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
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