Friday 30th March 2012

Rambla de Albujon

Weather: Sky 2/8 cloud, no wind, temp. 21ºC.  15:30 – 17:45.

I spent the afternoon at the west end of the Mar Menor, again attempting to photograph the Spotted Crake (assuming it’s still about) but had no luck.  In the rambla itself, there are still both Common and Jack Snipe hanging about, together with a single Water Pipit and I heard at least 2 Cetti’s Warblers.  In the Mar Menor, there were 2 adult Audouin’s Gulls (unusual here), a group of 7 Black-necked Grebes and a couple of Little Stint along the shoreline.  I also had a large group of an estimated 150 mixed Swifts fly over (Common and Pallids).

Later I called in at the club nautico Los Urrutias area, where I had not 1 but 2 Great White Egrets, one feeding in its usual area, the other flying over east.

On the way home to Los Belones, just outside Los Nietos I had a group of hirundines made up of at least 4 House Martins, and 4 Red-rumped Swallows, the first I’ve seen this year.

 My first attempt at digiscoping with a new camera, a Slender-billed Gull

Species seen

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta)

Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago)

Jack Snipe (Lymnocryptes minimus)

Black Winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus)

Water Pipit (Anthus spinoletta)

Southern Grey Shrike (Lanius meridionalis)

Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)

Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus)

Cetti’s Warbler (Cettia cettia)

Audouin’s Gull (Larus audouinii)

Little Stint (Calidris minuta)

Swift (Apus apus)

Pallid Swift (Apus pallidus)

Blackbird (Turdus merula)

Black-necked Grebe (Podiceps nigricollis)

Ringed Plover (Charadrius hiaticula)

Sandwich Tern (Sterna sanvicensis)

Great White Egret (Egretta alba)

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta)

Red-rumped Swallow (Hirundo daurica)

House Martin (Delichon urbica)

Little Owl (Athene noctua)