Four days Birding
With Arte Lesyvor from Holland
I met up with Arte on Sunday the 3rd of November the plan was to bird locally, so we set off at a very leisurely pace across the Santa Pola Salinas.
At the first stop, we got Mediterranean Gull, Audouin's Gull, Kentish Plover, Little-ringed Plover, Dunlin,
Kingfisher, Marsh Harrier, Cetti's Warbler, and Stonechat.
At the Standing Stones
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| Spoonbill |
50 plus Great White Egret, about the same number of Spoonbills 2 Osprey lots of Little Egret, and hundreds of Great-crested Grebe. I think it's probably the most I've ever seen of Greater Flamingo on the Salinas. Water must be short elsewhere
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| Great White Egret |
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| Spoonbills |
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| Great White Egret |
We bumped into a few other birders who said they had heard about a possible Eider Duck at Santa Pola Harbour, so we set off to find the Duck. On checking it's the 2nd or 3rd for Spain in the Mediterranean so it's a possible Mega.
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| Juvenile Eider Duck |
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| Juvenile Eider Duck |
We spent an hour or so with no luck, and with the weather closing in we gave up and set off for El Pinet we didn't see much there and then the heavens opened and the rain stopped play.
So after a promising start, it went pear-shaped.
Montnegra, Maigmo Mountain.
So the next day before setting off to Montnegra we went back via Santa Pola Harbour it took about 20 minutes to find the Eider Duck. This juvenile Duck liked to be photographed and posed point blank, A tick for Arte, any day you get a tick is a very good day.
A Werther's moment and the luxury sweet came out
Montnegra
Was a disappointment only adding Blue Rock Thrush, Raven, and Dartford Warbler to the list.
Maigmo was much the same. So I said, we should cut our losses and go to the Clot de Galvany.
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| Kingfisher |
We found a Wryneck which was a devil to photograph and didn't want to play but we had good views and was easy to locate as it was calling most of the time, Kingfisher, Marbled Teal, Gadwall, White-headed Duck, Shoveler, Teal, Pochard a possible Ferruginous Duck, that was miles a away, Black-necked Grebe, Great-crested Grebe, Barn Swallow, 4 Little Bitten, Great White Egret, a sky full of Grag Martins.
Bonete and the surrounding area.
The forecast was good a low of 10 degrees and a high of 27 degrees with clear blue skies, perfect I thought. The forecast couldn't be more wrong a lovely morning as we left with dawn just breaking.
The closer we got to Bonete the worse the mist got and so we sat in the car at Bonete waiting for the thick fog to clear. An hour and a half later it was beginning to lift, it was patchy but we added Rock Sparrow, later Chough, Black Redstarts were abundant, Hoopoe, lots of Kestrel the odd Iberian Southern Grey Shrike at Corral-Rubio, and patchy fog still hanging around.
Out of the murk Arte picked out a large raptor on an electrical pylon and a long way away even through the scope and the fog it was big So I said "Arte let's go down that track" It'll get us closer to ID the bird (I thought it could be a Spanish Imperial Eagle) down the track we went which ended abruptly.
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| Unknown |
Half the distance was cut down. Telescope up and I D confirmed Spanish Imperial Eagle, Werther's original sweet came out to celebrate. The second Werther in two days. It can't be bad two sweets in a day or two. A very good Bird to find, Arte was happy finding his bird. Now how do I get a photograph, I said to Arte I'd walk it, but it was maybe still 3 fields away and in the patchy mist.
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| Spanish Imperial Eagle |
So I got some images but not the best but given the distance and weather conditions, it's ok and confirmed.
About this area
Given the recent rainfall and disaster in Venencia. I would have expected the seasonal lakes would be full of water.
But that's not the case there are no seasonal lakes up here. All have mostly disappeared and it's been that way for a year or two. Petrola is still evaporating and mostly lost half of its water. With very few birds.
There is one other lake with water which had lost lots of water but still has Birds on it.
This is only the second time in 22 years of birding I've not connected with Great Bustard the last time was earlier this year (springtime)
My thoughts are it's Climate change. Great Bustard is always associated with some water with the continued drought they moved on to somewhere else.
With a difficult day behind us but rewarding, we went to Yecla hoping things would improve there. We worked hard and covered the miles and were repaid with a very nice Ring-tailed Hen Harrier Black Wheatear, Corn Bunting, heard only Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, more than 60 more Chough
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| Ring-tailed Hen Harrier |
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| Ring-tailed Hen Harrier |
A full day of birding of more than 12 hours with a few rare birds under the belt and lots of miles covered.
The last morning
The plan? Get to San Felipe and bird back to GA
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| Little Bitten |
We struggled with 3 Coach loads of children which in my mind is good to get the kids interested in wildlife but negative for birding.
Our fault? We Should have been there earlier. And there was lots of maintenance going on cutting of reed and margins so birding was poor. We cut our losses and headed home
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| Booted Eagle |
Not the best birding day. Some mega highlights but that's birding for you.
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| Booted Eagle |
I've not mentioned every bird seen but ended up with 91+ species for the 4 days and considering the elements which were always against us it's not so bad with 2 mega's thrown in.
Photos to follow
Cheers Bryan
Go birding and make some new
Have fun