Hi all,
I have spent a few days in Spain, here's my report. I will be uploading photos onto my website over the next few days.
Report
Wednesday 12th December :- Today was our first of two days bird watching with Jules Sykes from
www.olivaramatours.com . The plan was to start the tour around Jules local area and Alicante tomorrow. We at the motorway exit and together drove the short journey to Oliva Beach where we found a group of gulls stood on the sand. Jules immediately picked up an Audouin's Gull and got us on to it and continued scanning the pack.
A group of Black heads flew up and back down at the waters edge and amongst them Jules saw a much smaller bird with black underwings and thought 'Little Gull' but it had dropped out of sight. So Jules quickly re-positioned and re-found the bird and sure enough it was an adult winter Little Gull and it is the first time Jules had found this gorgeous bird on his local patch. We all got excellent scoped views of the bird but a dog-walker happened along and disturbed the pack, which unfortunately sent it flying out to sea and well away from us. The rest of the gulls returned and we spent some time going through them finding 6 Mediterranean, several Audouin's, a Lesser Black backed, more Black headed & Yellow legged Gulls plus Sandwich Terns, a Kingfisher, Cormorants and White Wagtails.
We decided to leave and head for Pego Marsh where after a quick coffee we drove slowly around some of the paddy fields taking bird photographs with the highlights being a point-blank male Bluethroat, a Booted Eagle feeding on a Moorhen, and an Osprey, Booted Eagle, Common Buzzard & Peregrine Falcon flying around together. Although we also saw lots of Cattle & Little Egrets, Grey Herons, Little Grebe, Coot, Marsh Harriers, Green Sandpipers, Kingfishers, Crested Larks, Water & Meadow Pipits, Crag Martins, White Wagtails, Robins, Stonechats, Black Redstarts, Blackbirds, Chiffchaffs, Jackdaws, Spotless Starlings, Chaffinches, Goldfinches, and Reed Buntings. It was now nearing lunchtime so we drove just inland to the Vall de Gallinera and a stop en-route produced a Sparrowhawk and Kestrel in a mini dog-fight plus another Common Buzzard, Sardinian Warbler and Great Tits. Then sat outside at the café we saw plenty of Blackcaps, Sardinian Warblers, Song Thrushes, Magpies, Serins, Greenfinches, Goldfinches, & Chaffinches but alas not the hoped for Golden Eagle. We continued to the head of the valley and spent a while on the edge of a stand of pines getting good views of another Sparrowhawk, Short toed Treecreepers, Serins, Crested & Coal Tits
As we returned back down the valley Jules spotted something on the top of the crags so we stopped and sure enough there at an adult Golden Eagle in full view, along with a few Red billed Choughs to complete the targets we had wanted to find here. So we returned to Pego Marsh for the last couple of hours in the hope of finding some more birds to photograph, managing some more great Bluethroat images of at least two males displaying out in the open.
Although we did see many of species seen in the morning we did also find a very late family party of Little Ringed Plovers, Common Snipe, 3 Penduline Tits, Southern Grey Shrike, and Skylarks.
Thursday December 13th :- We met Jules at Alicante airport and together we drove to Gran Alicant were we started our birdwatching day at the Clot de Galvany. As usual this excellent nature reserve produced a lot of birds including Little Grebe, Mallard, Shovelers, Wigeon, Common Teal, Gadwall, Coot, Moorhen, Water Rail, Red legged Partridges, Wryneck, 3 Iberian Green Woodpeckers, Little Owls, Hoopoes, Southern Grey Shrike, Water & Meadow Pipits, Black Redstarts, Robins, Stonechats, Blackbirds, Song Thrush, Crag Martins, Crested Larks, Sardinian & Cetti's Warblers, Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps, Great Tit, Serins, Greenfinches, Goldfinches, Chaffinches, Linnets, Spotless Starlings, White Wagtails, and Reed Buntings. After this great start we continued along the beach road to Santa Pola where I managed to photograph a pair of Audouin's Gulls on the rocks plus here we saw Cormorants, Little Egret and Kentish Plover. After an early(ish) lunch we drove down to the salinas and a walk around the 'Playa de Gola' area and after a walk through the dunes found our main target 2 Richard's Pipits.
Here also we found more Southern Grey Shrikes, Meadow Pipits, Crested Larks, Serins, Greenfinches, Sardinian Warblers, Black Redstarts and Stonechats, plus our first Zitting Cisticolas and Yellow legged Gulls. Back at the vehicle we checked the sea and found a flock of 12 Common Scoter, 30+ Balearic Shearwaters, and several Great Crested Grebes. Next we stopped at a few pull-ins along the main salinas lagoons and found Little & Great Crested Grebes, Cormorants, Grey Herons, Little Egrets, Greater Flamingos, Shelduck, Coot, an Osprey, Marsh Harriers, Kestrel, Spotted & Common Redshanks, Greenshanks, Dunlin, Little Stint, Avocets, Black winged Stilts, Grey & Ringed Plovers, Turnstones, lots of Slender billed, Audouin's, Yellow legged, Lesser Black backed & Black headed Gulls, Sandwich Terns, Zitting Cisticola, Chiffchaffs, Water & Meadow Pipits.
It was now time to visit our final site El Hondo and a few stops around it's perimeter produced good views of several Dartford Warblers, a male Merlin, 8 Booted Eagles, Common Buzzards, Cattle Egrets, Lapwings, a Kingfisher, Skylarks with more Marsh Harriers, Kestrels, Crag Martins, Crested Larks, and Southern Grey Shrikes. Another good day out with 70+ species seen within quite a small distance.
Summary
Jules has an exceptional talent for finding birds, this combined with his incredible knowledge of birds makes, a tour with Jules an incredible experience! If like us, you are seeking a short “birding” break this winter in warmer climes, Book cheap flights to Spain (only 2 hrs from the UK) ours where £50.00p return (each) with Thompson Fly and contact Jules at
www.olivaramatours.com and you are guaranteed an amazing adventure/tour with some great “ticks”
Hopefully, we will be visiting Jules and his CDs (you need to ask Jules about the CDs yourself) in late March to observe the early migrants,
