BIRDING ON THE COSTA BLANCA

KEEP WATCHING EVEN IN THE HOT MONTHS

Birds are to be seen, depending upon the season, all the year round. Bryan and I have found that to keep going out every month of the year has benefited our knowledge and we have had some very good days. Some birders seem to give up during the hot months and others head north to colder climes. There is nothing wrong in that.

Okay, we are now at the end of June, and it has got hot. Yesterday, 28th June, we did our local tour and heard and saw good birds and some interesting spectacles. Cloud cover was at 90%, humidity was high, a reasonable breeze was refreshing, a distinct lack of mosquitos was very beneficial to us both and as the day progressed the sun showed strongly and the temperature rose to over 30 degrees.

Our first stop was via N332 opposite the Las Brisas Playa and this is proving to be a little gem of a spot. Parking by the barrier we heard both a Moustached Warbler and a Zitting Cisticola which flew high singing and after dropping lower and rising again to again sing. I searched the books for information on this flight pattern and in Birds of Britain by Rob Hume I found the closest comment to what we had seen. I quote '....deeply undulating song-flight, single short, sharp, penetrating note with each bound....zeet....zeet.....zeet'.

Over the water both Little and Whiskered Terns were active. Two Purple Herons were easily seen with a Squacco near us.

A Great Reed Warbler was loud. We will keep checking this site out as it could produce something unusual.

We moved via El Pinet where the usual were to be see, but with not a Collared Pratincole to be seen. There was an abundance of terns with Little and Common being in the ascendency. Also Sandwich and Slender-billed Gulls further away on an island.



Now heading towards El Hondon we again took the back road and saw Bee-eaters, both types of Shrike, Common Kestrel, and one Roller. We know that a more extensive search of the area would have revealed more species, but it was getting hotter by this time. Overhead at least one hundred Mediterranean Gulls passed over and on a distant wire there were the same number of Starlings - presumably Spotless. We thought that it was unusual sight as we were still in June.

Now our bird of the day. Bryan spotted something perched in a tree. It stayed for long enough to see it through the scope and for Bryan to photograph it. The short version was that we considered it to be a Short-toed Eagle, but only after a reference to Collins Bird Guide and a quick examining of the photographs could we confirm it. A photograph supports this.



San Felipe Neri was next and we confined our time to the boardwalk. There was nothing unusual here except that we saw our first Collared Pratincoles of the day and more Whiskered Terns with a bird that had unusually much darker plumage. The photographs indicate that this was a male Whiskered Tern with a molting head pattern.



On our way home there were a good number of Cattle Egrets showing their plumage and highly coloured beaks. Again we came across another bird with different plumage. It had all the distinct features, but where the plumage should have been white it was predominately grey. Interesting or not! And on the way home to San Miguel a male Montague's flew over the road. Another good day in sunny Spain.



There is still water in the Bonete area and so we are going there on Monday before it dries out

Flying Nightjar

Sitting out at home in San Miquel yesterday evening in a failing light I looked up and saw flying between a gap in the buildings and right in front of me was a Nightjar. The long wings and tail were very evident although there was not sufficient light to show any markings. It is more than possible that this was a red-necked one as I have heard them calling before. It was the clearest uninterrupted flying view I have ever had of this species. On occasions we have seen owls - presumably - Long-eared ones with Little Owls regularly seen and heard. It cheered me up a rad after Brexit!

Europe Loses

FOR OR AGIN?

It has always made sense to be in agreement with the neighbours. Why have trade barriers when common agreements make more sense? Isn't easier that way? But whose idea was it to move from a Common Market into a political entity?
Looking back over centuries Monarchs and other royals, politicians and assassins created the atmosphere for the blood of the common person to be spilt. Now we are in a state of limbo and playing the waiting game to see who will move next. Again it is the hands of politicians, but at last they have heard the voice of a democratic nation saying what you have created is not good enough. You, the collective states of Europe, failed to accept that constructive change was needed. Prime Minister Cameron tried, failed in his discussions, and brought back with him from those negotiations very little for a united Europe and giving more power to a referendum vote. The 'inners' gambled and lost all across Europe.
No one likes to be told what to do or say and now because of this vote you, the bureaucrats and career politicians, should bloody well listen. They might not have wanted the U.K. to leave which could have been for all our benefit. There are euro sceptics in other nations and nationalistic voices are speaking and in some cases the 'far right' is kicking hard against the socialists. I am frightened by that as extremism and prejudice provide the breeding grounds for destruction.
I think it is not by chance that we have street violence in Marseille at the Euro Football Tournament and, it is my view, that this was part of a campaign to destabilize an already unsettled Europe. I am not a doom monger, but it is clear to me that it is in the interests of Putin to do just that while he deals with internal matters, the Ukraine and makes the Baltic States more jittery than ever.
However nothing has been lost yet as we still have The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, The United Nations and we, the United Kingdom, still have fundamentally a strong economy. We will still have a say at the 'top table'.
I know why I voted to stay in and I can only guess that the issue of immigration would have made some to consider that we should not remain in what is seen as a very un-democratic Europe. A small island cannot going on absorbing half a million more people per year. These are major issues and now we should have more of our own way. It is going to be an absorbing few months at least.

Book Review - A Spy By Nature

I enjoyed enormously, 'A Spy By Nature', by Charles Cummings which just about fits into the genre of crime, but maybe not in the conventional sense. However there is much more to it than that and the story is told through the character of Alec Milius. It is not a fast read and the first chapters are taken up with assessments in the seedy recesses of the Foreign Office. There is so much detail that is written with care. Milius, with others are all being tested, questioned and analysed for their fitness to become involved in a deceptive world. Even this early on characters are introduced so that you can feel that the reader has met them, looked them in the eye and shaken their hand.
The story evolves with his employment in the commercial world of oil and then there is activity with the Americans. It is 'big business' after all I enjoyed the introduction of the participants and how they were involved in plot and counter activities. Of course not everything will be as intended and that is where parts of the book enthralled me. That may be the case, but this novel is about people, how they operate, their emotions and anxieties, what they can lie about and how they deal with the outcome.
Upon finishing the last chapter I wanted to know what was in the follow up, 'The Spanish Game' and I was hooked again. In the end I was inside the head of Alec Milius, but not wanting to be in his shoes. I did not want it to end, and I felt that I had lost something when he left me!

Reflections On Extremadura

A few weeks have passed since our busy five days in Extremadura in May and time enough for reflections and thoughts on what or where we could investigate next. We put the effort in and it was recorded that between Tuesday evening and our last day on Saturday we were out and about for forty-two and half hours with only minimal stops in a couple of bars for comfort breaks. We dined from the boot of the car and my eyes never stopped looking around except for drinking a mug of tea. We travelled 773 kilometres in viewing the area. As I have said previously we saw some wonderful countryside and enjoyed every minute of it.



There were many areas that we did not investigate. One of these was to the west of Cáceres and it would have been easy for us to travel there. We saw snow on the Sierra de Gredos and both the north and south side of this mountain range look intriguing and each side has a different terrain and therefore different habitats. North of this range there is more 'steppe countryside' which would contain some of the birds that we had already seen. The Gredos Mountains can be visited in the hotter months of June and July because of their altitude and that does open the window of opportunity wider for a worthwhile visit. If only we could?

Here are some of the photographs taken on an Android Smart Phone by Michelle.

Gredos Mountains

Rufous Bush Chat and Roller

The three of us, Jim English, Bryan Thomas and myself set off just before 9 o'clock with two target birds in mind. Jim wanted to see, for the first time, a Rufous Bush Chat and a Roller.

We were on our way past Clot de Gaveney where we found the three scrapes covered with reeds and with nothing else visible. The second hide gave good views of the water that in parts was covered with algae. Nevertheless, we had good sightings of Pallid Swifts skimming the water with both types of Swallows. We were lucky enough to see a male Little Bittern fly. As we walking out on this sunny morning there was a snake warming up, but it quickly went into the vegetation and disappeared under a stone. Bryan had a very good sight of it and saw the markings. It was well over a meter in length and with a girth the size of a man's forearm. Some snake then and possible a Montpellier or in Spanish a 'Culebra Bastarda' and not one to mess with. It is mildly venomous with back facing fangs and can grow up to 2 metres. They can be feisty. For more information go to iberiannature.com where there are some photographs that will allow you to identify what you have seen although sightings can be brief because they can move fast.

Then we headed for a known site for our first target and within minutes we heard one calling and then one flew right past me. All three of us had very good views of this rarity.



We moved on and found an Audouin's Gull perched on a rock and photographable. (This gull is fairly common on this coast). On the N332, almost opposite, the turning for the 'Playa Las Brisas, we turned in right in the direction of the salinas.

This unmade road has a barrier, but inset, so that there is ample room to park. However, do not leave any property on show and stay within sight of the vehicle. Here a Purple Heron stood in the shallow water.
It later flew presumably having being 'seen off' by a Grey Heron. A Squacco was easily seen. A Yellow Wagtail walked on the weeds and both Little and Whiskered Terns flew
The Salt Tower yielded very little except for Yellow Legged Gulls including one noisy chick with Little Terns flying over.

El Pinet was more productive with Avocets and chicks, Common Terns and with two Sandwich Terns flying past. A Kentish Plover was in its usual place and Collared Pratincoles were also there.

We still had our second target to achieve and so we took the smaller roads leading towards El Hondon. Strangely there was not a great deal to see although Bee-eaters were calling and seen in flight. We took a dirt road and found a habitat that Tree Sparrows seem to prefer. Here there is a large tree and a fence on which they perch. Excellent views once again, but expect to see them mixed in with House Sparrows. Nearby Kestrels- all common - flew and perched and then sitting on a wire was one solitary Roller. We know of other sites where these birds can be seen, but now we were into a hot afternoon and a time to relax and head for home.

In terms of numbers it was poor, but quantity is not everything and the views that we had were very good. The two target birds were achieved for Jim. I had wonderful company and it was a pleasure to be out and about.