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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Birding in Alicante Province (1 Viewer)

Thanks Hotspur for your reply. I thought it was something unusual, I have a lot to learn about the resident species.
Took a long walk through the woods of King Alphonso park in warm sunshine 20C. Sighting of the day; a pair of bearded tits "playing" in a small tree on the access road to "La Rabat". They were within five feet of me, completely oblivious of my presence.
P.S. "George" the Arctic Goose has been seen near the Carretera bridge on the river this morning.
Regards, Tony.
 
Happy New Year Everyone,
Today's sighting; A pair of Lesser Kestrels came about 16.30 as the sun was getting low, to sit in the tree across the road from my balcony (about 60 feet away) . The female was giving her partner "what for" for about five minutes. It took me some time to discover what they were. They are listed as vagrants for this area.

Saturday; From talking to a neighbour, it seems that this pair have a nest in an unfinished block behind where I live. My front door looks out onto this skeleton high rise and I have seen the male twice today.

Regards, Tony
 
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Just booked our flights for our annual Easter and summer visits :)

Was extremely pleased to make it to 111 species in Spain last year, my best annual total by some 16 species! Not bad for a sum total of 4-and-a-half weeks in the country! What will 2016 hold, I wonder?!

Incidentally, Tony15, one of my first stops every year is the small orchard and scrub-land at the mouth of the Rio Segura (near the wooden bridges where there are usually several fishermen on the northern bank of the river). It's always good for warblers in early Spring, and for woodchat shrike and nightingale later on) while the reeds can be a good place to see Squacco and Night heron.
 
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GordonEllis said:
Are there any specific areas at El Hondo that are best for the Greater Spotted Eagles?
Click to expand...

The three birds I've seen have all been either from the Vistabella road or looking towards it and they like to roost in the Eucalyptus trees at the south of El Hondo. I did see them range widely over both reservoirs though so it's probably my own observational bias.
 
Also fairly reliable during the winter if you arrange a visit via the North Gate entrance - must be booked in advance and only open on Saturday between 0830-1130. You need to go along to the raised viewpoint at the end of the reserve road and watch from there.

The eagles are often in the high trees to the south of the viewpoint.
 
I went there at the New Year and went to El Hondo twice, if you speak Spanish don't bother emailing for advice as they give you the wrong advice about where to go.
 
Help with identification please. Just spent an hour observing an unusual Grey Heron on the Rio Segura 400 metres downstream from the N332 bridge at Guardamar del Segura. The bird normal size for a Grey Heron but the colouration was different. The mantle and back of neck was a uniform dark slate grey which had a slight brown tinge with no markings at all. A narrow light grey stripe on the front of the neck, and the front and underparts were light grey. The skull was a slightly lighter grey with a dark grey "crown" on the head, totally separated from the eye. There was an elongated white patch under the eye, that was the only white on the bird. The beak was grey except for 2 inches at the tip which was salmon/yellow. The primary flight feathers were black, showing a small fringe near the tail. Legs silvery grey with dark feet.
I have looked carefully at all the images on Wikipedia and none match up. The nearest is a bird from The Gambia.
Regards, Tony.
P.S. Managed to get a few seconds view of a Bittern skulking in the reeds. (A first for me).
 
Unknown Heron.

Yes I have discounted the Purple Heron, they are much more colourful. This one was distinctive because of its overall drabness. It was dark grey on its back and neck with no markings at all (no black shoulders). It was definitely a heron by size and movements.
Regards, Tony
 
one more week to go, and I'm out again for my annual Easter break with the family! :)

I've been reading about the azure-winged magpies in this thread, and was wondering if these are only winter visitors, or if they are resident. As my birding in Spain is mostly by bike (from Urb La Marina), the location is at the further end of where I can get to, as I have cycled the loop around the lake at Torrevieja before (the limitation being time more than anything, as cycle-birding is rather more time-consuming than straightforward cycling, and I can't realistically leave my family for more than a few hours!). It would be good to know if they are resident or migrants, and if the latter, if they are still likely to be around in late March/early April.

Muchos gracias!
 
Most definitely resident, there were some photos of youngsters on the CBBC website last year.

I too am looking forward to the 2nd week in April....;)

Edit - just checked, the photos are actually on a private Facebook group run by Mary Brazier of the CBBC. I could pass you the details by PM if you'd be interested in joining?
 
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Mark Etheridge said:
Most definitely resident, there were some photos of youngsters on the CBBC website last year.

I too am looking forward to the 2nd week in April....;)

Edit - just checked, the photos are actually on a private Facebook group run by Mary Brazier of the CBBC. I could pass you the details by PM if you'd be interested in joining?
Click to expand...

I would like to have the details as well as I will be going back sometime.
 
So, I'm back in Spain, and had a couple of jaunts out on my bike so far, but not all that much time to get in some birding.

Nevertheless, there are quite a few early migrants (well, early for me, based on my 5 years of birding here), with good sightings already of a purple heron and a lovely, bright, female yellow wagtail, as well as reasonably numbers of whiskered tern at El Hondo Vistabella Road hides (also 5 garganey among the dozens of shoveler).

It's also nice to see the verde across the road from my in-laws' house getting more and more mature, and it now holds a good number of species including hoopoe - which has hardly stopped oopooping this week, serin, goldfinch, greenfinch, great tit, and Sardinian warbler. So I can bird from their veranda without leaving the house!
 
Tony15 said:
Help with identification please. Just spent an hour observing an unusual Grey Heron on the Rio Segura 400 metres downstream from the N332 bridge at Guardamar del Segura. The bird normal size for a Grey Heron but the colouration was different. The mantle and back of neck was a uniform dark slate grey which had a slight brown tinge with no markings at all. A narrow light grey stripe on the front of the neck, and the front and underparts were light grey. The skull was a slightly lighter grey with a dark grey "crown" on the head, totally separated from the eye. There was an elongated white patch under the eye, that was the only white on the bird. The beak was grey except for 2 inches at the tip which was salmon/yellow. The primary flight feathers were black, showing a small fringe near the tail. Legs silvery grey with dark feet.
I have looked carefully at all the images on Wikipedia and none match up. The nearest is a bird from The Gambia.
Regards, Tony.
P.S. Managed to get a few seconds view of a Bittern skulking in the reeds. (A first for me).
Click to expand...


I saw what looked to me like a melanistic Grey Heron at El Hondo a few days ago. Could be the same bird?
 
Well, what an interesting few days!

Firstly, a surprise at El Hondo, during a visit to the San Felipe hides, with a Spoonbill plodding about right in front of the south-facing hide. It hung around for around 20 minutes before heading off into the reeds over to the left of the hide. Also had good views of Little Ringed Plover and Common Sandpiper right in front of the hide, while at the observation tower I heard my first Cetti's warbler and Willow warbler singing.

Then, yesterday, I got up early and was out on my bike before the sun was up, heading south to Torrevieja, with azure wings on my mind! And, after a rather longer haul than anticipated, and thanks to the excellent directions above, I managed to connect with 5 or 6 Azure-winged Magpies at the Los Balcones site south of Laguna Torrevieja. I unfortunately didn't manage any decent photos, as there were a few dog-walkers with rather uncontrolled dogs about, which caused most birds to scatter quite quickly as soon as they settled anywhere, but I at least got a record shot!! (Out of interest, there seems to be some disagreement on-line as to whether these are a separate species - Iberian Magpie - or not. Any thoughts, anyone?)
 

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lazza, according to Opus the birds you saw are Iberian Magpie (Cyanopica cooki) - found in Spain & Portugal - whereas Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopica cyanus) are found in Asia. However, Collins treats them as con-specific. I'm not sure which taxonomic authorities split or lump them.
 
foresttwitcher said:
lazza, according to Opus the birds you saw are Iberian Magpie (Cyanopica cooki) - found in Spain & Portugal - whereas Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopica cyanus) are found in Asia. However, Collins treats them as con-specific. I'm not sure which taxonomic authorities split or lump them.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'll stick with the ones that split them, just in case!
 

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