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

Birding in Alicante Province (3 Viewers)

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.
 
What a pity!!
I was in Alicante and Murcia by 10th september, visiting the Clot del Galvany and other birding and dragonflying spots, as I was designing a private tour. Our visit was also trying to check the state of conservation of southeastern coastal wetlands.

I produced a trip report for that recce trip, but it is entirely in Spanish, with the species seen. Would you be interested to have one of this?? I promise that my Spanish it isn't as dissapointing as the one included in those documents issued by 'Ayuntamientos' or lawyers!!! ;-)

Saludos
Jorge
 
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Hola Jorge

Yes, I would like to see your report - can you send it by PM? I can get a translation and repost an extract here! :t:

Saludos
Mark
 
Sounds good - whats Monegre like? I havent been up yet and its definitely on my to do list along with the vultures up the road... I usually go to crevillente for the Bonelli's but Monegre seems to get a bit more variety

Monnegre used to be a good site for Trumpeter Finch. It's been five years since I was last there, so not sure if if they are still around.
 
It looks like El Hondo will be the place in Spain for Greater Spotted Eagles again this winter, Graham Critchell has reported one yesterday (18th Oct) and Tönn the Estonian satellite-tracked GSE is heading through Belgium on his way there. He is a bit later than last year, hopefully the cooler weather will send him southwards a bit faster!
 
My good friend and photographic colleague John Oliver has found a major rarity in the Clot de Galvany reserve south of Alicante on 28th October - an African Desert Warbler.

Here are the two photos he sent me, reproduced here with his permission, and thanks to the chaps in the ID forum who confirmed it!
 

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Tonn the Estonian-born Greater Spotted Eagle has arrived at El Hondo for his fourth consecutive winter. He was seen and photographed yesterday 6th November by Graham Critchell.

He is fairly easy to see, either from the Vistabella Road which skirts the southern edge of El Hondo, there is a large gate about halfway along this road with several tall trees behind it, Tonn favours these trees for roosting and as a lookout point; or you can obtain access to the northern part of the reserve by making a booking with the reserve centre - there is a row of trees along the route where Tonn also tends to hang about.

I wouldn't say you are guaranteed to see GSE, but you'd have to be extraordinarily unlucky to miss him if you went there for two or three visits while you were in the area.

I should be there in December, and we'll see how many GSEs turn up - there were 5 of them there last year! :-O
 
Pre-Xmas Visit

I've managed to find an excuse to get down to Alicante again for a week and boy does it feel cold here - which is surprising as I left Aberdeen when it was just above freezing and it's a good 10 degrees more here, but somehow it feels a lot colder than that, something to do with the relative humidity I suppose. :-C

My last comment about how good the Vistabella Road to the south of El Hondo is for seeing birds (particularly the Greater Spotted Eagles) has been blown out of the water - there is a lot of excavation for a programme of drainage improvements going on and all the good sites are occupied by earth-moving machinery. :C The GSE's are here, though - there are 3 present and I had a very distant view of one of them from the Reserve Centre this afternoon, too far away to see if it was Tonn with his satellite antenna.

Water levels are very good in Hondo, so there are plenty of birds about. One very unexpected bird was this Slavonian Grebe in winter dress, more usual was the delightful Bluethroat which is a common winter visitor to the area.

The good news is that there isn't a mozzie in sight! :t:
 

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D*mn and Blast! :C

I knew I should have waited before posting that one and get an expert's view, and today I had exactly that - the President of the Costa Blanca Bird Club Malcolm Palmer took one look at my Grebe photo (it is indeed a Black-necked) and told me I was a blithering idiot...:-C

Fortunately he did not do this within earshot of about 45 members of the CBBC, whom I joined today for their December field trip around El Hondo; there was a wide range of abilities among the group from red-hot experts to total novices. I mentally put myself towards the lower range of those abilities.

Despite the large group numbers present (or perhaps because of it), a good number of birds were seen and identified, although sadly no definite GSE (there might have been one way off in the distance). My personal highlight was seeing and being told the differences between Little Stint and Temminck's Stint, both of which could be seen side-by-side on a small pool along the Vistabella Road, I hope I've got the two in this photo of the day!

An excellent days birding finished off at Santa Pola habour to watch the fishing fleet come in surrounded by gulls and other seabirds - between us we got Gannet, Balearic Shearwater, Yellow-legged, Lesser Black-backed, Audouin's, Mediterranean and Black-headed Gulls which just about Laridae'd me out...:eat:
 

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I've managed to find an excuse to get down to Alicante again for a week and boy does it feel cold here - which is surprising as I left Aberdeen when it was just above freezing and it's a good 10 degrees more here, but somehow it feels a lot colder than that, something to do with the relative humidity I suppose. :-C

My last comment about how good the Vistabella Road to the south of El Hondo is for seeing birds (particularly the Greater Spotted Eagles) has been blown out of the water - there is a lot of excavation for a programme of drainage improvements going on and all the good sites are occupied by earth-moving machinery. :C The GSE's are here, though - there are 3 present and I had a very distant view of one of them from the Reserve Centre this afternoon, too far away to see if it was Tonn with his satellite antenna.

Water levels are very good in Hondo, so there are plenty of birds about. One very unexpected bird was this Slavonian Grebe in winter dress, more usual was the delightful Bluethroat which is a common winter visitor to the area.

The good news is that there isn't a mozzie in sight! :t:


Aaaaarrrgghh! :eek!:I'm going over there for a week in January and I was hoping to use the info you gave about that road. Let's hope the diggers have finished and moved off when I get there.
 
It's not that bad - a couple of vantage points have been flattened but the important thing is that the two hides along that road still appear to be open - I will confirm that over the next few days. There is some good birding available in the fields to the south of the road, there has been heavy rain this autumn and there are several shallow pools which this afternoon held the 2 Stint species, Water Pipit, Dunlin and various Larks. Marsh and Hen Harrier were seen hunting over these fields as well. We didn't see any Cranes today but they are also about, it's just a matter of finding which field they are in! :t:
 
We all have them - days when it seems that all the birds have gone into hiding or stay resolutely out of camera range - well this morning seemed to be going that way.

I went along the notorious N332 road over the Santa Pola salinas, but at each layby there were no birds which seemed willing to pose for a portrait, despite the fact that the road was unusually quiet. A great pity, because I could see half a dozen Spoonbills, two Great Egrets and the usual Flamingo flock way off in the distance. An Osprey was diving at the far south end of the pools, but there was nowhere to safely park to get even a record shot! :C

I went on to El Pinet reserve which was notable for the complete absence of birds - the ponds were very full, leaving no sandbanks for waders, there were no Slender-billed Gulls either (this site is usually a guaranteed sighting point for them) and the Tern nesting banks were empty, you usually get something resting on them! :C:C

So I went back to the Vistabella Road at El Hondo, where the workmen were in full flow on the new drainage system - the only good thing about that was that they are getting the work done very quickly and it should be finished soon, leaving the area to the birds again.

For the afternoon I visited my local reserve at the Clot de Galvany, where I spent an enjoyable time photographing Black Redstarts and Stonechats, but the highlight was an inquisitive Dartford Warbler which gave me my shot of the day. :t:
 

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Despite what the Costa Blanca brochures might say, not every day is wall-to-wall sunshine, and today was dull grey with a stiff breeze blowing, keeping the birds mostly down and out of sight.

The area in which I have a holiday home is very quiet at this time of year, with many of the local shops and restaurants closed. I fancied a bit of Spanish for lunch (food - not what you just thought there) and went to a Spanish restaurant where I have had excellent meals before for a seafood paella.

Perhaps they've just given up trying while there are few visitors about, but that paella I had today was the worst example of reheated mush I've had in a long time. The place has gone into my little black book...:scribe:

Still, I managed a nice shot of a Serin later on in the afternoon.
 

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Still grey, windy and cold this morning, but I had already booked to enter the North Gate at El Hondo - it is a pity that the designated hours are 0815 to 1115, it's too dark so you waste an hour at the beginning, and you have to leave just as things are getting interesting :C

Not many photographic possibilities there today, but I had sightings of one of the Great Spotted Eagles (there are 3 there at present), Osprey, Booted Eagles and Marsh Harriers. Lots of waterfowl also in evidence, with many White-headed Ducks, Pintail, Shoveler, Red crested Pochard and Wigeon among the innumerable Coots. Smaller birds were keeping their heads down in the wind and cold, but Bluethroats and a Cetti's Warbler were also seen.

The Santa Pola salinas proved a much better prospect this afternoon - the Bonmati Saltworks acces road to the south had a nice selection of waders and Slender-billed Gulls within photographic distance. Below we have 2 variations on a Dulin theme, a Little Stint, a Redshank and the SB Gull.
 

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