Thursday 6 May Santa Pola

We had planned to visit El Hondo Nature Reserve this morning but sadly that had to go by the wayside when we discovered our little dog "Scruffy" had ticks. So instead of birding we took her to the vets and were lucky enough to get her in straightaway. Once the vet had treated her and we were all feeling happier we headed out towards a very windy Santa Pola. My little four legged birding companion was much brighter by the time we got there, which allowed me to concentrate of the new arrivals here. There were Yellow wagtails all over the area and 600+ Flamingo on the back salt pans. Slender-billed Gulls were active in the early afternoon sun and the above Little Tern performed well for the camera. Garden bird of the day was the above Black Wheatear

EL Pinet Migrants

First day attempting to do this blog on my own as Ashley is back in Britain at the moment leading our tour in the Scottish Highlands. We visited El Pinet this afternoon where it was soon evident that the birds had arrived overnight. Spotted flycatchers and Northern Wheatears seemed to be everywhere and the further along the dunes system we walked the more flycatchers we saw; adding three Pied to the many spotted seen nearer to the car park. Three common Redstart and two Black-eared Wheatears rounded the walk off. Not bad when I originally stopped here to try and count the increase in the Little Terns. As many as forty birds were present today and I will have to apologise for not getting a picture of any of the above species but I am just not as quick as Ashley (yet !). The above Crested Lark will have to keep the photographers amongst you happy and I will try to do better tomorrow.

El Pinet and surrounds

We began the day at El Pinet with our day tour guest Alex Brookes, on holiday in the area from Staffordshire. As well as all the usual suspects there were still plenty of Curlew Sandpiper knocking around, see the images below. Another interesting observation was that nearly all of the c100 Med Gulls present last week have left, being replaced by a minimum of 100 pairs of Slender-billed Gull. Water Pipit in summer plumage and a very showy Water Rail were also added bonuses. Nearly all of the Avocet pairs at El Pinet now have chicks, ranging up to approximately 1 week old, some of the Common Terns also now appear to be feeding young.

Above 2 images - Curlew Sandpiper

The rest of the day was spent birding the various tracks between La Marina and El Hondo. We record all of the breeding species you would expect to find in this area with the cream of the crop being - Roller (5, see below), Bee-eater (15+), Montagu's Harrier (5 males displaying to a single female), Garganey (4), Grasshopper Warbler (1) and 3 very showy Tree Sparrow (fairly uncommon in this area). In total we recorded 88 species and Alex settled on Roller as his bird of the day. Click on any of the images in this post to see an enlarged version. For details of our day trip options please click here.

Roller

Adult winter/immature Squacco Heron

Above 2 images - Adult summer plumage Squacco Heron

Cattle Egret