Birding in Alicante Province (3 Viewers)

I think this can only be described as a "record shot"!

Last day in Spain until July, so made an effort to get out for some last birding, starting at El Pinet salinas, where the highlight was the sight and sound of 200+ common tern making a din over the lagoon in front of the hide Otherwise, the water was quiet as the level was quite high.

I then went exploring a new route into the salinas from the west, along farm tracks. One track allowed me quite q way into the surrounding farmland close to the western edge of the salinas. Lots of Sardinian warbler, and my first subalpine warbler of the year, too, plus decent views of a purple swamphen, and another great egret seen distantly.

Finally, heading home, I saw my first woodchat shrike (along the road to Dolores), and passed by the egret roost again (which of course was teeming with egrets now I had no camera!) where I heard my first great reed warbler this trip.

Thanks for all the info on all the sightings Lazza,I just hope it will be as good for the month of May when we are there.

BobCesme said:

Thanks for all the info on all the sightings Lazza,I just hope it will be as good for the month of May when we are there.

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A pleasure, Bob! Good luck with your own trip. I'm always reminded with each trip to Spain, just how good birding is there. The Alicante region is not even viewed as a premier area for birding in Spain, but it's amazing what's about just under your nose (especially for a visitor from the UK not used to Mediterranean species!).

I'll try to post a final list of species seen and which place(s) found in the next few days, but was very pleased with a 2-week total of 83 species (one more than last Spring), and I reckon I've a good chance of getting to 100 species on my Spain year-list when I come back in the summer (still bee-eater, roller, purple & squacco herons, flycatchers and several waders missing).

A list of species and locations would be excellent for reference before my trip.
No Squacco,Bee-eaters or Roller here yet either ,but the flycatchers and waders are on the move,we have a Collared flycatcher and a Nightingale in the garden at the moment and the Glossy ibis arrived yesterday with some Ruff and Black-winged stilt.
Look forward to your list.

So, here's my list of species seen during my 12 days in Spain over Easter. On counting back, I realised I missed two species off my earlier count (chiffchaff and woodpigeon), so the total is actually 85, not 83.

Quail: heard along track between Urb La Marina and El Hondo (5th April)
Red-legged partridge: track between Urb La Marina and El Hondo
Shelduck: El Pinet salinas; El Hondo reserve (San Felipe Neri hides)
Mallard: multiple locations, common in ditches, irrigation channels, irrigated fields, etc.
Garganey: El Pinet Salinas; El Hondo reserve (Vistabella hides)
Marbled duck: El Hondo reserve (San Felipe Neri hides)
Pochard: Santa Pola salinas; El Hondo reserve (San Felipe Neri and Vistabella hides)
Red-crested pochard: El Hondo reserve (San Felipe Neri and Vistabella hides)
White-headed duck: El Hondo reserve (Vistabella hides)
Little grebe: El Hondo reserve (Vistabella hides)
Great crested grebe: El Hondo reserve (Vistabella hides)
Black-necked grebe: El Hondo reserve (Vistabella hides)
Greater flamingo: Santa Pola salinas; El Pinet salinas; El Hondo reserve (San Felipe Neri and Vistabella hides)
Glossy ibis: single birds only: over Vistabella Road; over Urb La Marina
Little bittern: Rio Segura reed-beds
Black-crowned night heron: repeated sightings along track between Urb La Marina and El Hondo
Cattle egret: large roost on track between Urb La Marina and El Hondo; other groups seen in irrigated fields in several locations
Grey heron: common in many locations
Great white egret: El Hondo reserve (Vistabella hides); Santa Pola salinas (western edges)
Little egret: common in many locations
Cormorant: several single birds seen over Urb La Marina; El Hondo reserve (Vistabella hides); Rio Segura
Osprey: track between Urb La Marina and El Hondo
Marsh harrier: El Hondo reserve (Vistabella hides)
Kestrel: track between Urb La Marina and El Hondo
Purple swamphen: El Hondo reserve (Vistabella hides); Santa Pola salinas (western edges)
Coot: El Hondo reserve (San Felipe Neri and Vistabella hides)
Moorhen: common in many locations, especially irrigation canals and ditches
Stone curlew: track between Urb La Marina and El Hondo; Camino El Hondo (along western edge of El Hondo reserve)
Black-winged stilt: common in many locations
Avocet: very numerous at El Pinet salinas; Santa Pola salinas; El Hondo reserve (Vistabella and San Felipe Neri hides)
Kentish plover: El Pinet salinas
Redshank: El Hondo (San Felipe Neri hides)
Green sandpiper: track between Urb La Marina and El Hondo
Wood sandpiper: El Hondo (San Felipe Neri hides)
Common sandpiper: El Hondo (San Felipe Neri hides)
Dunlin: El Pinet salinas
Sanderling: El Pinet salinas
Slender-billed gull: El Pinet salinas
Mediterranean gull: El Hondo (San Felipe Neri hides)
Black-headed gull: El Hondo (San Felipe Neri hides); El Pinet salinas; La Marina beaches
Audouin's gull: Guardamar; Rio Segura; La Marina beaches
Yellow-legged gull: Santa Pola salinas; El Hondo reserve (San Felipe Neri and Vistabella hides); Rio Segura; La Marina beaches
Sandwich tern: El Pinet salinas
Common tern: El Pinet salinas
Whiskered tern: El Hondo reserve (Vistabella hides)
Feral pigeon/rock dove: common in many locations
Woodpigeon: common in many locations
Collared dove: common in many locations
Cuckoo (heard only): Urb La Marina; farmland near Dolores; El Pinet dunes
Common swift: common in many locations
Pallid swift: Urb La Marina; El Hondo reserve (Vistabella hides)
Hoopoe: common in many locations
Iberian green woodpecker: seen along Rio Segura near Rojales; heard in several locations
Southern Grey shrike: common in many locations
Woodchat shrike: road to Dolores
Magpie: Guardamar; scrubland around Urb La Marina
Jackdaw: El Altet
Great tit: common in many locations
Crested lark: common in many locations
Sand martin: El Hondo (Vistabella hides)
House martin: Catral; El Hondo hides (Vistabella hides)
Barn swallow: common in many locations
Red-rumped swallow: Urb La Marina; El Pinet salinas
Long-tailed tit: El Pinet dunes
Cetti's warbler (heard only): Vistabella road; camino El Hondo; El Hondo reserve (San Felipe Neri hides)
Willow warbler: seen by El Pinet salinas hides; heard in scrubland around Urb La Marina
Chiffchaff : seen by El Pinet salinas hides; heard in scrubland around Urb La Marina and El Hondo reserve
Great reed warbler: track between Urb La Marina and El Hondo
Reed warbler: track between Urb La Marina and El Hondo; El Hondo reserve (Vistabella hides)
Zitting cisticola: common in many locations
Blackcap: Camino El Hondo
Subalpine warbler: Santa Pola salinas (western edge)
Sardinian warbler: common in many locations
Spotless starling: common in most urban locations
Blackbird: common in many locations
Black redstart: orchards along Rio Segura
Stonechat: track between Urb La Marina and El Hondo
Whinchat: El Hondo reserve (San Felipe Neri hides)
House sparrow: common in many locations
Tree sparrow: farmland neighbouring Urb La Marina
White wagtail: common in many locations
Serin: common in many locations
Goldfinch: common in many locations
Greenfinch: common in many locations
Corn bunting: common in many locations

A great list there Lazza,thanks for posting.
I certainly hope the White-headed duck is still around when I get there.

White-headed ducks are pretty easy to find. If you visit the El Hondo hides along "Vistabella Road", you are pretty much guaranteed. Even if there are none on the main pools, there are almost always some lurking in the canal/ditch that you need to cross to get to the hides. Almost always some visible from the hides near El Hondo's San Felipe Neri visitor centre, too (especially the hide/screen furthest from the visitor centre, facing south) although not seen by me there on this trip.

lazza said:

White-headed ducks are pretty easy to find. If you visit the El Hondo hides along "Vistabella Road", you are pretty much guaranteed. Even if there are none on the main pools, there are almost always some lurking in the canal/ditch that you need to cross to get to the hides. Almost always some visible from the hides near El Hondo's San Felipe Neri visitor centre, too (especially the hide/screen furthest from the visitor centre, facing south) although not seen by me there on this trip.

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Cheers Lazza ,have copied your list,so should be sorted now.

lazza said:

Another surprise was the changes to the boardwalk, which now runs over a cleared pool rather than reeds and scrub. Although rather barren looking, it clearly gives good habitat for waders, allowing me to add the two other sandpiper species to the day's list, with a couple of wood sandpiper and half a dozen common sandpiper among the stilts.

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I spent a day at El Hondo yesterday with my precious holiday pass and was very impressed with the new pools (one immediately left of the visitors centre, the other on the return trail) - both afforded good close views of a variety of interesting species including flamingos.

Sightings wise I has a Crested Coot in amongst the collared birds, a Purple Gallinule from the rest area screen, 2+ confiding Squacco Heron, Night Heron over, 2 White-headed Ducks (both male), 7 Marbled Duck, Purple Heron, Short-toed Eagle, a nice flock of Black-tailed Godwit and plenty of Red-rumped Swallows, Glossy Ibis, Cattle Egret and Great Reed Warblers. Both Roller and Bee-eater were on wires in amongst the palms opposite the northern gate.

Interesting how distributions change - when I was last there 2 years ago there seemed to be more Black-necked Grebes and Red-crested Pochards (and White-necked Ducks); this year there appeared to be more Avocet and stilts (both with serious numbers of young birds), Whiskered Tern and Collared Practincoles (many resting up in the ploughed field close to the visitors centre at the end of the return trail, affording excellent views). Raptors were also in short supply with no Osprey or Marsh Harrier.

A further 9 Marbled Duck were on a small pool at the Elche end of CV-861 by the 7 kilometre marker.

There is also a good bird in "the usual place" (see previous postings) which has only arrived in the last week or so, welcome back to the Rufous Bushchat.

Just watch out for the naked cyclists thereabouts......

I was granted a half day extra birding for Father's Day today so I hot-footed it to El Hondo again. Sightings included 2 Squacco Heron, male Little Bittern, Great White Egret, Purple Heron, c60 Glossy Ibis, 7 Purple Gallinule, 4 Marbled Duck, Marsh Harrier, Moustached Warbler, Woodchat Shrike, Greenshank, Little Ringed Plover, Kentish Plover, Yellow Wagtail, Kestrel, Melodious Warbler, Fan-tailed Warbler, many Great Reed Warbler, c80 Flamingos, several Black Terns, countless Little and Whiskered Terns, Southern Grey Shrike, Cuckoo, Red-crested Pochard, Stonechat, Med and Slender-billed Gulls, Sardinian Warbler, hundreds of Avocet and Black-winged Stilts, c50 Black-tailed Godwit, Pochard, Great Crested Grebe and absolute minimums of 300 Collared Pratincole and 250 Cattle Egret.

A Roller was again on wires by the northern gate and a Little Owl by the abandoned football pitches.

A quick visit to the two southern viewing platforms produced a further 2 Squacco Heron, Bee-eater, Southern Grey Shrike and a magnificent male Montagu's Harrier - there a few better sights in birding!! B B

Two weeks to go until we fly out on our annual summer visit to the region! Unfortunately, I'll be working for some of it, and we might not have the luxury of resident grandparents to take the kids out while I tootle off on my bike in search of exotic birdlife, but I'm starting to wonder what this trip might hold

Mark Etheridge said:

Not quite, the Terek is on a pool known locally as EDAR (sorry I don't know what that means!) to the north of the Clot which is situated off the El Arenales del Sol to El Altet road, it's along the first farm track to the left just after leaving the Arenales roundabout if you know the area.

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While seeking in this thread I've found this question unanswered, so, just for info, E.D.A.R. stands for "Estación Depuradora de Aguas Residuales", that is, sewage plant

Well, I've been in the area a week, but mostly working, so had very little opportunity to get out and about, other than a ride out to the shops one afternoon last week, taking the long route along the canals, but being mid-afternoon and mid-30s in temperature, there wasn't much about. Nevertheless, I still managed to flush a Squacco Heron from a canal, find a fly-catching Spotted Flycatcher (in the scrub at the end of the Rio Segura) and have excellent views (probably my best ever views) of a Nightingale flitting about in a rough orchard on the edge of Urb La Marina.

Then this morning, I managed my first couple of hours birding, with a cycle out from the Urb to the Vistabella Road hides of El Hondo. The first highlight was four or five fields flooded along the "sandpiper alley" track, holding 50-60 Glossy Ibis (great to see, as they seemed thin on the ground in the Spring), together with a couple of hundred Cattle Egret and a few Little Egret. This was swiftly followed by four Stone Curlew flying over my head as I came out onto Vistabella Road, which landed in one of the fields to the south, where a small family group of Red-legged Partridge also scuttled about.

Paid short-ish visits to all three hides, the first two of which were quite full with photographers, but it was still nice to see so many Whiskered Tern feeding, and a couple of Little Tern, too, and also a decent sightings of a Purple Swamphen dispute!The third hide was a revelation, despite being tricky to get too because of the collapsed screens. There was a large group of flamingo right in front of the hide, which I managed not to spook too much, and the mud-flats to the side held plenty of Ibis and Egret, but most amazingly was the steady stream of Black-crowned Night Heron which flew over, possibly 9 or 10 in all, as well as 2 Squacco Heron.

But the best (for me) was yet to come, as I added a lifer on the way home. I headed up the tracks from the two ponds on the CV855 (which held another Night Heron!) taking a diagonal route back to the Urb in the hope of seeing my first Roller of the year (which I did), but I also had the pleasure to watch a fabulous Great Spotted Cuckoo hawking for insects for 10 minutes, very close by, seemingly unconcerned by my presence. a lifer for me, and what a fabulous bird (especially the Orange-flashing wings in flight) and a great way to bring up 200 species for 2015!!

Today's little jaunt was a late afternoon run out to El Pinet, but really not much to report from there. No hoped-for pratincoles, just a few Little Tern and Common Tern , plus the usual flamingoes, avocets and stilts, plus a couple of Redshank and a couple of Black-tailed Godwit and just a single Slender-billed Gull. However, heading back uphill, along the edge of the new-ish Urbanizacion, I surprisingly added a new species to my lifetime Spain list, spotting a Linnet feeding on the wild fennel growing in farmland along the road.

My plans to head back via the Palm Farm Road (now that I finally know where it is!) were unfortunately scuppered by a flat tyre, but as I waited for the emergency services to arrive (wife & kids in the car), I finally added Bee-eater to this year's list (they seem very thin on the ground to me this year as I'm used to hearing them most evenings over the house during our summer visit, but haven't seen or heard a single one until today. On the other hand, two more Roller seen today, which seem to be having a particularly good year!

Another morning cycle, this time out to San Felipe Neri and that end of El Hondo.

Once again, I took some of the farm tracks and was rewarded with lots of Cattle Egret and Glossy Ibis, as well as perhaps 300 Jackdaws feeding on irrigated fields. Lots of fields held the purple-flowered shrub that seems quite widespread; not sure what it is, but it was smelling fantastic, like a cross between roses and jasmine, and was attracting lots of yellow (brimstone?) butterflies.

I also heard a distant Quail calling from farmland near the large warehouses and pool-supplies superstore on the Dolores road, but didn't get near enough to have a chance of a visual.

Took the Camino El Hondo road around to Catral, finding a Little Owl on a roadside telegraph pole, then headed down to the two platforms on the western edge of the reserve, but the high reeds prevented much being seen, other than a couple of Reed Warbler, a showy Great Reed Warbler and a few Zitting Cisticola.

Finally round to the San Felipe visitor centre area, where the newly flooded pools held plenty of herons and terns, but not much else, while a single Marbled Duck was on the small pond behind the screens with a handful of Red-headed Pochard and the usual tagged Red-knobbed Coot. A Purple Swamphen was about all I could find from the "left-hand" hide, while the furthest hide was a big surprise, with almost no water there at all. The exposed mud held a few waders dotted about, but I could only identify a few Little Ringed Plover and a single Common Sandpiper

Not able to get out much at all in the last few days, but I am at least pleased to report the presence of Bee-eaters over the Urb every day this week, having struggled to find any at all over the first week I was here.

Then today, a leisurely cycle round some of the local camino and along the Vistabella Road with a neighbour (so not really possible to keep stopping!) gave me a surprise find in one of the fields: 4 Whimbrel!

Took a ride out along the N332 from La Marina towards Santa Pola this morning, making it as far as the tower lay-by, with quite a lot of decent birds around. The lagoon by the lay-by itself was full of Flamingo, very close to the road, causing a bit if of a photographer frenzy when I was there, although not many took any notice of the lovely Turnstones also pecking about in the shallows. Further south, there were several Kentish Plover, a few Little Stint, and what I think were two Spotted Redshank (but will post photos for confirmation when I get a chance) and at last, my first Collared Pratincole of the year. A single Dunlin, a few Redshank, several Stilt, an Avocet with chick, and a Common Sandpiper completed the wader list, while Common, Whiskered, and Little Tern were also all present. Heading home, a Short-toed Eagle soared low over the road as I passed Iceland, before banking over Lidl and passing over me again and then drifting off South!!

Had a ride up into the Sierra Crevillente today, which was rather a challenge, but was something a bit different in birding terms. And I added yet another lifer, so well worth the effort!

As I headed north and uphill out of Crevillente town, it was nice to see good numbers of red-rumped swallow hawking over the farmland, and also a spotted flycatcher flitting about just outside the town, and three bee-eaters perched in a tree. Once up into the hills, a couple of roller were seen just before reaching an (aqueduct?) arch. I headed right from the archway, and soon found myself struggling up steep hills in the shadow of towering cliffs, but it was tricky to identify many of the flighty birds along the route in part due to my crap bins, in part due to the sweat running into my eyes and an inability to hold my hands stable as I gasped for air!!

Nevertheless, I had good sightings of a unknown species perched on a bush, which turned out to be a lifer: black-eared wheatear! As I got higher, unknowns kept on coming (showing my complete lack of familiarity with Spanish upland species) but I think I may have seen rock sparrow and tawny pipit based on the brief sightings and notes I made, but I couldn't be sure.

Finally, I literally reached the end of the road and continued up a steep, stony path about another half mile, getting fantastic views of alpine swift whooshing past above and below me. Some dark hirundines were also feeding up near the tops of the cliffs, possibly crag martin, but again, I can't be sure, unfortunately.

Oh, and a post-script just to mention the wonderful early morning sight as I set out, riding past farmland near Urb Oasis, where 2 newly irrigated fields held c400 cattle egret, 120+ glossy ibis, and around 30 Mediterranean gulls.