GUADALENTIN VALLEY & SIERRA DE ESPUÑA

On Thursday 25th the main ingredients of ‘The Birding Costa Blanca Birders’ (namely Michelle & John, Bryan & Trev met at 8am at Santamera Services on the Alicante - Murcia border with some specific targets in mind. It was a cool morning with a light breeze and a promise of sun all day. In fact shorts and Tee’s were sufficient for the whole time and this is supposed to be the back-end of Autumn.



The fields of vegetables in the Guadalentin Valley hold some significant species and our major thought was to locate Little Bustards. We have had very good days here and some poor ones. We searched and we saw a lot of activity. People were hunters around, people picking crops, tractors were working the ground and spraying. I comment only to say that we keep putting poison into the soil. In an ‘unused’ field with natural growth we easily locate Spectacled Warblers.



That's no surprise as they are resident here, and okay we saw Stonechats, but to be frank not a lot else. And no bloody Bustards!

Before mid-day we moved on and headed for Sierra de Espuńa hoping to see Ring Ouzels, maybe even a Brambling or two and other birds that could have come south. Would we be too early to see them as this autumn has only just arrived here? We went anyway and on the way we did see Crossbill, Crested Tit, Jay, and Robin and not much else, but always remembering that woodland birds are difficult to see.



We carried on up to the ‘ice-caves’ area which has been good previously. There is normally a water source here, but this was dry and that could be a reason why we saw no birds flying in and around. Okay we had flocks of Goldfinches, Chaffinches and the odd Mistle Thrush and that was it except for a female Black Redstart, and the odd fleeting sight off a Chough. We were about to leave the mountain top when up to and possible more than thirty Griffon Vultures flew high.

Back at the car Ravens called and flew and we headed for home. It was along day with many kilometers travelled and it does take 40 minutes to get down again again. Well, very disappointingly not one target bird seen and Bryan said ‘I am not going to blog about nothing’. Will there be a next time?. Maybe!

After Michelle and I had descended downwards Bryan and Trev stayed on and saw the following:

Short-Toed Eagle
A Golden, but far away
Long-Tailed Tit
Goldcrest
Coal Tit

That's good for Trev as he has travelled over for a week or so.

For the record Michelle and I were wearing our People's Walk for Wildlife Tee's and also I wore my other souvenir of that day saying that ‘I Walked for Wildlife’. Chris Packham will be sent the photos and they will be on this blog too. It was beautiful up there with a blue sky, wonderful scented vegetation under our feet and so peaceful. It's a ‘mind-healer’ and that is what is so good about being outside with like minded people.



Not seeing what we wanted to see is something where we can always say ‘ well there is always another day, but not for some? SkyNews carried the story that a female - yes a female - trophy hunter had been allowed to shoot a goat in Scotland. Why? It is on social media where this US huntress posed with her ‘trophy’ and with other ‘trophies’ and boasted it was ‘such a fun hunt’. A bit one sided I would think, a lethal weapon, against an animal. Isn't that killing because you can.

Dominic Dyer, wildlife advocate, spoke freely against this when interviewed on Sky News. Of course we heard the other side of the story supporting this sort of behavior. There's killing everywhere. It's appalling. The League Against Cruel Sports have responded and I will post their blog next.