article

Gran Alacant Advertiser

To be honest  it was a bit of a flat start with, but it only takes one bird to get it going.

We crossed the Santa Pola Salinas, water levels are very high after resent rains, so there are very few muddy margins,

El Pinet

Common Terns are back, a few Stone Curlew sounding off, plenty of Sandwich Terns and Slender billed Gull's there, and the resident usuals.

Lower levels around the back of la Marina

It was quiet with few bird's, and at Pallet Road a new bird for that area, nothing special a pair of Monk Parakeet, and distant single Bee-eater.  The high point was the possessed crazy dog who goes mad everytime we see him, I tease him a lot.

Whinchat

Anyway we persevere and found a Whinchat, a good migrant to find and it was showing off in front off us, "we're on a roll now"

Corn Bunting

 A point blank Corn Bunting, there almost everywhere, around  grassland's and crops. So no big deal,  Woodchat Shrike x 2, Nightingale sounding off in most reed beds or water area's Great reed Warbler's cracking off, also Reed Warbler in several places.

Whinchat,

Common birds seen or heard Zitting Cisticola, Stone Curlew, Marsh Harriers, Kestrel, Serin, Gold Finch, a drive by of Dunlin ? on the Salinas or could they be Curlew Sandpiper?

Serin

We like to end on a high

And today we bump into a Male Montague's Harrier on the way home on the M332 A stunning male and no chance to stop the car in the traffic, maybe next time?

And with migration now in full swing and most birds are in, who know what next?

Woodchat Shrike

Cheers Bryan

Bird of the Day end up a Garden Bird

One week on, we thought we'd give Montnegra another go and see if the Trumpeter Finch's had re turned ? There wasn't any sign at the few historical sites that we know of, but there was a mixture of new arrivals?

Black eared Wheatear, Rock Sparrow some female Black Restarts still moving through.

Black Restart

A brief call of Bonnelli's Warbler rattle from a bank of pines? A grey heron gave us a fright as I thought it might of been a Greater Bitten, for a second or two as it followed along the river bed, We tried out our new route 4+ Sub Alpine Warbler's, showed but always difficult and sulking, we gave it our best and also time  quite a few Sardinean Warbler's popped out on our search.

Sub Alpine Warbler

We left GA around 8.30 but not before the resident Black Wheatear (Garden Bird) put on a mega show for us, this bird is always around and displaying this time of the year.

Black Wheatear

Back at Montnegra

Griffons Vultures, Peregrine falcon, Kestrel, Raven briefly at the mountain range.

All the usual suspects about

Black Wheatear

 Green Finch, Gold Finch, Serin, Chiffs, Great Tit, Red legged Partridge and more.

really nice day on the mountains away from, the norm with the chance of finding something good.

A few butterflies, a Skipper,  (unidentified ) A probable 2 Tailed Pasha a, Scares Swallow Tailed, a few small white,

Have a great day

quick update heard my first Bee Eaters yesterday

Cheers Bryan

The Clot Submerged

It's rained all last night and been persistent throughout the day light hours and tonight the havens have opened yet again.

The clot is underwater, there's now 3 big lakes. The gun inplacements left over from the spanish civil war, are almost underwater, and only just viewable I use to walk across the dried out Clot to theses gun inplacements a few years ago today you would now need a boat.

Extreme weather?

 A month from now it's a plague of mosquitoes.

Stand by.

Wales v Austria resent Football Match

Amazing

Spine tingerling moment before and after the game

Its called the Red Wall

Amazing watch

Link below

 Before the Match

Montnegra

Thursday 31st March

It promised to be a better day today after resent downpour, nice blue sky to start with but it quickly clouded up and the breeze picked up sharply and it was cold. 

 Sardinian Warbler

No sigh of the Trumpeter Finch's. Surprise of the day was full summer plumage Common Redstart, wow a very smart bird, Rock Bunting showed briefly, double figures for Sardinian Warbler's, and 4 Sub Alpine Warbler's, one or 2 showed very well but the wrong side of the car for photos, although I did snatch a snap, of one of the other birds, but it was always back on, another bird was singing from inside a bush less than a meter away.

Sub Alpine Warbler

We  found a interesting new route today which will produce a few birds in due course, we're still finding more to exploring in this valley that never ceases to amaze.

All the usual suspects we're there Blue Rock Thrush, Black Wheatear, Griffon Vultures, Kestrel, Raven, Hoopoe, Swallow, Craig Martin, heard only Spectacled Warbler.

Sub Alpine Warbler
from my catalog

Now the weather improves let's see what next week brings.

 Cheer's Bryan