Friday 7th January was our second trip out for this year. It was a mere 6 degrees when we left San Miguel and there remained a chill in the air even with full sun. We did our usual route from Gran Alacant to El Hondo.
We checked out every spot and the lagoons provided Six White Egrets - Garceta Grande, distant Great Crested Grebes - Somormujo Lavanco and Spoonbills -Espátula Común with a large number of Flamingos. Wigeon - Silbon Europea were noted, but not near enough to count. One Redshank and one Spotted Redshank fed together. (Archibebe Común y Oscuro) These two seen together and then flying together were another lesson in species ID. There is so much more to know! We visited El Pinet and although there was ample mud the only birds of note were 25 Dunlin - Correlimos Común feeding.
At Santa Aguada, now with water, I had my best ever views of a Green Sandpiper - Andarrios Grande together with a Bluethroat - Pechiazul. They could be studied in detail and we watched them for over 10 minutes.
We headed in land there was nothing worth mentioning until we were at ‘the eagle site’. Three Common Kestrels - Cernicalo Común with two perched distant at the left hand end of the line of trees were seen. The winter sun was low and then an eagle flew out of the glare. Fortunately Bryan fired off some shots and with that detail and information from Collins, Bryan deduced it was a juvenile Bonelli’s - Aguila-azor- Perdicera. That was good as one of our thoughts was that it could be a paler morph Booted Eagle - Aguililla Calzada. In the field and without a large lens the identification would not have been known for sure.
Then up popped a Spotted Eagle - Aguila Moteada, just briefly, but enough for an ID before it disappeared into a very distant palm tree. So Michelle got her first two eagles of the year and what a two they were.
A great ending to our morning and the photos will appear later.
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