Thursday, 5 July 2012

Wednesday, 4th July 2012 – Abanilla, Murcia


Weather: Sky no cloud, no wind, temp. 33º - 25ºC.  18:30 – 22:00. 
With Diego Zamora Urán, Antonio Fernández-Caro Goméz, Antonio Jesús Hernández Navarro; Toni Garcia; Adrián Ruiz Rocamora; Alfonso Samper Lozano.

As a prelude to a full census next week, a group of us led by Adrián went to various dry river sites in Abanilla searching in particular for Trumpeter Finches. The reason for this was that over the last month Adrián has had various sightings of this finch, and breeding is suspected.  In the first site we tried, we struck lucky, various birds seen flying around, and I had the luck of seeing an adult male and juvenile sit on the wall of the riverbed for about 30 seconds before they flew off again.
No photos I’m afraid, as the sighting was too fleeting, but a good site to know and return to.

Other birds of interest seen were several Rock Sparrows, a single male Rock Bunting, 2 Black Wheatears, a group of 5 Bee-eaters, 2 Thekla Larks plus plenty of hirundines (mainly Crag Martins, but also House Martins, Swallows, Red-rumped Swallows) and Common Swifts.  Also heard was a single Crested Tit.

At another site nearby we had more Black Wheatears, and also heard a Golden Oriole calling.

 A couple of general views of the area, showing the type of terrain


 Species seen/heard
Red-legged Partridge (Alectoris rufa)
Swift (Apus apus)
Bee-eater (Merops apiaster)
Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis)
Thekla Lark (Galerida theklae)
Swallow (Hirundo rustica)
Red-rumped Swallow (Hirundo daurica)
House Martin (Delichon urbicum)
Crag Martin (Ptyonoprogne rupestris)
Golden Oriole (Oriolus oriolus)
Black Wheatear (Oenanthe leucura)
Dartford Warbler (Sylvia undata)
Crested Tit (Parus cristatus)
Woodchat Shrike (Lanius senator)
Rock Sparrow (Petronia petronia)
Trumpeter Finch (Bucanetes githagineus)
Greenfinch (Carduelis chloris)
Serin (Serinus serinus)
Rock Bunting (Emberiza cia)

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