Birding in Murcia (Spain), and UK visits: Tuesday, 1st May 2012 (Mayday bank holiday)

Yecla ‘steppes’

Weather: Sky 1 - 4/8 cloud, no wind, temp. 11ºC. 10:00 – 14:20

As it was a holiday today, and I had heard that there would be ringing along the Rio Segura at Archena (about 30 minutes west of Murcia city), I got up early and got to Archena for 7:45 a.m. However, no-one had informed me that the ringing had been cancelled, so I spent about three quarters of an hour looking around for the ringers before deciding I wasn’t going to find them. In that time I managed to see a Spotted Flycatcher, and heard a couple of Reed Warblers and Cetti’s Warblers singing together with about 6 Nightingales and many Serins, and also heard the call of a Wryneck.

I then had to decide what to do next. As I was about an hour inland from home, I decided to go over to the ‘steppes’ of Yecla (actually this makes them sound very big, but in fact the area is a large flat valley between hills). This is the only area in Murcia to see birds such as Great Bustard and Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, and I had’t been there yet this year, so I decided to make the most of being almost halfway there, and I arrived at 10 o’clock. What I tend to do there is drive and stop – drive a short distance and stop and scan the fields, which are predominantly grape vines and wheat. There had obviously been a fair amount of rain there recently (probably yesterday or overnight) as there were a number of largish puddles around.

The first birds of note that I saw were a pair of Great Spotted Cuckoos chasing each other, and then at another stop I saw a couple of Kestrels that warranted further investigation. They were sat on the ground and as I got my bins on them they flew up – Lesser Kestrels. Then I heard more of them (that scratchy call that they give) and found that they were flying overhead – in all a flock of 17 of them.

3 photos of some of the Lesser Kestrels I saw

In the same fields which were wheat fields with the wheat about 9 inches tall, were a load of Calandra Larks (I’ve estimated about 30 in total) together with Crested/Theklas and Short-toed Larks.

On another stop by an abandoned house I heard a call that I’ve not heard for a while, and then the bird flew onto the top branch of a dead tree and started ‘singing’ (to me it sounds like a Greenfinch call). A male Rock Sparrow. It was soon joined by a couple more.

2 shots of the Rock Sparrow

To cut a long story short, I made several other stops and picked up suck birds as Raven, Carrion Crow, Chough, Hoopoes, Northern Wheatears, Little Owl, Bee-eaters but no sign of any bustards or sandgrouse. By about 1pm thing were starting to quieten down and I was starting to think of moving on elsewhere. ‘Just one more track’ I thought. Well it was worth it, as when I drove down it I flushed up a male Great Bustard – at least I got one of the specialties.

I left without seeing any sandgrouse, but think this may have been because presumably they are now breeding, and so not flying around in the flocks I am used to seeing, and not being particularly noisy either. And trying to pick out singles on the ground in the rocky fields when they have the tendency of walking quietly away is nigh on impossible.

Chough

Common Buzzard

Great Bustard

Species seen/heard

Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)

Lesser Kestrel (Falco naumanni)

Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo)

Turtle Dove (Streptopelia turtur)

Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)

Woodpigeon (Columba palumbus)

Hoopoe (Upupa epops)

Great Spotted Cuckoo (Clamator glandarius)

Swift (Apus apus)

Pallid Swift (Apus pallidus)

Bee-eater (Merpos apiaster)

Little Owl (Athene noctua)

Calandra Lark (Melanocorypha calandra)

Crested/Thekla Lark (Galerida cristata/theklae)

Short-toed Lark (Calandrella brachydactyla)

Swallow (Hirundo rustica)

House Martin (Delichon urbicum)

Blackbird (Turdus merula)

Northern Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe)

Magpie (Pica pica)

Carrion Crow (Corvus corone)

Chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax)

Raven (Corvus corax)

Spotless Starling (Sturnus unicolor)

Woodchat Shrike (Lanius senator)

Southern Grey Shrike (Lanius meridionalis)

Rock Sparrow (Petronia petronia)

Serin (Serinus serinus)

Greenfinch (Carduelis chloris)

Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)

Corn Bunting (Miliaria calandra)

Campotejar Sewage works

Weather: Sky 3/8 cloud, wind NE F2, temp. 21ºC. 15:30 – 17:15

After leaving Yecla on the way home to Los Belones I called in at the sewage works at Campotejar (just west of Murcia). The part that has public access consists of a number of reed-fringed lakes, which sometimes turn up some good birds, although mid-afternoon is probably not the best time. Normally there are a large number of White-headed Ducks, and today I saw a minimum of 80. Other birds of note were 11 Whiskered Terns, 10 Red Crested Pochard and 12 Black-necked Grebes, all in breeding plumage.

Turtle Dove

Bee-eater

White-headed Duck

Another of White-headed Duck

Black-necked Grebe

And 3 shots of Whiskered Terns

Species seen/heard

Shelduck (Tadorna tadorna)

Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)

Pochard (Aythya ferina)

Red-crested Pochard (Netta rufina)

White-headed Duck (Oxyura leucocephala)

Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis)

Black-necked Grebe (Podiceps nigricollis)

Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus)

Coot (Fulica atra)

Little Ringed Plover (Charadrius dubius)

Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos)

Black Winged Stilt (Himantopus Himantopus)

Greenshank (Tringa nebularia)

Dunlin (Calidris alpina)

Whiskered Tern (Chlidonias hybrida)

Turtle Dove (Streptopelia turtur)

Swift (Apus apus)

Pallid Swift (Apus pallidus)

Bee-eater (Merpos apiaster)

White Wagtail (Motacilla alba alba)

Iberian Wagtail (Motacilla flava iberiae)

Swallow (Hirundo rustica)

Red-rumped Swallow (Hirundo daurica)

Sand Martin (Riparia riparia)

House Martin (Delichon urbicum)

Cetti’s Warbler (Cettia cetti)

Woodchat Shrike (Lanius senator)

Serin (Serinus serinus)

Marchamalo Salinas

Weather: Sky 1/8 cloud, wind S F1, temp. 19ºC. 18:20 – 18:50

As I had time, I couldn’t resist calling into the Salinas. Nothing too spectacular there though, 3 Spotted Flycatcher on the fence, a constant movement of Pallid Swift overhead with a few House Martins and Red-rumped Swallows mixed in, a Corn Bunting singing, and on the Salinas themselves 8 Curlew Sandpipers, a couple of Redshank, 23 Avocet and 3 Black Winged Stilt.

Pallid Swift

Species seen/heard

Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)

Stone Curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus)

Black Winged Stilt (Himantopus Himantopus)

Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta)

Redshank (Tringa tetanus)

Curlew Sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea)

Pallid Swift (Apus pallidus)

House Martin (Delichon urbicum)

Red-rumped Swallow (Hirundo daurica)

Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata)

Corn Bunting (Miliaria calandra)

Cabo de Palos lighthouse garden.

Weather: Sky 2/8 cloud, wind SW F1, temp. 18ºC. 18:55 – 20:05.

It was still light & I still had time, so I paid a quick visit to the lighthouse gardens. The place was full of people, walking up to the lighthouse itself, but luckily much fewer people were walking the track around the base of the lighthouse. There was quite a variety of species this afternoon, and of note were 2 Ortolan Buntings - I thought I’d seen the last of them for this year. The supporting cast were a couple of Pied Flycatchers (male & female, the male looking like a ‘normal’ male), 5 Spotted Flycatchers, 2 Whinchat, 2 Northern Wheatears, 2 Corn Buntings, 3 Willow Warblers, a female Subalpine Warbler and an Iberian Wagtail (the first I’ve seen on the deck here so that I could sub-specifically identify it).