Spain – November 2009

Sat 7 Nov 2009

Arrived in Spain for a week’s holiday to visit Steve and Di. Not solely a bird watching trip, and as I brought hand luggage only I had no telescope/tripod with me, only binoculars.

Sun 8 Nov 2009

The first new tick – crag martins seen in a gorge on our way to the restaurant at Rebate for Sunday lunch. Nothing much else seen during the day until we got back home, when an Egyptian vulture flew over the house as we sat having a drink. 

Mon 9 Nov 2009

A short recce trip with Steve to the Park Natural de la Mata at Torrevieja. Black redstarts, crag martin and crested lark in  abundance and another new one for me – serin. Clouded yellow and painted lady butterflies also present.

Tues 10 Nov 2009

Steve drove me to the Park Natural de la Mata, where I spent the day exploring on my own. Black redstart, crag martin and crested larks were again very easy to find. Whilst I was watching a small flock of serin feeding on the ground amongst grape vines a warbler that I could not identify perched on the top of a nearby shrub. It looked superficially like a common whitethroat, but the back was much browner and the tail seemed longer. It was not until later in the day when I found a male Sardinian warbler that I realised that this bird was a female of that species.

The hide gave good, but distant views of the birds on the shore of the Salinas de la Mata (I really needed my ‘scope). There were definitely turnstone and golden plover, but there was also some very pale and small waders which I thought were sanderling. But Kentish plover winter on this coast and I wonder if that’s what they were (I wish I was better at identifying waders!).

It would have been nice to get a much closer view of the crested larks, as Thekla larks are also found in Spain, but they are so similar that really close views are needed to reliably identify them (the Thekla lark has a shorter bill and a less spiky crest). As the Thekla lark is usually found in rockier habitats at higher altitude it is more probable that these were in fact crested larks.

Other nice finds today were great grey shrikes (at least three individuals), hoopoes, Dartford warbler, rose-ringed parakeets, a possible flying stone curlew and monarch butterflies.

One final species found at the end of the day was spotless starling. I could see a flock of “black birds” but could not recognise what they were. I had to go back to get close enough to identify them.

 

Wed 11 Nov 2009

A walk along the low cliffs above the beach at Playa Flamenca today. Mainly species that I had already seen (black redstart, Sardinian warbler, crested lark etc), but a couple of others. A sandwich tern and a gull that I could not identify (no surprise there). It was a largish gull with a dark bill, silvery grey back and black wing tips. Could it have been an Audouin’s?

Also a little egret, a humming-bird hawk moth and a red admiral.

 

Thu 12 Nov 2009

Not a bird watching day. Went to Calasparra to the Santuario Virgen de la Esperanza. But whilst we were having lunch in the restaurant saw crested tits in the fir trees (much to the amusement of the waiter who thought I was looking at squirrels).

Fri 13 Nov 2009

A visit to the Parque Regional de las Salinas y Arenales de San Pedro del Pinatar in the morning. Black-winged stilt, yellow legged gulls black necked grebes and my first sight of wild flamingos. Also lots of biting insects!!!

At a stop for coffee I at last got a very close view of a lark to enable me to confirm it as a crested and not Thekla lark.

After lunch walked along the causeway between the salt pans and the Mar Menor. Flamingos, sandwich tern, shelduck and more gulls. These were black headed size with a  red bill and black wing tips. They seemed to be in adult plumage and I thought they were Mediterranean gulls, but adult Med gulls do not have black wing tips! I wish I was not so rubbish at id-ing gulls!

This is the list of birds seen on this trip (I was disappointed not to see a Spanish sparrow, though there were plenty of house sparrows).

Shelduck	Red-legged Partridge	Great Crested Grebe
Black-necked Grebe	Cormorant	Cattle Egret (?)
Little Egret	Grey Heron	Greater Flamingo
Egyptian Vulture	Kestrel	Moorhen
Black-winged Stilt	Avocet	Stone Curlew (?)
Golden Plover	Sanderling (?)	Dunlin
Turnstone	Black-headed Gull	Yellow-legged Gull
Sandwich Tern	Woodpigeon	Ring-necked Parakeet
Hoopoe	Green Woodpecker	Crested Lark
Crag Martin	Meadow Pipit	Grey Wagtail
White Wagtail	Robin	Black Redstart
Stonechat	Blackbird	Dartford Warbler
Sardinian Warbler	Chiffchaff	Long-tailed Tit
Great Tit	Crested Tit	Great Grey Shrike
Magpie	Starling	Spotless Starling
House Sparrow	Serin	Goldfinch
Siskin (?)	Linnet (?)