Sierra Espuña and the Saladares del Guadalentín

Hi all,

 

Last Thursday (12th March), with superb weather for photography, I decided to call into the ‘Pozos de la Nieve de Murcia’ (Murcia Snow Pits) in Sierra Espuña (for further details see my post of the 13th February 2014).  My last visit there back in January wasn’t too successful, with it being very cold, and there being a strong northerly wind blowing, and the pools there had run dry so there was no water for the birds to drink.  So although there has been some snow since then, it was with bated breath that I approached the ‘pozos’.  On my way up to them, there was plenty of birdsong around, mainly of Coal Tits singing, but I also picked out the high pitched song of a Firecrest.  The song, quite similar to that of a Goldcrest although slightly stronger, is still a fairly quiet one, and so it defies the imagination as to how the male manages to pull in a female.

 Coal Tit - one of many heard singing

 Firecrest - quietly singing away ...

 ... and waiting for a mate

On reaching the ‘pozos’ I found my fears about possible lack of water to be unfounded – there wasn’t a lot but enough water below the hawthorn bush so that the birds perch in it before dropping down to the ground for a drink and bath.  So positioning myself with the sun directly behind me, I just had to wait to see the birds.  I sat there for a couple of hours and built up quite a list of birds that came down to drink.  It was impossible to photograph all of them as once they get into the bush, they are almost lost to view.   The species that came down were Blackbird, Redwing, Ring Ouzel (at least 25 of these still around), Black Redstart (it must have been a day of passage for these as I saw at least 15 of these), a couple of Blackcaps, Crested Tit, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Linnet, Chaffinch, Cirl Bunting and Rock Bunting. 

 One of the commonest birds seen during the morning - Black Redstart ...

 ... and the other common bird, Ring Ouzel

 

 Another Ring Ouzel

 Female Black Redstart

 One of the alpine 'alpestris' sub-species

 Watching me watching the birds, a Barbary Sheep (Ammotragus lervia) or Arrui

 Regularly flying over, (Red-billed) Chough

 Male Ring Ouzel in lookout mode

 Female Ring Ouzel ...

 ... and another

Flying over on several occasions were Chough (of the ‘Red-billed’ variety), a couple of Ravens and Carrion Crows and a single Peregrine shot through with some avian prey. Beginning to get a bit stiff, I left the ‘pozos’ at about 1-30pm and headed back to my car for a sandwich lunch.  A perfect time made all the better by the lack of people on a bright sunny and warm morning.

And on my way back it was quiet and windless enough that I heard a Crossbill calling and then could hear another one as it was munching its way through a pine cone, and found a third in another nearby tree – the full family, male, female and juvenile.

 

The Crossbill family - ma ...

 

... pa ...

 and baby

It was as I was having my lunch in the car that I realised that I hadn’t seen any Short-toed Treecreepers yet this year, and so instead of taking my usual route out of the Espuña reserve (via Aledo), I took the other route out, passing the ‘Centro de Visitantes Ricardo Codorniu’.  It is close to this visitors centre that I know of some sites for the Treecreepers, so I stopped here for a while, and heard and saw a minimum of three of these little delights singing and running up the tree trunks.

 Short-toed Treecreeper

As it was still quite early when I left Espuña, I decided to make a short call into the ‘saladares del Guadalentín’ on my way home.  I wasn’t expecting to see much, as I’ve realised from previous visits that the afternoon can be pretty quiet here, but I did have a couple of Kestrels (one of which could easily have been a Lesser Kestrel, but I couldn’t get close enough to confirm i.d.),  three Marsh Harriers, a Raven, my first Great Spotted Cuckoo of the year, and on the ground various Stone Curlews, Red-legged Partridges and my first Lesser Short-toed Larks of the year (surprising this considering they are all year round residents).

 Marsh Harrier

 Great Spotted Cuckoo

 Great Spotted Cuckoo

 Displaying (and fighting) Stone Curlews

And that was it for the day – a relaxing day out inland from the coast.

Ciauu

Mar Menor roundup

Hi all.

 

I’ve not made a blog entry for a few weeks now, basically due to the lack of action on the birding front.  Everything has been really quiet, with until last weekend mild conditions, rainy on a few days.  The rain has helped at the old EDAR (sewage farm) of El Algar, there now being an almost permanent pool of water in the first lagoon, which has enticed a group of Lapwings to hang around with up to 10 birds (Lapwings in this area have been very scarce in the last few years).  Also there, have been Water Pipits and a single Grey Wagtail on and off.

I’ve made a few visits to the lighthouse gardens at Cabo de Palos just on the offchance that something might have come in, but there it’s also pretty quiet with just the usual Blackbirds, Stonechats, Black Redstarts, Sardinian Warblers, Chiffchaffs, Starlings of both species (there’ll be a Rosy one day!), Crag Martins, Robins, Meadow Pipits, House Sparrows, Collared Doves and the occasional Blackcap.  You can tell how quiet it’s been if I say that the outstanding bird there has been a possible Barbary Dove in amongst the Collared Doves (it wouldn’t call/sing, so I couldn’t confirm it).

Plenty of mixed Starlings at the lighthouse gardens ...
 

... and this possible Barbary Dove

Calblanque has similarly been quiet with even the usual Audouin’s Gull build-up failing to happen, although there’s always four or five around.

 In Calblanque, some of the winter visitors - here Black Redstart ...

 

 ... and Chiffchaff

And a resident, Thekla Lark

On the Mar Menor, a build-up of Great Crested and Black Necked Grebes has been noticeable (and it’s always worthwhile looking through them just in case there might be a diver or seaduck amongst them).  At several places along the Mar Menor (e.g. desembocadura de la Rambla de Albujon; club nautico Los Urrutias) there are Kingfishers wintering, and in amongst the few Turnstones and Ringed Plovers visible from Los Urrutias to the desembocadura Rambla de Albujon, I’ve had the occasional Knot, and on the 23^rd November almost trod on a Jack Snipe along the tideline.  You also occasionally hear Bluethroats calling, although they are not easy to see, and in the reedbeds the occasional Penduline Tit can be heard on windless days.

 Typical birds along the Mar Menor - here Curlew ...

 ... Jack Snipe ...

... mixed wader flock of Turnstone, Dunlins and Knot  ...

 ... Knot ...

 ... and again ...

... Bluethroat ...
 

 ... Turnstone ...

 ... Ringed Plover ...

 ... Dunlins ...

... and Grey Plover in the winter sun

At the Marina de Carmoli, just beyond Los Urrutias and Punta Brava on the Mar Menor, watching the evening harrier roost, I’ve had up to 9 Marsh Harriers and a single ‘ringtail’ Hen Harrier, but no sign of the other smaller ‘ringtail’ that I mentioned in my last post.  However a couple of weeks ago a friend asked for my help in identifying a small harrier that he had photographed close to Cartagena hunting over a farm reservoir, and it turned out to be a ‘ringtail’ed juvenile/female Montagu’s Harrier, and could easily be the bird that I saw and mentioned in my last post.

Record shot of the 'ringtail' Hen Harrier
 

At the Salinas at San Pedro del Pinatar, bird numbers seem very low – even the Greater Flamingos – although if you stick at it, there is a reasonable selection of species – on my last visit I had Greater Flamingo, Grey Heron, Cattle Egret, Little Egret, Spoonbill (2 in amongst the Grey Herons), Black-tailed Godwit, Avocet, Black Winged Stilt, Spotted Redshank, Redshank, Greenshank, Dunlin, Little Stint, Common Sandpiper, Ringed and Kentish Plover, Ruff, Kingfisher, Mallard, Moorhen and Kestrel, plus all the usual passerines such as Black Redstart, Stonechat, Chiffchaff, Meadow Pipit, White Wagtail, Greenfinch, Serin, Chaffinch and House Sparrow.

At the salinas at Marchamalo there is now a constant group of Greater Flamingos, and Shelduck and Avocet numbers are starting to build.  Last weekend a surprise was the number of Spotted Redshanks (12) and the winter group of Golden Plovers that roost on one of the lagoon wall has finally arived, with 79 being seen.
 

 Feeding Spotted Redshanks ...

... and a short video of them ...

... and some of the Golden Plover

 And round at the Playa Paraiso side, more Chiffchaffs
 

With regards to woodlands birds I have been several times now to the woods between the ‘La Manga Club’ and Portman (Monte Cenizas), looking for winter birds, but the specific bird I have been searching for, Goldcrest, just hasn’t been there (plenty of Firecrests, but no Goldcrests!).  This last weekend though I did see my first Siskins of the year.  Other birds of interest there were Chiffchaff, Chaffinch, Crested Tits, Wren, Robin, Long-tailed Tit, and Sparowhawk.

 The Firecrests seem more common this year in the woods

 Record shot of a surprise bird seen last weekend - Siskin

My only ‘out of area’ visit was on Saturday when I went up to the top of Sierra Espuña, looking for winter thrushes and Alpine Accentors, but my visit coincided with the first really cold spell of the winter, and although I had thermal gear on including thermal gloves, by the time I reached the ‘Pozos de Nieve de Murcia’, my fingertips had turned purple, there was a gale blowing and the spring I normally wait by was dry (and the only other water was in the form of thick ice-covered puddles), so having seen just a few Mistle Thrushes and a single Ring Ouzel, I came back.  Was I ever pleased to find the restaurant at the bottom open even though it was a public holiday – the hot coffee was more than welcome!

A word of warning for anyone who tries going up to the radar station at the top – for those who know the area, the military zone has been extended so you can only go as far as the ‘layby’ where you have to turn around.

And that’s all for now folks, so till my next post, happy birding!!

Ciauu

A bird (or six) in the bush…..

Hi all,

On Saturday (15^th February) I went back to Sierra Espuña again, this time with Mick Brewer who had never been there before, and was keen to see the birds I wrote about last week. We went straight up to the ‘pozos  de nieve de Cartagena', arriving there at around 10:15, and unlike last week, this time there was very little cloud, no wind and the temperature was a very mild 15º.  We must have been the first people to have walked to the ‘pozos’ this morning, as on the way there, we bumped into a herd of around 50 Barbary sheep (or Arruí in spanish, (Ammotragus lervia)).  These animals are normally extremely shy, but although we couldn’t approach too closely, they didn’t seem to be particularly bothered by us, just ambling off as we approached.  We saw some more later on, a more typical sighting, up on top of the rock hills.

Part of the herd of Arruí, or Barbary Sheep

 They didn't seem at all bothered by us

 

Arruí, or Barbary Sheep, as they are more typically seen

 

Walking to the ‘pozos’, things were very quiet, to the extent that I hoped we hadn’t made a mistake in coming up here. But when we arrived at the last ‘pozo’, where there is a small water spring, we soon saw that it was worthwhile.  Sitting in the shade of a couple of close bushes, we watched the wild rose bushes for at least a couple of hours.  Apart from when various groups of walkers went through, the bushed seemed to forever have groups of birds in.  Over the time we were there, we had Mistle Thrush, Ring Ouzels (I estimate about 20 this week), Black Redstart, Rock Buntings, Cirl Buntings, Linnets, Goldfinches, at least 8 Crossbills, Chaffinches, Greenfinches, Coal Tits and a single Crested Tit all dropping into the bushes over the spring at some stage.  We also had the strange sight of a Short-toed Treecreeper climbing up the broken walls of one of the ‘pozos’, looking for insects.  We also had a reasonably close group of 6 Chough fly over (and we could hear them most of the time we were there), and also heard at least one Jay – a most pleasant way to spend the morning.

Some of the birds seen during the morning
 

 Male Ring Ouzel

 Pair of Crossbills with male Chaffinch

 Female Cirl Bunting

 Another male Ring Ouzel

 Female Crossbill

 Female Rock Bunting

 Male Rock Bunting

 Male and female Crossbill

Leaving there just before 1pm, we went over to the other ‘pozos’ (‘pozos de la nieve de Murcia’) some of which have been repaired to show how they used to be used. Sitting in the sun, having a sandwich lunch here with the temperature a warm 19ºC, the only birds we saw of note were a pair of Ravens seen for 5 minutes or so, at one stage flying with half a dozen Choughs. In the background we had the constant song of Coal Tits (which we also had earlier at the other ‘pozos’).

 One of the restored 'pozos de la nieve'

On our way out of the reserve, coming back down from the top, we stopped at an area where the pines have recently been thinned out, leaving just small evergreen oaks.  We checked the cliffs behind these for Peregrines but didn’t see any, but DID have a couple of Firecrests and a single Short-toed Treecreeper here.

 Record shot of one of the Firecrests - it IS there, honest! Right in the centre

Our final stop on the way out of the reserve was at the recreational area of Los Alquarías, In fact we made two stops, as the recreational area was too noisy, so we finished the day stopping slightly further down towards the exit of the reserve, where we had more Crested Tits, Great Tit and Crossbills.

And that’s all for now folks, so good birding!!

Ciauu