Birding in Murcia (Spain), and UK visits: Saturday, 21st April 2012

Monday, 23 April 2012

Saturday, 21st April 2012

Cabo de Palos lighthouse garden

Weather: Sky no cloud, wind SW F1, temp.17ºC. 08:15 – 11:30. With Antonio Fernandez-Caro Hernández

The one real advantage about going out on a Saturday is that I have no time restrictions as to when I finish, so can amble around at leisure, and obviously the more time you spend out, the more you see. Today I was joined by Antonio Fernandez-Caro, and we had a pretty good morning. There had obviously been a fall of birds, and they were still coming in as we went round the gardens (as for example when we first went round there was a single Ortolan Bunting and no Flycatchers, but later in the morning we had both Spotted and Pied, but the Ortolan had gone). There were also a few birds just flying over (2 Tree pipits, 2 ‘flava’ Wagtails and 2 White Wagtails, a Skylark and a Short-toed Lark), and we had 3 Nightingales singing. Other birds of note were a pair of Stone Curlew, a Whimbrel, a couple of Turtle Doves, 18 Northern and 5 Black-eared Wheatears, 8 Subalpine Warblers, 4 Red-rumped Swallows, 7 Redstarts (strangely enough all males), and as we got back to our cars to leave, a Great Spotted Cuckoo flew round the car park.

Whimbrel seen at the base of the lighthouse

One of the Black-eared Wheatears seen

Spotted Flycatcher

Female Subalpine Warbler

Male Common Redstart

Male and female Northern Wheatear

Species seen/heard (and numbers)

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) - 2

Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) - 1

Shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis) - 7

Stone Curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus) - 2

Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus) - 1

Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) - 1

Yellow Legged Gull (Larus michahellis) – c 50

Audouin’s Gull (Larus audouinii) - 1

Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) - 2

Rock Dove/Domestic Pigeon (Columba livia) - 2

Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto) - 9

Turtle Dove (Streptopelia turtur) - 2

Swift/Pallid Swift (Apus apus/pallidus) - 25

Swift (Apus apus) – 15

Great Spotted Cuckoo (Clamator glandarius) - 1

Hoopoe (Upupa epops) - 2

Crested Lark (Galerida cristata) - 1

Skylark (Alauda arvensis) - 1

Short-toed Lark (Calandrella brachydactyla) - 1

Tree Pipit (Anthus trivialis) - 1

Red-rumped Swallow (Hirundo daurica) - 4

Swallow (Hirundo rustica) - 5

Blackbird (Turdus merula) - 7

Northern Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe) - 18

Black-eared Wheatear (Oenanthe hispanica) – 5

Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) – 7

Robin (erythacus rubecula) - 2

Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos) – 3

Common Whitethroat (Sylvia communis) – 1

Subalpine Warbler (Sylvia cantillans) – 8

Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) - 1

Sardinian Warbler (Sylvia melanocephala) - 8

Chiff/Willow (Phylloscopus collybita/trochilus) - 5

Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus) 8

Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) - 3

Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata) - 5

Woodchat Shrike (Lanius senator) - 2

Spotless Starling (Sturnus unicolor) - 15

House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) - 15

Greenfinch (Carduelis chloris) – 2

Serin (Serinus serinus) – 1

Corn Bunting (Miliaria calandra) – 2

Ortolan Bunting (Emberiza hortulana) - 1

Marchamalo Salinas (La Manga)

Weather: Sky 2/8 cloud, wind SW F1 - 2, temp. 23ºC. 11:45 – 13:15. With Antonio Fernandez-Caro Hernández

On the way back from Cabo de Palos, we called into the Salinas to see if there was anything new. The waders on the salinas were much as yesterday, although the Slender-billed Gulls were much closer, and out of a group of 13 I managed to read 4 colour rings.

Antonio had to go off, but I decided to walk through an area of Mimosa trees where in the past I have seen reasonable birds. The trees are in full flower at the moment, looking totally yellow and green, and making birds in the trees not overly visible. However I went through the area, and managed to find 3 male Pied Flycatchers, 5 Spotted Flycatchers, 6 Turtle Doves, 2 male Golden Orioles (which as always, are just seen as a flash of yellow and black as they disappear), and another Ortolan Bunting (they’re getting positively common of late)! I also heard a nightingale and saw 4 Willow Warblers, so definitely worth a walk through.