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

Patch List for 2007 (1 Viewer)

Julian Sykes Wildlife

Julian Sykes Wildlife

Jules Sykes
Happy New Year to all here's hoping for a fantastic bird-filled 2007.

After 2006's poor year on the local patch I am setting myself a target of seeing 200 species within this year. I have never acheived this target best year so far being 187, and I am away for a good proportion of the year too with tours, etc. So a big ask.

My local patch is about 16 square Km's from the northern edge of Oliva south for 8 Km's following the sea-line. This area incorporates the Oliva beach and dunes, Pego Marsh, a large area of orange grove and some small scrubby hills.

So today I managed to get out this afternoon with a visit to first the beach but my first bird of 2007 was a House Sparrow (1) quickly followed by Spotless Starling (2) & White Wagtail (3) before reaching the beach. A quick scan of the rocks revealed Sandwich Tern (4), Cormorant (5), Black headed Gull (6), Yellow legged Gull (7), and nice winter plumage Mediterranean Gull (8). Then on the sea I found a huge raft of 1000+ Balearic Shearwaters (9) and a Gannet (10) drifted by. Finally a more careful look on the beach revealed a Lesser Black backed Gull (11) amongst the Yellow legs, a good start

to be continued...
 
... the drive to Pego Marsh produced a Blackbird (12) then at the paddy fields I quickly added Little & Cattle Egrets (13, 14) Grey Heron (15), Lapwing, (16), male & 2 female Marsh Harriers (17), Skylarks (18), Reed Buntings (19), Chaffinches (20), Greenfinches (21), Serins (22), single Water & Meadow Pipits (23, 24), Robin (25), Collared Dove (26), Feral Pigeon (27) & Crag Martins (28). At the model aircraft field 3 Hoopoes (29) fed with a Stonechat (30) and Zitting Cisticola (31) in the reeds. Around the allotments I then saw a few Blackcaps (32), Chiffchaffs (33), Sardinian Warbler (34), Great Tit (35) and a Kestrel (36). Then back at the paddy fields I found 5 Green Sandpipers (37), a male Bluethroat (38) performed beautifully for 20 minutes, a Common Buzzard (39) was sat on a pylon and a Southern Grey Shrike (40) sat on the wires. A Raven (41) then flew over a bird I didn't see in 2006 here so I was very pleased, and a final late flurry produced Jackdaws (42), a Grey Wagtail (43), and Eurasian Starlings (44).

So day one complete and a pretty successful one too with a couple of decent patch birds in there to kick off the list.

Jules
 
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A late afternoon walk from the house produced two new birds Cirl Bunting & Cetti's Warbler (45, 46), along with Southern Grey Shrike, Kestrel, Blackcaps, Zitting Cisticolas, Serins, Blackbird, Spotless Starlings and Reed Buntings.
 
I'l be following this one with interest Jules - a patch list for a patch that I've actually visited!

All the best for 2007,

Stuart
 
StuartReeves said:
I'l be following this one with interest Jules - a patch list for a patch that I've actually visited!

All the best for 2007,

Stuart
Click to expand...


So will I!! Especially as I will be visiting it, again in June!!

Happy New Year, Jules!!! B :)
 
Jules,

You ought to be doing a patch list of BF visitors. Hopefully we'll have time to pop in to the marsh in June before the Pyrennes trip. I hope your Red-necked Nightjars will be back.
 
Happy New Year to everyone.

Stuart I am not surprised with your interest after your mega-find of Snow Bunting. I will be needing to find something similar if I am to acheive my target of 200 species.

Nice to see a bit of a BF bash going on in June, hopefully there will be a few more more birds to see. At the moment there's too much water and the finch & sparrow flocks are no-existant.

Went ringing yesterday morning and managed to add 2 Carrion Crows (47), which are very rare here and a party of Penduline Tits (48), but no Moustached Warblers????.

Regards Jules
 
One more and you're 25% of the way to your target!!!! Happy New Year and good luck with the 200.
 
TSM23 said:
One more and you're 25% of the way to your target!!!! Happy New Year and good luck with the 200.
Click to expand...

Thanks Tom

Went to the coast & Pego Marsh today as a precursor to tomorrow's all day thrash and on the rocks off Oliva Beach was a Kingfisher (50) and amongst plenty of birds at the marsh I found a charm of Goldfinches (51) and a few Mallards (52)

The marsh is starting to look good for Spring and the new lagoon, walkway and hide are the business, hopefully the birds will think so too.
 
January 10th was my solo bird race day and starting at a few of my local patch sites enabled me to add a few more species to the year's total.

I started at El Clotal Beach (closest to where I live) at dawn and although generally quiet I did find 2 Kentish Plovers (53), then at Oliva Marina I scored a Great Crested Grebe (54) (a scarce bird here) along with Audouin's Gull (55), Sanderling (56), and Ring necked Parakeet (57).

My final local site was Pego Marsh where I added a Magpie (58) (3rd record), Black Redstart (59), and a 24 Common Snipe (60) together.

Bye for now Jules
 
Took part in the annual seabird census from Oliva Marina scoring with 3 new species for the patch list. These were 3 Shelduck (61), and 3 Common Scoter (62) flying north, and 5 Razorbills (63) sat on the water.
In addition to these we also saw 200+ Balearic Shearwaters, Cormorants, 60+ Sandwich Terns, Audouin's, Lesser Black backed, Yellow legged & Black headed Gulls.

Regards Jules
 
Time for an update, having had other work commitments and the kid's rugby I have been struggling to get out much.

On the 15th I was out with the Costa Blanca Bird Club and found an early House Martin (64) amongst the Crag Martins, and a few Dunlin (65).

The past few days the weather has got a lot colder (nothing like what Jos Stratford's experiencing) but cold for here, with some rain. This combination can be quite good for birds so I managed a few hours this morning and did quite well. The marsh was full of birds with lots of Water Pipits & Bluethroats around the wet muddy fields. However my first new bird of the morning was a few Coot (66) and then a single Purple Gallinule (67) making it's way along the edge of the paddy fields. The Lapwing numbers had risen and while checking these I heard a familiar call and 12 Golden Plover (68) dropped in to the same field. My final new bird was a couple of Tree Sparrows (69) around the allotments and orange groves. Hopefully soon a few early migrants will be found, a Great Spotted Cuckoo has already been seen just south of here!!!.
 
Whilst seawatching this morning had my first Barn Swallow (70) flying along the beach and later my second House Martin.

Razorbill numbers starting to build, with still plenty of Balearic Shearwaters just off-shore.

Hunting has now ceased at Pego Marsh so duck numbers will hopefully start to grow and bring in a few good species.
 
Out and about with another local birder today mostly within my patch limits but also slightly inland to the Val de Gallinera.

Oliva Beach & Pego Marsh produced some excellent birds including a male Peregrine (71), Red Crested Pochard (72) and Gadwall (73) for the year list.

Although the real highlight of the day was watching a pair of Golden Eagles displaying while eating our lunch and having a beer. Simply awesome.
 
Belated news from a few days ago included finding my first Moustached Warbler (74), & hearing several Savi's Warblers (75). The same day I also had 2 Great White Egrets (76) and a Jack Snipe (77) flushed by farm machinery.

Today was also interesting as migrants were very much in evidence including several Sand Martins (78), 10+ Little Ringed Plovers (79) and 3 Yellow Wagtails (80).

Excellent stuff
 
Things are now moving forward pretty quickly and some northerlies at the beginning of the week produced some interesting results.

I was on Pego Marsh on Monday 26th morning with a few people and the skies were full of hirunines mainly Crag Martins, but now plenty of Swallows, House & Sand Martins, but the highlight was my first Red rumped Swallow (81), and then a several Pallid Swifts (82) and two Common Swifts (83), all very early.

Today I was back there again and unfortunately things were quieter but we did have a Eurasian Teal (84) and the first Purple Heron (85) of the year.

Had a fantastic week elsewhere in the area resulting in two new birds for Spain, 38 Dotteral on the Albacete Plains and the Greater Spotted Eagle at El Hondo Reserve near Elche

Regards Jules
 
Added another four to the year list with a few Alpine Swifts (86) and Black winged Stilts (87) yesterday evening (8th March), and this evening we had 3 Garganey (88)and a Spotted Crake (89) all on Pego Marsh.
 
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