Saturday 17th May - Up West for the day

Normally on a Saturday, I take the opportunity of having the whole day off to go out and about in Murcia.  As last Saturday I stayed local at Cabo de Palos to do the monthly RAM seawatch, I decided that this Saturday I would go to the extreme opposite side of Murcia, and planned accordingly.  Hence alarm set for 4am, and I set out at 4-30am, arriving a little before dawn at Cieza (on the borders of Murcia / Albacete). My reason for being here so early was because it is a breeding area for one of birders ‘holy grail’ birds, the Dupont’s Lark (for obvious reasons, I cannot give the exact location of the birds).  This is a bird that has a reputation of being particularly hard to come across; in ‘Europe’ the favourite places to see them is Zaragoza in the north of Spain, and locations in Morocco. But in actual fact here in Spain, it is not a particularly rare bird, just very localized – but the fact that it tends to sing prior to dawn and after dark makes it difficult to see. I only wanted to hear the birds, so getting to the area where I last saw and heard the birds with certainty in 2009, I switched the car engine off, and listened.  And almost immediately I had at least 3 birds singing in close proximity, with that haunting whistle of theirs – the only birds I could hear apart from the occasional ‘churr’ of a Red-necked Nightjar.  I remained here until around 6-30am.  The birds continued to sing until about 6-20, but by then the eastern sky was beginning to light up, and all the other birds dawn chorus drowned out the Duponts.  Mainly Crested and Lesser Short-toed Larks, but also with Blackbirds and Sardinian Warblers, and the occasional continued rattle of a Red-necked Nightjar and Magpies.

Leaving the area, I made my way cross country to Jumilla.  The roads were very quiet at that hour of the morning, and I was travelling quite fast, when I noticed a bird on an electric cable alongside the road that set off alarm bells in my brain!  Automatically I thought ‘not a pigeon or dove, but very dark – worth stopping and backtracking’.  So I did.  And it paid off – what I had seen was the back view of a female Red-footed Falcon!

Although the light was good for the time of day, (it was still only ten past seven), and not the best light for photos, I took a few anyway for record purposes and watched the bird for a while.  It seemed pretty settled on its cable, so I carried on, with the intention of returning later on to try and get some decent photos of it.

 Dark bird on a wire ...

... which turned out to be a female Red-footed Falcon

I reached Jumilla and went on to the Yecla Plains, arriving at eight o’clock.  Here I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon, no particular game-plan apart from trying to see Great Bustards (as normal for this species I drew a blank), but in my general driving around, I did manage to see a good number of quality birds including Crested, Short-toed and Calandra Larks, Rock Sparrows, Lesser and Common Kestrels, Woodchats and Southern Grey Shrikes, Common Buzzard, Black-bellied and Pin-tailed Sandgrouses, Great Spotted Cuckoos, a Tawny Pipit and a pair of Golden Orioles.  One of the advantages of being out in the field on your own is that you can stop as often and for as long as you want, and I took full advantage of this when a Calandra Lark landed not in a field thick with undergrowth as they normally do, but in the edge of a field planted with wheat, which due to the lack of rain hereabouts for the last six months or so, was having a troubled time trying to grow.  It was about six metres from the car window, so I stopped a good while to photograph it and study it in general.  Then in the same field, Short-toed Larks seemed to appear out of nowhere, and although a little more distant, I did the same with them.

 A couple of shots of the Calandra Lark that landed at the side of the track

 Short-toed Lark carrying either prey or nesting material!

 A more typical shot of Short-toed Lark

On another occasion while driving around, I spotted the familiar shaped ‘lump’ in a field of a sandgrouse, once again not too far from the car at the edge of the road.  Expecting it to scuttle off as they normally do, I was surprised when it (a female Pin-tailed Sandgrouse) didn’t and it allowed me to take some photos with both cameras – the Nikon for quality, and the Lumix for distance (I say it wasn’t too far from the car, but neither was it mega-close).  On getting home I was quite keen to see the quality of the photos, and so when I downloaded the Nikon onto my computer, I was, to use a colloquial expression, gobsmacked, when I saw that to the left of the bird was another, male bird! I had no idea that it was there at the time!

 Pin-tailed Sandgrouse at the side of the road - 

I had no idea the bird on the left was there until I downloaded the photo!

 The female bird, taken with the 'LUMIX' camera

Another quality moment was when driving around up a lane, with an olive orchard on one side and groups of apricot trees on the other, out of the apricot trees shot an image of green followed rapidly by another of yellow and black – my first Golden Orioles of the year, the male chasing the female, seen mega-rapidly but leaving a real impression on the eyes!

 Some other sights at Yecla - here a Mistle Thrush ...

 ... Goldfinch ...

 ... and Woodchat Shrike - now relatively common

 Nothing special here - I just liked the combination of colours!

Time passed all too quickly, and it was evident I wasn’t going to find my ‘Avutardas’ (Great Bustards), so my thoughts turned back to the mornings sighting of the Red-footed Falcon, so coming out of the fields at Yecla, I set off back to Jumilla and then on to Cieza (obviously checking all the fields on both sides of the road ‘just in case’ a Bustard was there).

Getting back to where I had seen the Red-footed Falcon earlier, you’ve guessed it – absolutely no sign!  I searched around for a while, but then decided that the sighting and photos of the morning would have to be good enough, and I carried on to my next stop, the river Segura, at Archena.

There is a very picturesque riverside walk here, and it is a very good place to have a sandwich lunch, which I proceeded to do. Why here rather than anywhere else, you may ask. Well apart from the walk along a river bank (something you can’t do in the coastal areas of Murcia unless you consider the ‘rambla de Albujon’ a river, which I don’t), I knew that in the season there should be Western Olivaceous Warblers about.  And I struck lucky – they must have been new arrivals but I had at least four of them singing (they sound a little like a Reed Warbler but more musical and tend to sing from the interior of the canopy, not reeds).  Seeing them is another thing however – they tend to move about a lot, but with more than a bit of patience, I finally managed to nail down a couple.  When you see them, they appear like a grey version of a Reed Warbler, but it’s their bill that gives them away – very broad based, and when they sing, the interior of their mouth is all yellow, not the orange/yellow of a Reed Warbler. 

 A typical view of Western Olivaceous Warbler, hidden in the canopy

 Luckily, they do occasionally come out to sing. Here you can see the mouth colour

 They seem to prefer inside the canopy though

 Here you can see another identification feature - the width of the bill base

 Another photo of a singing bird

While searching out the Western Olivaceous’s, I heard another call that I recognised from the reedbeds around the Mar Menor in the winter, Penduline Tit.  Following it back to its source, there was the tit together with its partner and its nest.  It’s the first time I’ve ever seen the nest ‘in the flesh’ and it’s an amazing construction, being blown about by the wind, without falling into the river below.  In the same general area I also heard the call of a Wryneck but didn’t manage to see it.  Apart from that, there were a couple of Nightingales singing on and off, and several Spotted Flycatchers about (this is obviously a breeding area for them), and a very confiding Night Heron in the river.

 Some general views - here the riverside path with the river on the right

 The river is fringed by reedbeds, Tamarisk bushes and Eucalyptus trees, plus a few pines

 Here a weir, where the Night Heron was hanging out ...

 ... as you can see from the photo, a fairly confiding Night Heron ...

 ... permanently keeping an eye out for prey ...

... oblivious to people

 Other birds on the riverside promenade were this Spotted Flycatcher ...

 ... a recently fledged White Wagtail ...

... and a Penduline Tit diving in and out of its nest

Leaving here at about 16:50, I called in at the other side of the A-30 motorway, to the EDAR Campotejar (Molina de Segura sewage farm), arriving about 20 minutes later.  Here I did a watch from the tower hide for twenty minutes, and did a quick circuit of the lagoons, where of interest I saw 14 Red Crested Pochard (including nine ducklings), Red Rumped Swallows, Sand Martins, a male Little Bittern, and a group of six Bee-eaters fly over.  Finishing at around 6pm, feeling quite tired by now, I decided it was time to head for home!

 Mother Red Crested Pochard out with the kids!

 The ever present male White Headed Ducks

And that was the end of my Saturday outing, so until my next blog entry.......

Chauu!!

16th May - another Mar Menor round-up

Friday, 9th May.  Following on from my last blog entry, I once again called into the salinas at San Pedro del Pinatar to check for anything new on the wader front (in particular, summer plumaged Knot), but no, the water level was better than my last visit, but wader numbers down.  I did manage a few photos of the waders that were there though, and get to see TWO Spoonbills, both with white colour-rings.

 Gull-billed Tern - flying over the salinas most of the time

 Always present, but rarely still enough to photograph - Red-rumped Swallow

 Photo to make UK birders green with envy - COMMON on the wires in our area, Turtle Doves

 I was surprised this Woodpigeon stayed so still!

 At the far end of the salinas, two young Stonechats recently fledged

 Common and noisy!  A pair of Black Winged Stilts

 The other common breeding wader, Avocets

 Having changed into its breeding plumage, this Sanderling looks good to go ...

... as does this breeding plumaged red necked Little Stint! ...

 

 ... and the same bird from the other side

 No mistaking this one coming into its breeding plumage - Curlew Sndpiper

 On one of the lagoons' walls, two late Spoonbills

Saturday, 10^th May.  We have our monthly RAM (Red de observación de Aves y Mamíferos marinos) seawatch from Cabo de Palos for three hours on the first Saturday of every month except for when there is a ‘puente’ holiday, in which case it transfers to the following Saturday.  As Saturday the 3^rd was part of a ‘puente’ weekend, the RAM swapped to the 10^th.  The morning started inauspiciously, with little movement, but as time went on, the wind picked up and swung to the NE, pushing seabirds closer to the coast.  As a result, we had one of the best movements of Balearic Shearwaters for many a month, with an estimated 600 birds flying south.  During the three hour period, we also had 15 Cory’s Shearwaters milling around but drifting north, 10 Gannets (9 adults and a sub-adult) drift south, a couple of Slender-billed Gulls north, a minimum of six Audouin’s Gulls around the rocks, a Caspian Tern north, a group of six Short-toed Larks fly out to sea headed south, and various Swifts, Swallows and Red-rumped Swallows flying around the cliffs.  We also witnessed a canoeist get into trouble off the rocks, with his canoe sinking and drifting out to sea.  Luckily we were able to hail another passing canoeist who obviously knew what he was doing, to go to the rescue and tow the other one in. Probably the first and last time the troubled canoeist would be out in the water!

 These days, ever present - maybe due to the large colony established now at the salinas at San Pedro del Pinatar?

In contarst to the Audouin's, the Alpine Swift has been in short supply locally this year

 

 After at least half an hour struggling in the water, this novice canoeist was rescued by someone who knew what he was doing - Summer's here, don't you just know!

As the passage had been so good in the morning, I returned to the rocks for an hour in the late afternoon when the light is much better (with the sun behind you), but by then the wind had swung round to SW and there was very little movement.  Calling in to the small area of woodland by the Marchamalo Salinas on my way home, I did manage to pick up another male Pied Flycatcher, and three Alpine Swifts in amongst the Commons and Pallids that are normally there.

Sunday, 11^th May. Another trip to the lighthouse area at Cabo de Palos early morning, and another small fall of migrants, with a Woodchat Shrike, seven Common Redstarts, eight Northern Wheatears, six Willow Warblers, a female Whinchat, a Melodious Warbler singing, and overhead a single Alpine Swift and a couple of Bee-eaters.

On my way home, as there had been a bit of a fall at the lighthouse, I called into the wooded area at the Marchamalo salinas again, where I had a single Willow/Chiff calling, a Robin calling, two Short-toed Larks and a Fan-tailed Warbler (Zitting Cisticola) singing, and on the Salinas themselves, a small group of five Curlew Sandpipers (plus the usual Avocets, Black Winged Stilts, Greater Flamingos and Shelduck).

And in a quick call into the Los Urrutias sailing club later in the morning, on the green ‘mat’ of algae that’s developing there, 16 Ringed and a single male Kentish Plover.  On the 12^th, this group of waders had been increased by three with the inclusion of 3 summer plumaged Little Stints.

 At Los Urrutias, the Ringed Plovers love the 'mat' of weed ...

... and the drifted in flotsum and jetsum

Tuesday 13^th May. Another trip down to the lighthouse gardens at Cabo de Palos in the morning produced another small fall of birds, with three Northern Wheatear, a Melodious Warbler, a male and female Common Redstart, and what I took originally as a Reed Warbler singing (but not seen), but in retrospect, could well have been a Western Olivaceous Warbler (the two songs seem similar enough to me that I sometimes have difficulty separating the two).  Very amusing also were the antics of the pair of Kestrels there, flying and soaring around the lighthouse itself.

 The male of the Kestrel pair ...

 ... and here the pair, the male (lower) keeping an eye on the female

Wednesday 14^th May, I took another trip over to the Salinas at San Pedro del Pinatar in the afternoon to see if there had been any change in the waders, but the only change I noted was that there were less of them. 

 More Little Stints, almost in complete breeding plumage ...

 ... and from the other side

 A couple of Curlew Sandpipers, the nearest behind in the plumage stakes

 And another Little Stint

 Individual portraits of the two Curlew Sandpipers seen above

 And to round off with, a breeding plumaged Turnstone

Coming home, I called in to the wooded area at Marchamalo Salinas once again, where I bumped into fellow birder Tomás García.  We had four WillowWarblers, male and female Pied Flycatcher, a single probably Balearic sub-species Spotted Flycatcher (smaller looking, pale forehead and chest, brightish wingbars), and while I was talking to someone on the phone, he had a Wood Warbler that I only managed to see as a movement in the back of a bush.  The 15^th he’s seen in the last 3 weeks in the Mar Menor area – quite a record.  As a footnote, in the same wooded area, the following day he had a European Nightjar (wonder why it’s called European when it spends most of its time in Africa?), another bird not seen too often in our area.

And that’s about it for the week – the spring migration tailing off, and now the time of the year for the Spring rarities – wonder what this Spring will bring?

Chauu!!