Hi all!
First of all, I'm not sure if this is in the right place, so if it needs to be moved then feel free to do so.
Covid permitting, a few friends and I are going to do a road trip throughout Spain this summer (second half of July - first half of August), to hopefully get some of the better WP/European birds. Alongside some of the tougher residents, we're looking into things like Elegant & Lesser crested tern, Rüppell's griffon vulture, Lesser flamingo, Laughing dove etc. We've bumped into a few questions about these birds while planning everything, and I think people might be able to help.
1) Elegant tern - They seem to be fairly consistent near L'Albufera (just south of Valencia) the past few years, but on April 6th a pair was reported showing courtship behaviour in Marjal dels Moros just north of Valencia this year - Do they breed at either/both locations, and are they just not often visited because of accessibility/covid reasons, or does nobody bother twitching them anymore because everyone already has them? Are other places (Salinas de Santa Pola near Alicante, or perhaps one of the places in Cadiz) also consistent, or more difficult?
2) Lesser crested tern & Roseate tern - Are these consistent anywhere in Spain, or are these just semi-regular vagrants that would be better off just to chase somewhere along the route if reports come in? It looks like there's a fairly decent amount of observations in the Cadiz area?
3) Rüppell's griffon vulture - It looks like there is one individual (or maybe up to a handful?) in the Southern tip of Spain at the moment. Does this bird show any regular patterns and hang around in a general area where it'd be good to look for it, and is it relatively doable to chase? Are roosts or feeding locations it frequents known? Or would this be near impossible without very recent reports and a lot of luck?
4) Lesser flamingo - It looks like the returning birds at Fuente de Piedra might be gone again at the moment? The last reports were of a single bird on May 8th, but before that they were last seen almost 3 weeks earlier, so they might just be hard to connect with / not often twitched?
5) Western reef heron - Is the bird at Punta Entinas still continuing?
6) Laughing dove - The last report of the Sevilla birds on eBird was on May 13th. I find it hard to believe that both would suddenly be gone, but it seems like these birds would be reported more often if they were still around?
7) Mediterranean flycatcher - To our surprise it looks like there are a handful mainland birds present at the moment. Do these often form territories and stay well into summer, or are these just spring migrants that will disappear soon?
8) Presumed hybrid White-rumped x Little swift - Is the Chipiona hybrid swift still returning/still present in the Little swift colony?
Overall, as might be obvious, we're having difficulty finding good and consistent information about reports of these birds (and other rarities). I believe eBird is the most widely used platform in Spain, but even though these species seem to be resident/returning individuals in a few locations, reports on eBird seem very few and far between. We also follow Rare Birds Spain on twitter and facebook, and check reservoirbirds.com, spain.observation.org and Tarsiger regularly, but still feel like we're missing out on a lot of info that has to be present somewhere online. Are there other sites with more information about rarities that would be important to follow?
Also, are there other rare but resident/returning birds (African/American/other) that we have glossed over? We're mainly concentrating our efforts along the Eastern and Southern coast, Extremadura and the Pyrenees. We're also targetting other very localized birds like Dupont's lark, Common bulbul, White-rumped swift, Little swift, Barbary partridge, reintroduced Northern bald ibis (are there good places in summer for the ibises, or is it best to just chase recent eBird reports?), Trumpeter finch etc. Any suggestions or tips about any of these are welcome!
Thanks very much in advance! Any answers or help regarding any of these points would be incredibly appreciated.
First of all, I'm not sure if this is in the right place, so if it needs to be moved then feel free to do so.
Covid permitting, a few friends and I are going to do a road trip throughout Spain this summer (second half of July - first half of August), to hopefully get some of the better WP/European birds. Alongside some of the tougher residents, we're looking into things like Elegant & Lesser crested tern, Rüppell's griffon vulture, Lesser flamingo, Laughing dove etc. We've bumped into a few questions about these birds while planning everything, and I think people might be able to help.
1) Elegant tern - They seem to be fairly consistent near L'Albufera (just south of Valencia) the past few years, but on April 6th a pair was reported showing courtship behaviour in Marjal dels Moros just north of Valencia this year - Do they breed at either/both locations, and are they just not often visited because of accessibility/covid reasons, or does nobody bother twitching them anymore because everyone already has them? Are other places (Salinas de Santa Pola near Alicante, or perhaps one of the places in Cadiz) also consistent, or more difficult?
2) Lesser crested tern & Roseate tern - Are these consistent anywhere in Spain, or are these just semi-regular vagrants that would be better off just to chase somewhere along the route if reports come in? It looks like there's a fairly decent amount of observations in the Cadiz area?
3) Rüppell's griffon vulture - It looks like there is one individual (or maybe up to a handful?) in the Southern tip of Spain at the moment. Does this bird show any regular patterns and hang around in a general area where it'd be good to look for it, and is it relatively doable to chase? Are roosts or feeding locations it frequents known? Or would this be near impossible without very recent reports and a lot of luck?
4) Lesser flamingo - It looks like the returning birds at Fuente de Piedra might be gone again at the moment? The last reports were of a single bird on May 8th, but before that they were last seen almost 3 weeks earlier, so they might just be hard to connect with / not often twitched?
5) Western reef heron - Is the bird at Punta Entinas still continuing?
6) Laughing dove - The last report of the Sevilla birds on eBird was on May 13th. I find it hard to believe that both would suddenly be gone, but it seems like these birds would be reported more often if they were still around?
7) Mediterranean flycatcher - To our surprise it looks like there are a handful mainland birds present at the moment. Do these often form territories and stay well into summer, or are these just spring migrants that will disappear soon?
8) Presumed hybrid White-rumped x Little swift - Is the Chipiona hybrid swift still returning/still present in the Little swift colony?
Overall, as might be obvious, we're having difficulty finding good and consistent information about reports of these birds (and other rarities). I believe eBird is the most widely used platform in Spain, but even though these species seem to be resident/returning individuals in a few locations, reports on eBird seem very few and far between. We also follow Rare Birds Spain on twitter and facebook, and check reservoirbirds.com, spain.observation.org and Tarsiger regularly, but still feel like we're missing out on a lot of info that has to be present somewhere online. Are there other sites with more information about rarities that would be important to follow?
Also, are there other rare but resident/returning birds (African/American/other) that we have glossed over? We're mainly concentrating our efforts along the Eastern and Southern coast, Extremadura and the Pyrenees. We're also targetting other very localized birds like Dupont's lark, Common bulbul, White-rumped swift, Little swift, Barbary partridge, reintroduced Northern bald ibis (are there good places in summer for the ibises, or is it best to just chase recent eBird reports?), Trumpeter finch etc. Any suggestions or tips about any of these are welcome!
Thanks very much in advance! Any answers or help regarding any of these points would be incredibly appreciated.
