The search for the Snakebird.

Today at the Clot De Galvany

The 4 Amigos searched for the Snakebird with at least 3 Snakebirds present in the last week, to be honest, it only took a few minutes for one to popped out, a tick in the book of life for Michelle, and a year tick for John. It was flushed by a Blackbird and flew a long way out of sight.

Wryneck Bird 1
Notice how lightly barred the breast pattern is compared with bird 3

Only moments later another bird perched in a dead tree, close by and easy to pick out. 

(Michelle found this one and as a lifer for Michelle it's now her turn to buy the beer?) and not a Werther's moment in sight we got to get organised?

Unbelievable 

Wryneck Bird 2

En route to the big hide, yet another Wryneck perched up for us.

Bird 3
Notice the feather pattern above the eye is different from Bird 2 and Bird 1 and the spots in the wing is different to Bird 2

At the big hide, Malcolm Palmer (CBBC) sneaked in, arriving in incognito and so we didn't recognise him until he spoke, good job we weren't talking about him, it could have been very embarrassing moment, he mention that he'd seen a late Common Redstart, at the dry hide so, later on, we went to check it out, on the way a flyover of yet another Wryneck.

I was the only one, to see this bird?

I caught up with one of the wardens of the Clot De Galvany and reported our sighting and my thoughts on why Wryneck have returned. 

And so after reviewing my images I'm sure that I've  photography at least 4 Different Wrynecks, seen my earlier post from 22nd the Wryneck photo and feather detail doesn't match any of the October 26th images?

 For year's the big pool has been dry and only the smallest amount of water there, till the Gota Fria September 2019 click link below to see the blog and images and we all know what happens in 2020--- Covid19

But could I remind everybody the reality of  Global Warming its here,

 Thing have changed and all the sign are there for all to see.

Gota Fria Sept 2019

 So I think it's all to do with the water that's accumulated in the big seasonal lakes, Almost every Wryneck I've ever seen has occurred close to water for instance seen at San Felipe or other places or in a sandy path or close to a dry stone walls licking up Ants

The usual suspects were there but no sign of the Ferruginous Duck?

 see my earlier blog post 

For species list

Wrynecks are in the woodpecker family, but I don't think they exactly fit in, at least at first glance in the family of Woodpeckers

For one, they don't peck wood. Instead, they nest in holes that other species have laboriously excavated for themselves. And unlike their tree-drilling brethren, Wrynecks forage on the ground, using there exceedingly  long tongues to slurp the fat-rich Ants

Nice birding morning 

With Mark, John, Michelle, also good to catch up with Malcolm Palmer

Where to next week?

Have a great day

Cheers Bryan 

A late local update

News from last week

I mentioned in my previous post my birding friend Trevor returned to Spain for the first time since March 2020, when the Covid Pandemic and lockdown for the UK and Spain came into force. Last week unfortunately it also coincided with the busiest time of the year for me. With the welcomed return of family not seen for almost 2 years, (where the time gone?)  and with singing and with different events going on I'm burning the candle on both ends.

So It's late news from last week, apologies for this and just a summary, and  I've not mentioned ever bird seen.

Santa Pola Salinas and including El Pinet 

45 + Great white Egret, lots of Spoonbill 100s +++  Marsh Harriers, Waders seen Ruff, Wood Sandpiper, Common Sands, Little Stint, Dunlin, Sanderling,  Avocet  Black-tailed Godwits,  both Shanks,  LRP and Ringed Plover, Yellow Wagtails, Collared Pratincoles,  Terns, Whiskered and Sandwich, and a very late Common, lesser Black-backed Gull, Mediterranean Gull.

Mediterranean Gull

On the mountain of  Maigmo and Montnegre mostly all the tits and lesser Short-toed Tree Creeper,  stand out moment was, 3 woodlarks, a beautiful bird.

Woodlark

Woodlark

No sigh of any Trumpeter Finch, or any Raptors at Montnegra but Blue Rock Thrush, Black Wheatear Rock Sparrow, lots of Griffon Vultures,

The Colt De Galvany 

White-headed Duck

Friendly  Disagreement 

The usual quacker we're there, amazing numbers of Marbled Duck 38+ the reintroduction has worked well and next year brood will be tickable and free-flying.  1 Ferruginous Duck? Gadwall,  Kingfishers, Little Bittern, Squacco Heron, Night Herons, also the least 3 Wryneck calling they've been there a week so?

record image Ferruginous Duck?

To be honest, the Clots may be better than San Felipe VC for sighting and more importantly the water quality, it is good and clear, I've mentioned this several times before about San Felipe and the toxic blueish colours in the water? 

Wryneck

If the Clot was watched more it would surely have a better list of birds and after saying that there is a big increase in birders, photographers, camera clubs, Spanish, Europeans, and UK birders, visiting the Clot, it's good to see.

San Felipe 

Little Egret

Not much bird news to report, the water levels have been lowered for reed cutting so there is plenty of mud but few birds, because I guess of the disturbance  3 obliging Spoonbill which has been there almost a week,

Spoonbill

  a very confiding  Bluethroat, several seen during the morning.  Spotted Redshank, Green Sandpiper, Dark phase Booted Eagle, Tree Sparrows, lots of Little Egrets and Glossy Ibis, a few of groups of Penduline Tits but nothing mega?

Bluethroat

Bluethroat

Glad to see that the extensive liar liar graffiti and has been painted over in the hides at San Felipe I've no idea who it's meant for?

Booted Eagle

Dark Phase Booted Eagle

On a lighter note, on returning to the car at San Felipe,  Mark opened the car doors with the remote,  letting the hot air out, no problem we thought, till he wanted to put the keys in the ignition, no sign of the keys, Mark scratching his head? I said it's got to be in your pocket somewhere, but no?  Several body searches of pocket and still no sign of the bloody keys,  It's got to be in your man bag we turned out the man bag, no sign of the bloody keys, we even search under and around the car in case he'd drop them, but no!  We pulled at the back seat and looked under the front seat, on the floor, had it slipped down under the seat but no

Unbelievable 

After a tense few minutes, of scratching our heads we found them on the roof of the car in the little channel which guides the water away from the roof.

Senior moment sorted

Hunter Moon

Have fun

Make some news

Cheers Bryan

The Clot

Just a quick update of the Clot

A few hour hours watching the quackers, with Mathew, Mark, Michelle, and John.  Its sounding like something out of the Gospels?  All the usual suspects were there with a few additions like Purple Heron roosted in a distant tree, 3 Night Herons in another roost, also a few Squacco Heron.

Black necked Grebe

Squacco Heron.

A very distant raptor appeared, initially, I thought to Booted Eagle,but then I back off the ID of Booted and the thought, mmm maybe Osprey? I felt sure it would come over the water of the Clot but it drifted on.

Booted Eagle

When I checked the photos on returning home it was a Booted Eagle which answer the question of why the bird didn't come to water?

Marsh Harrier, Kingfishers, Reed Warblers, a Fudge Duck showed very briefly before disappearing.  Mark had seen and photograph it the previous day, it might be a cross / hybrid type, we'll be keeping a lookout for this bird?

Night Herons

Quite a few late Sand Martins some House Martins and plenty of Swallows going through.

Trevor returns to Spain next week it will be good to see him and go birding

and a reunion of the NBBC

make some news

Cheers Bryan 

The three Amigos go Yecla

   

   Monday the 27th

Our last visit to Yecla was in October 2019, we were keen to see what had changed there?

Arriving as the sun came up and the half moon still a big presence in the sky, and a very cool 10 degrees, it's first time I've felt cold since February. 

Habit

There's lots more uncultivated fields, good for the seed eaters, perhaps it a hangover from Covid, we passed only 2 motor cars in 6 Hours of birding and nobody working the fields, except for the shepherd and his flock of 200 hundred sheep.

Lots of Magpies and hundreds of Woodpidgeon everywhere.  A pair of Thekla's Lark showed nicely and sat around long enough to observe all the features and get some photographs, in fact only one Crested Lark was seen during the day. 

Thekla Lark

Charms of Gold Finch 150+ in several places, Linnet, in good numbers, Tree Sparrow, Rock Sparrow, Corn Bunting, Little Owl, Black Wheatear, 6 Northern Wheatear,  a Common Redstart in a pine tree plantation, heard only Pin-tailed Sandgrouse and Calandra Lark.

Tree Sparrow

Our moment of the day came as we were watching 3 possibly 4 Lesser Kestrels when a Golden Eagle drifted by, John said there's a second bird much further away,

Golden Eagle

Lesser Kestrels 

 I took a few record shots of the second bird, checking the screen on the back of camera, it turned out to be a Short-toed Eagle, and unbelievable the bird then headed straight towards us stopping only to circle above the car and very obliging, and enough time for a few photos.  Later on a few Buzzard.

Short-toed Eagle

The only other moment of the day was the sheer numbers of migrating Swallows all heading one way south, a good number of Jackdaw and in the mix the odd Chough,

By the time we headed for home about 2 o'clock, it was 27 degrees and at the coast 31 degrees

A fun day out, plenty of Banter over common crane pidgeon?

A few slabs of fruit cake and tea scanning the vistas unfortunately the Weathers caramel sweets original stayed hidden and didn't come out, but the liquorice sweet made up for it?

 the other two members of the NBBC  John and Mark need an eye test?

Should have gone Specsavers?

Have fun

Cheers BT

Back birding after summer recess

I have to apologise to all the followers of my blog. For not keeping the blog up to date of late.

Its been just too hot for me to go birding through the peak summer months, and to be honest, I don't think I've missed anything of any significance or any thing that matters, we've had a brilliant spring migration and we've seen most everything you would expect to see plus more.

Wood Sandpipers

It's been a busy few months keeping he tourist entertained. (Singing) And with John and Michelle being away in the UK for a family wedding  we've missed several weeks birding, and with Gareth house hunting and out of loop we've missed him.

So we've had 2 mornings birding, it was great just to be out there, with John and Mark of the NBBC, great to have the banter back, and with like-minded people. And so a quick summary of some of the birds seen.

An escaped Oranged cheeked Cockatiel had me scratching my head for a while, till I recognised the call.  Year's ago I did have an escaped bird ( joey ) that came to my house twice a day for about a year for breakfast and dinner till he vanished maybe the millet seed wasn't up to scratch?

Oranged cheeked Cockatiel
( joey )

  Whinchat, and hundreds of Yellow Wagtails around the fields of Catral,  also Stone Curlew, Little-ringed Plover, 3 Wood Sandpipers, Ruff, 50 + Bee-eaters, Booted Eagle, Bluethroat, Collared Pratincole, plus all the usual suspects,

Whinchat

Yellow Wagtail

Stone Curlew

 Bee-eater

El Clot

Interesting morning but nothing mega to report, but plenty of quackers there, 8 Gadwall lots of White-headed Duck, Marbled Teal, Shovelers,  Common Pochard, a few Kingfisher pretending to be cruise missiles, Spotted Flycatchers, Reed Warblers, Snipe, Marsh Harrier, Glossy Ibis. Little and Black-necked Grebe. It's only going to get better as autumn progress?

Black-necked Grebe

John suggested a quick look at the Santa Pola Salinas was in order, I'm glad we did as it was quite a good decision.

 Caspian Tern

We pick out in the Black-headed Gull roost a Caspian Tern, which is a good find for us, a few lesser Black-backed Gulls in the mix, 

Osprey

2 Ospreys circled overhead, which gave us a photo opportunity,  a canteen of 37+ Spoonbills did a flypast,  Great white Egrets, Turnstones, Sanderling, Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank, Greenshank, Collared Pratincoles,  Audouin Gulls, and a point-blank Cettis warbler under the minimum focusing distance

Osprey

. And on the beach at El Pinet lots of Sandwich Tern and some Great Tits on the beach,  they always seemed to be in pairs? and double what you'd see in the pine forests of Maigmo Mountain.

 Unbelievable

Going to go back at some point and look for a Bearded Tit?

Turnstone

Let see what next week brings 

Make some news

Glad to be back online, have fun

Cheers BT.

The Longest Day

Monday 21st the Longest Day

Good morning

John Edward and I both commented on the blueness of the mountains around Montnegra today  I'm always going on about this Valley it's stunning up here?

More exploration and a definite new potential site for Trumpeter Finch, we'll be keeping an eye on this place and let you know how it pans out? I think we've covered all parts of this Valley, from all sides there's not a track that we've not been down or a village not explored.

 Montnegra does never produce a big list of birds in this valley sometimes there's a raptor or two, and it's mostly what you would expect to see, I must have birded this Valley hundreds of time over the last  15 years regularly. Other site's claim to see more birds, but there's never, ever anything photos to prove the sightings (it's a big list of fictitious birds with no substance) mostly a load of bollocks full of Bullshit and fake news. I could write the same crap watching Emmerdale

 I've got my first birding tour since late 2019  pre covid, it's only 9 birders/photographers from Holland an on and off sort of a week with them, where they choose to do their own thing or go birding/butterfly's so glad that I've been chosen to take them around I have taken the same Dutch birding group around some time ago.

Montnegra Today

Dusky Heath 

A classic Iberian butterfly, spilling over into the South of France and Italy, the dusky heath is a creature of hot, dusty tracks, bushy wasteland and sun-soaked, rocky hillsides. It is common in Spain - usually seen settled on paths or perched on vegetation and twigs near the ground. Although this particular butterfly might have a local variation, see the photo? Like all heaths, it only ever settles with the underside showing, but fortunately, this is quite sufficient for easy identification. Because of the outward displacement of the spot in s.5,

Copper Demoiselle Male

Copper Demoiselle Female

Keeled Skimmer

This species resembles the Black-tailed Skimmer but is slimmer and the male has no black tip. Females and immature males lack the black abdominal pattern. The pterostigma is orange and the thorax usually bears pale stripes. It breeds mainly in fast-flowing streams and flies from June to September. This dragonfly is common in central and southern Europe. Its flight is quite skittish, with frequent hovering, and it lands often. It can fly quite a distance from water, despite its seemingly weak flight. When it perches, the wings are held forward.

Birds seen

Trumpeter Finch, Blue Rock Thrush, Black Wheatear, Rock Sparrow, Corn Bunting, Chough, Bee-eater, Spotted Flycatcher, Nightingale, Black-eared Wheatear, Red-rumped Swallow,

Trumpeter Finch looking tatty

Corn Bunting

Red-legged Partridge

Spotted Flycatcher

A nice morning birding 

In the mountains

Shame no raptors?

Have fun

Cheers Bryan 

Bird of the Century

My old mates and birding friends on the Isles of Scilly have just made history they just found a Mega Bird, not just a mega but a mega of mega's ?

Egyptian vulture has been seen in the UK for the first time in what is believed to be more than 150 years.

The bird in question is Egyptian Vulture Described as a "once-in-a-century" sighting, it is thought it may have come to the Isles of Scilly from Northern France.

Egyptian Vulture Tresco Isles of Scilly

If the "incredibly rare" sighting is confirmed to be a wild bird, it would be the first since 1868,  mind-blowing?

Birdwatchers are expected to flock to the isles for a chance to spot it before it moves on

Wow-what a bird for Scilly and so very glad, my friend  Will Wagstaff  ( A legend ) was in on it, well done Will.

Primetime BBC 6 o'clock news  crazy

  unbelievable 

 It got me wondering what my Scilly list would now be when I left the Isles of Scilly. I was on 377  give or take a few splits not bad for a few square miles of land.

 Will Wagstaff, was at that time already over 400 so "Wills Scilly list" must be on loads more?

Will,  can you let me know where you are now?

Scilly Birders are normally very well travelled and have seen loads of rare birds around the globe and on Scilly, which is a major asset to them. Their awareness of the unthinkable is unthinkable and they are probably some of the best birders in the UK and are very much respected worldwide,

Great bird, so so, happy for the guys on Scilly

Make the news

Hope no resident birder missed it

Cheers  

Bryan Thomas

Egyptian Vulture

My photo from the Pyrenees 

Flowers, Butterflies, and Birds. A Mash Up

Apologies I've not had the time to write the blog for weeks, so I'm going to have to summarise our birding, 

it's better to be out there birding and making the news than writing it up

Tuesday 8th June Sierra de Salinas in Bloom

Painted Lady

Striped Greyling

An interesting area which does look very promising for birding, it's our second visit in as many weeks, but it was the flowers and butterflies which made the day, not a big bird list, and at the lower levels Pin-tailed Sandgrouse Greater short-toed Lark, Woodchat Shrike, Chough, Raven,  lots of little birds, and upon the mountain Mistle Thrush, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Crested Tit, Common Buzzard, Rock Bunting, Bonelli's Warblers, Jay, Merlin, Wood Lark, I've not mentioned every bird seen, or heard 

False ilex Hairstreak

Bath White

Spanish Gatekeeper

Meadow Brown

Southern Blue

Greater short-toed Lark

Friday 11th June

 A Full day birding on the plains

Petrola, Corral Rubio, Bonete, Castile la Mancha, El Bachillar, etc

Clouded Yellow

Well, another superb day but the butterflies won the day for me, that's not to say the birding was bad. It's just the butterflies are in pristine condition and most of the birds are looking a tad bit tatty, it's not surprising they just finished breeding, so there entitled to look just a bit tatty.

The cornfields are high and ready to be cropped it's beautiful up there with all the different colours of soil and crops, it's worth making the effort just for the scenery. 

Unbelievable.

Clouded Yellow

Knapweed Fritillary

Great Bustard, under the belt and easy, also several close fly past, Rock Sparrow, Corn Bunting, Chough, Greater short-toed Lark, Gull-billed Tern, Whiskered Tern, Yellow Wagtails, Lapwing, Kentish Plover, Little-ringed Plover, Wood Sandpiper, Black-necked grebe, Purple Swamphen, Great reed Warbler, Nightingale, Marsh Harriers, Gadwall, Red-crested, white-headed, Pochard, and so on. 

Great Bustard

 It's a big birds list so I'll stop now.  No major birding moment, well maybe there was a moment, how often do you get to see 25+ Chough close up at less than 5 meters? 

Lapwing

Little-ringed Plover

Rock Sparrow

 Juvenile Chough

The moment of the day for me was the abundance of Clouded Yellow and the very beautiful but Small Knapweed Fritillary. I'm a birder but you're got to appreciate these butterflies 

Small White

 Iberian Marbled White

Knapweed Fritillary

poppies?

I've seen these poppies grown here many time before, field upon field on the plains. 

But I haven't questioned what the crop is grown for, I thought maybe for cooking, but I have an idea the crop is for medical use to make morphine, its opium poppy.

it's almost the longest day?

Today 14th June

Santa Pola Salinas, El Pinet, La Marina, Vistabella Road, etc, 

We planned to find and photograph European Roller which we did easily, (4) also finding a least 4 Great-spotted Cuckoo in the process, but we didn't manage any photographs of the G S Cuckoos,

                                

                                          

European Roller  

 Santa Pola Salinas was quiet, but the normal summer breeders were busy, and at La Marina Kentish plover and young entertained us.

                                                                                 

        Little Owl

 A Peregrine falcon perched on a distant pylon. And a little Owl stood its ground and obliged to me a photographed, Bee-eaters we're around and calling.

                                           Marbled Duck                                       

 On Vistabella Road 16 Marbled Duck and also good numbers of Collared Pratincoles.  We called in briefly to San Felipe VC, it's got that funny coloured water again and not many birds, but Great reed Warblers we're cracking off in several places.

                              Great reed Warbler                           

 It was getting hot, so we called it a day,

A nice morning birding

Have fun 

Cheers Bryan