SIERRA DE SALINAS ALICANTE

Hi there and good morning everybody

 I've been so busy and I've got lots going on and so, unfortunately, I've not had the time to write my blog as I would like to, so this time to keep the news up to date, I'd like to redirect you to my friend's excellent blog,  for the news, 

it's because of the massive rainstorm over the weekend. This has caused some major problems for me.

Today we did however have the company of CBBC's Malcolm Plamer (A legend)

 who helped us along the way and guided us to through some unknown area's, 

 see the link below for a full rundown of what's was seen.

The link below Notes from a Birder and Writer.

John Edwards

And my photos below

Greater Short-toed Lark

Tawny Pipit

Short-toed Eagle

It's a bit crazy that we've come full circle and our unintentional offshoot off CBBC has evolved and our very small group, the NBBC  (No bins bird club ) are grateful to CBBC for putting like-minded people together.

Have a great fun day

Yeckla or local Patch thats the Question ?

 

Well our local patch won

Good morning everybody, and we decide to do our normal route which normally produces a good number of species.

 Great white Egret, Squacco, and Purple Heron, Collared Pratincoles, plus 25 pairs of little Tern under the belt, and all at our first stop. Looks like the majority of migrant waders have now gone through and only the breeding birds are left.

Collared Pratincole

We did however have a Peregrine Falcon On a power pylon, which we watch for some considerable time? But couldn't turn it into anything else.

Collared Pratincole

Today there were several moments throughout our day, the first moment was connecting with Great-spotted Cuckoo, not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, not 5, but probably 6 including the heards, also Common Cuckoo calling for most of the day, all very showy and vocal.

Great-spotted Cuckoo

Great-spotted Cuckoos

Our next prolonged moment was the at least 4 displaying European Rollers, performing all over the place, and aerial, not happy and with the close proximity of nesting Common Kestrels in the same building, it was havoc. But great to watch the aerial combat.

 European Roller

 European Roller

 European Roller

Bee-eater

Bee-eaters  we're also very prominent. 

Other bird was seen well

Whiskered Tern may be 70+ birds, lots Common Tern, Audouin's Gull, Mediterranean Gull, thousands of Slender-billed Gulls, and Common Tern, Little Owl. Yellow Wagtails.

Audouin's Gull

We had a look at the historical Carabassi site for Rufous scrub Robin but no luck there it's not the first time I've been there this spring, it's close to my casa, so I visit regularly but no show, I guess it will be claimed there at some point, we did have a good show of long-tailed Tit family Also spotted Flycatcher, Woodchat Shrike.

A rather cute juv  Long-tailed Tit

Lovely weather hot and sunny

Have a great day

don't know

Cheers

Bryan 

Boarders Open at Last

 

October 2019 was the last time we visited.  Corral Rubio, Bonete,  Petrola, Higueruela,

And with the borders open today. We were off, an early start and raining as we left Gran Alicante.

Our target bird for today, Great Bustard, and Little Bustard, one hour twenty minutes later we were birding, Calandra Lark, Lesser Short-toed Lark, under the belt.

Lesser Short-toed Lark

 It wasn't too long before we connected with Great Bustard only 4 to start with, later another 28, and one flypast of Little Bustard. There's been lots of rain up there and all the seasonal lakes are full to overflowing.

Great Bustard

Great Bustard

Waders

 Kentish Plover

 Kentish Plover, LRP,  summer plumage Redshank, Common Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper, Stone Curlew, Avocet, Black-winged Stilt, Lapwing,

Summer plumage Redshank

Duck

Red-crested Pochard, Shoveler, Gadwall,  Pochard, White-headed Duck, Shell Duck, Mallard,

Other birds seen

Bonelli's Warbler,

Wood Lark, Yellow Wagtail, Corn Bunting, Black Wheatear,  Bonelli's Warbler, Lesser Kestrel, Rock Sparrow, Rock Dove, Black-necked, Great-crested, and Little Grebe, Great reed Warbler, Marsh Harrier, Buzzard, Woodchat Shrike, Mistle Thrush, Thekla's Lark

 Mistle Thrush

Whisker and Gull-billed Tern around in good numbers and thousands

of Greater Flamingo. 

Greater Flamingo

Greater Flamingo

Heard Only 

4 Quail, and Great-spotted Woodpecker, Nightingale, Tree Creeper,

There were some notable absentee's like Eagles and Sandgrouse and Golden Oriole,  well we've got to leave something for next time. My favourite moment of the day was the fields full of wild poppies flowers,

 Stunning.

 wild poppies flowers

I've not mentioned every bird seen?

Make some news and have a great week.

Lesser Kestrel

Cheers

Bryan

Xixona

 

Recce to Xixona

An interesting day and we plan to revisit soon, Xixona looks like it's got the potential to turn up a good bird?

 Today's recce only turned up the expected mountain birds. The outstanding moment of the day was this amazing singing Dartford Warbler, and Melodious Warbler.

The sweets came out, for this tiny but beautiful bird and the Oscar's winning performance, Definitely won the male leading actor award.

Dartford Warbler

Dartford Warbler

Melodious Warbler

Update

5th May

Today a visit to Montnegra? But not the normal route you'd expect, a completely new route and too an unknown area. I have to say this new place blew my mind, and everybody else,  many thank Malcolm Palmer CBBC, for his knowledge of the area which is astounding, Malcolm joined us today to show this historical site for Trumpeter Finch, although no sign today,  I feel very confident it will turn up a good bird or two or even three in the future. 

First breakfast.

It was a lovely day birding with like-minded friends. We shared info,  birding stories, from way back, it was great,  We will do it again at some point.

A short detour and Wethear's were out again 5 Trumpets and also 2 Black-eared Wheatears.

Not a big bird list but does it matter?

The company more than made up for the lack of birds

Trumpeter Finch

Black-eared Wheatear

With news that the border restrictions are about to be lifted, it will be good to see some wide-open spaces

Have fun

Cheers

BT

El Clásico

Wednesday 28th

We mostly have good birding days, we put in the time and considerable effort, but every now and then we earn EL Clásico

John and Michelle, Gareth, and myself

The four Amigos went Birding.

And today was one of them, Clásico we started early at El Recórral Night and Squacco Heron showed well, a common cuckoo was calling and they were often heard during the day, also seen our first Woodchat Shrike of the day.

Night Heron

On to Benejuzar not too far away.

I like this place as it offers easy birding by just rolling along the track and good photo opportunity's 

On arrival.

First breakfast and Nightingales were singing everywhere, difficult to estimate, but they're lots and a few very showy individuals, Cettis Warbler, Reed Warbler, along the river bank. Overhead Bee-eaters.  The sound of European Cuckoo was constant with the odd fly past.

Nightingale

"Unbelievable"

Melodious Warbler

A Melodious Warbler put on a show as it flitted from tree to tree this was another classic moment, the sweets came out, several Melodious were seen or heard this morning.

Melodious Warbler
There were yellow flower all around this bird giving an unusual green / yellow colour cast

Golden Oriole was singing and we have probably seen 8 + in total either in flight or perched up, it's not unusual to connect with Golden Oriole around there, on. Turtle Doves we're common. 6 + Woodchat shrike seen today.

Bad photo of a good Bird

John and Michelle had to leave for an appointment 

Turtle Dove

Gareth and I carried on through San Felipe and eventually ending at the back of La Marina, we stopped for a singing Corn Bunting on top of some reeds, and then we heard a Qual calling, Gareth then said what do you think this is?

It was over a field away and no scope between us, well I said it's either a common Redstart or Whinchat, So I walked the field as it turned out it was whinchat and what a beauty it was, these birds are a little bit of a scarcity 

   as we don't see many coming through.

another bad photo of a good Bird
I must try harder.

A Monitor Lizard cross our path and was very well marked I was wondering if these lizards have breeding colours as it was so well marked, it was big,  we finished off with a brace of European Rollers.

European Roller

I've not mentioned every bird, as it's a big list

El Clásico

Monitor Lizard?

Enjoy your birding and have some fun

Cheers Bryan

Birding Santa Pola Salinas and Surronding Area

Friday 24th

A good mornings Birding and a big list, so I'll keep it brief and to the best bits, crossing the Salinas stopping at the usual points.

Great crested Grebe

Great white Egret, Purple Heron, lots of Curlew Sandpipers, Collared Pratincoles, Ruff and Reeves, Black tailed Godwits, Wood Sandpiper, the expected arrival of Terns, and some very Smart Yellow Wagtails.

 Yellow Wagtail

First breakfast at El Pinnet was uneventful except for the colony of Common Tern and a mega colony of Slender-billed Gulls, but we did bump into our friend and researcher from the university and exchanged some interesting info.

Gull-billed Tern

We had an amazing few minutes with a Great-spotted Cuckoo, out came the sweets in celebration, Bee-eaters perched up and a Woodchat Shrike sat up nicely for a photo, also Turtle Dove.

Great-spotted Cuckoo

Great-spotted Cuckoo

2nd breakfast watching Gull-billed Terns and another Great-spotted Cuckoo dropped in to say hello, quite a few Corn Bunting calling,  plus 2 more Woodchats.

Woodchat Shrike

Marbled Duck

We did pop into to San Felipe, but left shortly after,  as there were two coach loads of children ages 6 to 10 having great fun and a nature lesson on site,  I wish that I could of been encouraged at that age to get involved into nature.

Long-tailed Tit 

Interestingly did you know

The Long-tailed Tit is not a typical Tit, in fact it isn’t actually a Tit at all! It turns out that the long-tailed is more closely related to the babblers of India and Southeast Asia than it is to the Blue Tits and Great Tits that we associate it with.

Bee-eater

Have a great weekend

Cheers BT

Fake News

    Misuse of Images and Fabricated Bird Sightings

Google Reverse Image Search is a powerful tool for uncovering the origins of photographs online. By uploading an image to Google Images, you can quickly find visually similar photos, locate the original source, and often determine when and where the picture first appeared.

For journalists, this helps verify authenticity and publication dates. For photographers, it’s a way to track whether their work is being reused without permission.

Unfortunately, fake news doesn't only appear in politics or media—it’s now making its way into bird sightings, birding websites, and even wildlife photography. It’s disappointing to see individuals feeling the need to fabricate sightings or use stolen photos to support claims.

I know several birders who have spent valuable time searching for species based on these reports, only to discover that the supporting images were not legitimate. The website involved has repeatedly used photos taken from elsewhere on the internet to bolster false sightings.

The most recent example involves a supposed Trumpeter Finch photographed at Montnegre. However, a simple reverse-image search reveals that the photo is actually from Morocco, April 2010, taken by photographer Michel Carré.

Here is the source:

The original image can be found here:

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

This confirms that the photo used to support the alleged Montnegre sighting was not produced locally and does not correspond to the date or location claimed.

Implications

While the individual or website responsible has not been publicly identified here, repeated incidents of this nature risk leading to the perception of intentional deception. In birding terminology, such behaviour is often associated with the term stringer—someone who knowingly falsifies sightings rather than making unintentional identification errors.

These practices can erode trust within the birding community and diminish the reliability of local reports, which many birders depend on for planning fieldwork, travel, and species monitoring.

Conclusion

The exposure of falsified sightings through reverse image search underscores the importance of verification in the digital age. Birders are encouraged to make use of available tools to confirm the authenticity of images and reports. With widespread attention—nearly 105,130 views on Birding Costa Blanca at the time of writing—it is hoped that greater transparency will discourage the spread of misleading information.