Very late update of our birding exploits

Hi there everybody hope you're having a good day

I've been a bit slow getting the news out the main reason? some computer problems which have taken time to solve. 

but also I've had a stomach bug which has left me lethargic.

So I am gonna keep my summary brief of what I've been up too.

Maigmo Mountain

Iberian Red Squirrel

Everything you would expect to see with the small birds of Maigmo the highlight of the day was Goshawk and Bonelli's Eagle.

Returning through the Valley of Montnegre, again no sign of Trumpeter Finch,  but we did see this Black eared Wheatear, most summer migrate have moved on.

Black eared Wheatear

The Clot Wetlands

The madness continues, the feeding frenzy continues! day and Night,  4 Purp's still present Night Herons galore, as well loads of little Bitten and some stunning fly past of Kingfishers.

At the Reed Hide loads of Reed Warbler and Great reed Warbler,

Reed Warbler

and at the popular hide, the usual suspect's White-headed Duck and Marbled Duck. Surprise of the day was a Sedge Warbler who put in an appearance with prolonged close views which made a fitting end to our day.

Sedge Warbler

 I've seen Sedge Warbler before at the Clot, but not for a long time. Hopefully, they are now a recurring migrant for the Clot now the water level are higher, I'll be keeping a watch full eye to confirm it?

Sedge Warbler

Sedge Warbler

Have a great day
Cheers
BT

Marbled Duck

For a more in-depth review of our birding exploits
See John Edward excellent blog
Link below

John Edwards blog

Fly through McDonalds at the Clot

 Just when you thought it couldn't get any better it just did. Just after first light at the Clot, John and I watched in ore the feeding spectacle of Hundreds of Black-headed Gulls, shepherding fish into the corners of the reed bed

With a similar number Little Egret, and some Cattle Egrets. Thrown in the mix at least 12 + Night Heron possible double that number.  Lots of Little Bitten and at least 20+ Squacco Heron, also a few Purple Heron, 1 Great White Egret and 5 Grey Herons.
Herding the shoals of fish into the shallows.
 And the feeding frenzy began.

Black-headed Gulls
 

It was mad to watch for over an hour, the noise from the Gulls and Herons was deafening.

I've mentioned before that there no shortage of small fish fry,  it's like a fly-through McDonald's with free fish.

Black-headed Gulls

Also there Whiskered Tern,  Kingfisher,  Black-necked Grebe,   Great-crested Grebe, White-headed Duck,  Turtle Doves,  12 Marbled Duck,  Great reed Warbler, Reed Warbler,  Bee-eaters,  some small stuff like Long-tailed Tits, Etc.

Squacco Heron

Above us in the sky, all the usual Hirundines.  Surprised to see good numbers of Sand Martin doing there acrobatics which was good, but fewer numbers of Pallid Swifts,
 

 Great White Egret
record shot
 

I've not mentioned every bird seen or heard but there's lots going on at the Clot.

Not a bad list for a quick morning, birding.  And a full set of Heron's under the belt in under 3 hours and back home by 10 o'clock can't be bad.

Purple Heron

 I'm a little concerned that the water level has dropped about a meter and a half maybe more, which will be good for the returning Waders come the Autumn, I just hope this hasn't been one-off flooding of the Clot?

Black-necked Grebe

I didn't get to many photos as light levels we're low and most had some movement blur.  Birds we're jumping around like they were possessed.  I didn't help things, as my decision to take a medium telephoto lens wasn't right.

 Marbled Duck
 

Totally Bonkers

Have a great day

Cheers BT

The Sky at Night

Montnegre at night

And so the NBBC had another go for Owls and Nightjars and also a bit of Astrophotography around the area of the lone tree.

A male Black-eared wheatear, perch up long enough for us to get on it.  The Trumpeter Finch site didn't produce a single bird, maybe they've moved on already?

Swallows, Craig Martin's, and Red Rump's we're hawking insects along the length of the track till dusk not a single Swift was seen compared to 3 weeks ago when the evening sky was full of them, 

Teatime and a Slab of fruit cake, "nice" deck chairs out,  cameras set up for the Night Sky,  listening and waiting for the darkness.

2 Common Pipistrelle Bat's entertained us as the light ebbed away, then the screech of a Little Owl a new bird for the Valley Montnegre, nothing mega I know but nice to confirm there up here.

The light level was almost there for night sky photography, I heard a faint Scops Owl, but John and Michelle missed it,  luckily the bird or another started calling at quite close range, another new bird for Montnegre. Red-necked Nightjar we're heard calling.

The Plough on the left and Cassiopeia on the right

It was now black enough for Night Sky Photography 

 but we had to be quick as a cloud bank was approaching and blocking the stars out.

As the clouds took control we call it a day, I mean night and packed up.

The plough

Heading back down the track hoping to see a Nightjar sat in the road, but not single bird along the full length of the tarmac road.

As we head back to the coast and at the Alicante end of the road the Sky's had cleared so we thought we'd quickly give the night sky one more go, I took a few shots and nothing just black, I said to Michelle I've got nothing no stars or sky?  Michele said change your ISO speed, which I'd done more photos of blackness Michelle said I've got nothing as well.

I said do a longer exposure?

I bet Sir Patrick Moor of the Sky at Night didn't have these problems.

Thanks to him for getting me interested as a young boy in the Heavens,  Star Gazing and the Planets.  And the Sky at Night.

Legend
And the Man
Sir Patrick Moore OBE

More photos of blackness and the same for Michelle.  A car drove past as a long exposure was happening, I thought at least I'll have headlight trails in the photo, but No! more of the blackness

Then it slowly dawned on me "I said"   I've only left the bloody lens cap on. Michelle started laughing at me and then realized she done the same thing

What a pair numpties.

We fell about laughing. John was shaking his head at us and mumbling number of expletives like amateurs! Call your self photographers! Etc.

3 Golden rules of night sky photography

      1 remove the lens cap

2 press the shutter

3 point the lens up

Enjoyable light hearted evening and night.  A few photos of the back of the lens cap some big belly laughs must cock it up some other time
Unbelievable 

2 New birds for the valley of Montnegre can't be bad

Have fun and enjoy

Cheers BT

Diablo's infreno

Phew, it's hot by the middle of the day.

Luckily John and I were out earlyish for a quick run around the Santa Pola Salinas, all the usual suspect's are around, as you'd expect for this time of year,  5 species of Tern,  Black-headed Gull, Mediterranean Gull,  Slender-billed Gull, Yellow-legged Gull, a Purple Heron briefly rose above the reed beds before dropping out of sight.

An Osprey perched on a power pylon, Collared Pratincole sat in some dry out areas along the Salinas. 

El Pinnet

For some reason, El Pinnet was incredibly humid. On the water,  Black-tailed Godwits, some in summer plumage, plenty of noisy Avocets  and

Black-winged Stilts.

 Black-tailed Godwits

A European Roller flew over the car and perch up long enough for a few photos, interestingly the Roller was leg ringed with the K2. I was wondering where this bird was ringed and where it's travelled from.

European Roller

 Heading further in the land to Sante Aguada and searching for flooded fields, no luck there. It's very dry everywhere and the ground is baked hard.

An adult Black-crowned Night Heron sat in the top of a tree and showed off.

Black-crowned Night Heron

 There's the emergence of plain Tiger Butterfly, all nice and fresh-looking.

And that was about. Today's birding was only quick check around to see if things were on the move or have changed. The only new bird was the Osprey which we've not seen for several months around this area?

Only a few weeks and the Pallid Swifts will be thinking of moving on?

Have a great day

Cheers BT.

Birding don't stop just because it's hot

El Clot Wetlands

Today 24th 

Not expecting to see anything new for El Clot today?  I was excited to see at close range two adult Kingfisher pretending to be Cruise Missile's zooming around chasing each other.  Kingfisher's are very territorial and will see off any potential rivals.  As far as I am aware they shouldn't normally be around at this time of year. It's the only time I've seen Kingfishers in the peak of the summer in all the years of birding the Clot, Normally a winter visitor or a breeding bird a bit further north and even further afield.

Kingfisher record shot

Kingfisher photo
From 2019

I'll put money on it they've breed at El Clot this season.  No reason not too as there's an abundant supply of small fish and Tadpoles
Possible new breeding bird for the Clot.

We had the most amazing views of a Juvenile Little Bitten which came out of nowhere and walked around the front of the new hide.  I couldn't focus on it as it was that close and under my minimum focusing distance of 4 meters for my Canon 600f4 lens. It was only 2 meters away,  I backed off and got one headshot off, amazing views! Michelle luckily had the right lens and full framed the pint size Heron.

Little Bitten

The usual suspects were at El Clot.  At least 5 Purple Heron. I've seen Purple Heron all most every time that I've visited the Clot this season. Is it possible to think that Purple Heron has breed there this year? Normally you don't see hardly any Purple Heron after the Spring migration till the early Autumn or when they're on the return journey south. I now want to see a juvenile bird.

I've said it before the clot has been transformed because of re-flooding and because that the Clot is going to turn up a major rarity before not too long, I just hope I get to see it?

I've seen a warden type guy there very early most mornings, with a professional scope and binoculars maybe he's part of the Marbled Duck Reintroduction Program? Maybe he knows something, I don't know, who knows?

The Clot was buzzing with lots of activity

 Squacco Heron

Purple Heron, Black crowned Night Heron, Little Bittern, Squacco Heron, Little Egret, Cattle Egret. All very easy to see.

Black crowned Night Heron

Black crowned Night Heron

Tern's

Whiskered Tern, + Juveniles,  Common Terns,

Juvenile Whiskered Tern

Ducks +

White-headed Duck+ 4 young,  Marbled Duck+young,  Red-crested Pochard, Common Pochard, Shoverlers,  Mallard Duck. Great crested Grebe.

Juvenile Great crested Grebe

Others

A few Common Sandpiper showed, also Great reed Warbler, Reed Warblers, Zitting Cisticola, long-tailed Tit, Chiffchaff,  big numbers of Black-headed Gull,  mixed in the odd Mediterranean Gull, and Squadron's of Glossy Ibis.

Common Sandpiper

I've not mentioned every bird seen or heard

With only a few hours birding I felt we done well and seen lots.
More questions than answers

For a different view of today's birding

See John Edwards excellent Blog link below

  John Edwards Blog

Have a great day
Cheers BT

The Nightshift

Night Hawking 

Montnegra 

 Normally we're looking to do early morning birding,  but not this evening on  22nd July we were out looking for Nightbirds, the kind with feathers, not lady's of the night.

We checked out the Trumpeter Finch site it wasn't too long before a Trumpet showed up,  5 different birds showed in total, most in well-worn plumage.

Male Trumpeter Finch

 I'm definitely dropping the elusive bit about these Finch's, as they are not elusive anymore.

Female Trumpeter Finch

  It was good at the Finch site with different birds popping in to keep us occupied, lots of common birds, doing the Dominic Cummings and goings.

I think now its a
Moulting male Black-eared Wheatear? Not an easy ID given the plumage

Juvenile Turtle Dove

The daylight ebbed away and darkness slowly drifted in.  Swifts we're still flying in the twilight and among them an Alpine Swift.  Bats started to appear the Nightshift had begun.

  The noisy Cicada insect stopped singing their bland repetitive one syllable song as the daylight faded.  Peace at last, an eerie quietness began thank God. Now at least we could hear?

Cicada

Saturn and Jupiter dominated the rising eastern night sky, and in the west, a waxing Crescent Moon was a illuminated.

 Jupiter and some of its Moons

Waxing Crescent Moon

Red-necked Nightjar started sounding off and distant whirring sound of European Nightjar We listened intently for any owl, but it wasn't to be tonight,  I'm pretty sure there are Owls here in the Valley.  Maybe we might have to persevere and explore a bit more?

Red-necked Nightjar

Returning down the road

Red-necked Nightjars and European Nightjar showed well,  resting on the road caught in the headlights of the car.

This is a fantastic dark area in the valley of Montnegra,  where millions of stars come out to play and light up the unbelievable night sky.

 And a great place for some as astrophotography

Massive Thanks, John and Michelle

Have fun

Cheers Bryan

A Shot in the dark

No Bins Bird Club

John and Michelle Edward and myself BT

Had an early start and were on the road to Montnegre well before dawn.  Some banter in the car about the footy and Covid 19 and face masks and Hancock's Half Hour of bull shit.  Talk turned to Birds and Birds missing from our year list, I said that I've not seen or heard any Nightjar so far this year? We also talked about a chance of a Short-toed Eagle today and Trumpeter Finch, and maybe even Black-eared Wheatear.  Little did we know what was to come?

As soon as we arrive we bumped into Nightjar's resting on the Tarmac road, also flying around us, we all definitely heard and seen Red-necked Nightjar and also managed this photo is of a European Nightjar? I only say its a European Nightjar because when it flew it had a dark leading edge to the wing.

European Nightjar?

Non-vocalising nightjars present a considerable problem

The identification of nightjars is arguably one of the most challenging dilemmas faced by birders, given the low light conditions

Red necked Nightjar from last year
thanks NBBC member Mark Etheridge.

As nocturnal visual hunters, nightjars have excellent eyesight and consequently, they are easily blinded with car headlights or are spot lamped and captured by hand or netted. This, together with their habit of resting on roads at night has become somewhat of an easy sport for some ( shooters)

Click the
 link below

Slaughter of Nightjars and Raptors

So I am not going to go into all the details of the ID of this Bird other than to say there are some good online guides which are very helpful in pointing out what to look for and  how to ID Nightjar.

At the Trumpet site we heard the contact calls of Trumpets Finch, we waited and waited for the best part of an hour, it was starting to get hot.

But No show? "time to move on" but not before first breakfast.

Some good birds were seen making our way along the bendy track.

After the Village of Montnegre, there was a good size colony of Bee-eaters

 luckily we managed some nice photos.

 Bee-eater

Juvenile Bee-eater

At the Lone Tree, we had decided to do a u-turn and go back the way we came and give the Trumpeters one more go. Second Breakfast was in order.

There was a Helicopter buzzing around,  I put my bins up to take a look at it, and I nearly choked on my cheese sandwich, as

an Alpine Swift came into view.

Unbelievable

Alpine Swift


Alpine Swift

I didn't believe it at first.  I even doubted myself?  Sandwich in my mouth I took a second look, I think there's Alpine Swift up there " I said"  munching the last bit of my swift cheese sandwich.  It wasn't easy to point the bird out with no reference point in the blue sky, but luckily we all got on the bird, not one but two birds. Later on some closer fly past's.

Happy Days. The 

Returning down the track to the Trumpeter site.  A single Trumpet flew in and perched up, at the very same moment a Short-toed Eagle appeared, very close maybe only 50 meter away and low in the air,  John called it, " where'd that come from I said" everybody out.

Short-toed Eagle


  Amazing views and so close, right over our heads, And with everybody out the car watching the Eagle.

Short-toed Eagle


 The Trumpet Finch flushed, but it did return later on.

What a great day

To be honest
We've never managed to be at Montnegre before dawn but it just goes to show you that's there's so much more to this
 amazingly beautiful Valley that you can imagine

After the sunsets, the Nightshift move's in
Now it's got me thinking?  I bet there's Eagle Owl and Barn Owl even a Scope Owl in the valley maybe it's time for some Night Hawking
Watch this space!

Go Birding make some news

Have fun 

Cheers 

NBBC

For a more complete review of our Morning's Birding
See JE excellent blog
Click link below

John Edwards.blog