Saturday, 22nd December 2012 – A trawl around the local area

I hadn’t planned to go out birding today, but weatherwise it was such a good day, I couldn’t resist.  It was more like the first day of summer, not winter – not a cloud in the sky all day, no wind and temperature up to 23ºC (a bit different to the UK from what I can gather).

I started out at the Marchamalo Salinas.  It was fairly quiet here, with waders represented by just a group of 10 Little Stints, 25 Black Winged Stilts and around 40 Avocets.  There were 8 Grey Herons and 32 Audouins Gulls on the walls of the lagoons, 12+ Shelduck in the lagoons, and a single Lesser Black-backed Gull in amongst the Yellow-legged Gulls sat in one of the dry lagoons.  Passerines were represented by just 3 Meadow Pipits and a Southern Grey Shrike.

I then moved on to the ‘Encañizadas’ at the end of La Manga strip.  Here things were much livelier. I counted 113 Mallard (I think my highest ever number here) together with 10 Pintail (4 males and 6 females).  The Spoonbills were for once on my side of the Encañizadas until they were flushed – a group of 11 of them.  There were very few Little Egrets (only 15), but their bigger cousins were represented by around 110 Grey Herons and 2 Great White Egrets, one of which had caught a large fish and was having a lot of trouble trying to eat it.  I was surprised that the Yellow-legged Gulls hadn’t latched onto it.  Other birds of note were a Peregrine on its usual watchpoint on one of the H.T. pylons; a couple of Sandwich Terns and good numbers of plovers (50+ Ringed; 40+ Kentish and at least 8 Grey).  Other waders present were Dunlin, Sanderling, Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew, Turnstone and Greenshank, and of the 78 Greater Flamingos I saw, I managed to read 5 colour rings, 3 of which I think were Italian.

 A general view, with Mallard and Flamingos in the foreground, and Great White Egret, Grey Herons and Little Egret along the wall - the G.W.Egret struggling with a fish it had caught

 

 The group of 11 Spoonbills with a Grey Heron

 

Part of the group of Pintail seen

I returned to Marchamalo, but this time the Playa Paraiso side.  Once again due to lack of rain, the first lagoon from here is gradually drying out, but this is a favoured area for the small plovers, and I had 15 Ringed and 12 Kentish here, together with a couple more Little Stints.  I had a look over the Mar Menor from the beach here, principally looking for Red-breasted Mergansers which are normally here by now, but there was no sign of any, just Black-necked Grebes.  In the new reed area though were a single Fan-tailed Warbler,  and a couple each of Black Redstart and Stonechat which I managed to photograph.

 The rather smart male Black Redstart that hangs around the carpark area...

 

 ... and a male Stonechat keeping an eye on the sky

 

My next stop was once again a beach on the Mar Menor, this time just to the west of Los Nietos, the ‘Arenal’ which is where the Richards Pipit(s) winter.  As I’d managed to get relatively close to one during the week, I thought I’d dedicate a couple of hours trying to photograph it, but as is sure to happen, I couldn’t find it, and the only birds seen were a flock of 40+ Serins, 12 Crested Larks, 4 Meadow Pipits, 2 Stonechats, 2 Reed Buntings (male & female) and a Kestrel.  On the Mar Menor itself, things were very quiet with just a single Little Egret, 4 Slender-billed Gulls and a Greenshank.

One of the flock of Serin

Giving up here, I went a few kilometers west to the sailing club at Los Urrutias.  Here again, things were quiet.  In the Mar Menor itself there were only 3 birds – a Little Egret, a Grey Heron and a Great White Egret.

 Great White Egret keeping an eye out for fish - my third of the day...

 

 ...and keeping it company, a Grey Heron

Leaving there, I went inland slightly, reaching the old sewage farm of El Algar just before 3 pm.  I hoped that the Long-legged Buzzard might still be around (and possibly closer than on previous occasions).  However, the first raptor I saw which was hunting the overgrown lagoons just inside the fence was a ‘ringtail’ Hen Harrier, and while watching it, I had a couple of female/immature Marsh Harriers go distantly through my field of view.  When the Hen Harrier finally disappeared, I thought I’d check for any raptors on top of the many H.T. pylons in the area, and on doing so, yes, there was one.  But it wasn’t the Buzzard that I was looking for, it was an Osprey!  I watched this for a while until it flew off, then continued my check of the pylons.  And yes, finally on a distant one was the bird I was looking for (it is very easy to recognize face on as at a distance it appears white headed and white upper breasted, and the rest of the body seems red).  I watched it for a while and saw it fly from its perch and come towards me, but then lost it behind a reservoir, but by climbing up the wall of the reservoir I re-located it about 15 minutes later when it flew onto another pylon, distant but directly in front of me.  I carried on watching it together with a group of birdwatcher from Cartagena (Isidro Bartolomé; Conrado Requena; Francisco Javier Palacios; Javier Noguera; Marcos; Toni and Pepe).  It moved once again to sit on a streetlamp but although actively looking around all the time, it was still there when we all left.  Other birds seen there were a Common Buzzard; Shelduck; Black-necked and Little Grebes, Hoopoe; Green Sandpiper; Black Winged Stilt and Water Pipit.

 The first 'raptor on a pylon' - not the Long Legged Buzzard expected, but an Osprey

 Three shots of the Long Legged Buzzard - the last taken 'digiscoping'

 

Leaving the sewage works around 5 pm and on the way back home, I called in once again at the Mar Menor, this time in the corner where the rambla de Albujon empties into it.  I was hoping to see the Common Scoter that had been there earlier in the week, but had no luck, but I did count 62 Great Crested Grebes there.

My last stop of the day was at the Marina de Carmoli.  It was by now getting towards dusk, and I spent 20 minutes watching the harriers coming in to roost.  There was a single ‘ringtail’ Hen Harrier already there and also a Common Buzzard, and I counted 8 Marsh Harriers come in in total.

19th December 2012 - A spanish ‘bimbo’

Definitely a red letter day today.  I had arranged to go out birding with Gabriel Lorenzo in the afternoon, searching for Richards Pipit(s) on the shore of the Mar Menor between Los Nietos and Los Urrutias, and checking in one of the local blogs, I saw that a Long Legged Buzzard had been seen about 5 km along the road on the other side of Los Urrutias yesterday (and a very good photograph of it in flight, showing it to be a typical adult bird).  It had been seen to fly into the vast area opposite the beach just beyond Punta Brava (the area being known as the ‘marina de Carmolí). Although they apparently now breed in a couple of places in the south of Spain, this is a species that I have not seen since a prolonged stay in Israel in 1978 and would definitely be a new species for me for Spain – if we could find it!

So, we met at 2:30 pm by the local train station in Los Nietos and went over to the beach and started walking.  I find the best way to find the Richards Pipit is to keep walking until you flush it and hear it call.  Then watch where it drops, hoping that it won’t go too far.

And this is what happened this time.  I heard its call, didn’t see it fly but saw it walking around feeding in the long grass on the beach.  Calling Gabriel over, we got good views of it both with bins and ‘scope, but as always, a decent photo was nigh-on impossible.  It eventually flew further up the beach, and we continued walking in case there might be another.  We didn’t find any more, just Crested Larks, Serins, Greenfinches, Linnets, Goldfinches, Meadow Pipits, Stonechats and a single Southern Grey Shrike.  We had a couple more sightings of the Richards Pipit, but none as good as the first, and so decided to call it a day there and go looking for the Buzzard.

 A couple of record shots of the Richards Pipit

The Southern Grey Shrike normally seen here

We stopped off at a couple of my favourite areas en route, the Los Urrutias sailing club (where we had 9 Turnstone; a single Grey Plover, 6 Ringed Plover, 10 Greenshank, a couple of Little Egrets and 4 Slender-billed Gulls and heard a Reed Bunting), and the ‘desembocadura de la rambla de Albujon’ (mouth of the Albujon river where it empties into the Mar Menor).  Here we had a good range of birds, but no sign of the Common Scoter that I have seen on previous days, and no sign of any type of buzzards (possibly because a military helicopter was on manoeuvres, passing overhead over and over again).  Birds seen were 19 Great Crested Grebe; 15 + Black Necked Grebe; 19 Mallard; 3 Slender-billed Gulls; 2 Grey Heron; 1 Little Egret; 1 Curlew; 2 Turnstone; 2 Chiffchaff; a Water Pipit; 6+ Crag Martin; 2 Sandwich Tern; a Fan-tailed Warbler; Hoopoe; Green Sandpiper and a couple of Cormorant, and heard Cetti’s Warbler and in the distance, Red-legged Partridges calling.

I had one last hope before it got dark, calling into the old and now disused sewage farm at El Algar.  Although there is now no water here, I had seen Buzzards and Booted Eagles there in the past, and have seen Marsh Harriers roosting there.  As we approached, perched on a telegraph pole was a Common Buzzard – a good sign.  Parking outside the gates of the EDAR, we looked through and checked out all the poles and H.T. pylons in the distance.  On one of them was a buzzard that looked VERY interesting – through the ‘scope we could see that it had a pale (almost white) head with a dark line back from the eye, pale breast and brick reddish underparts.  Could this be our bird ?  We just needed the tail, but couldn’t see it as the bird was facing towards us.  We tried driving round to get a closer view, but wherever we went the distance was pretty much the same AND we had the sun in our eyes, so we came back to the original location.  It had moved slightly closer by then to sit on a streetlamp, but was still facing us with the lamp in the way of its tail.  However, by watching it continually through the ‘scope, I eventually got the tail – an orange/brick red colour.  It was our bird.  It eventually flew off from the lamp and flew further away presumably to roost.  Brilliant! Long Legged Buzzard! Spain-tick (or ‘bimbo’ as they call them here).

 Common Buzzard that surprisingly didn't fly off as we drew up alongside it

 Record shot of the L.L.Buzzard using just camera and 400 mm lens...

 ...and a couple of record shots through the 'scope - I presume that the exaggerated reddish hew is due to the sun being almost on the horizon

The light was by now on its way, but as we had to drive back past the harrier roost, we had a 10 minute stop there.  Not as good as over the weekend, with just 3 Marsh Harriers and a single ‘ringtail’ Hen Harrier, but a good finish to the day.

 

Calblanque, Los Belones - 13th December 2012

As I had the afternoon free, I decided to go over to Calblanque, which is one of the only beach areas close to where I live which is not built on, although it is used by thousands of people in the summer.  At this time of year, there is hardly anyone about - normally just the occasional dog-walker and shepherd with his flock of sheep.

Starting off at 2-30pm, I drove over to one of the beach areas, and had a walk through the arbetorum that has been planted there.  Parking up I had 3 Common Buzzards hunting together, and two of them started a short display, one flying up quite high then pulling in its wings and zooming down in Peregrine form to the other bird.  This in its turn turned upside down and they did some talon grappling, tumbling down together behind a hill where I lost them to sight.

 One of the three Common Buzzards seen hunting

In the arbetorum itself there weren't many birds, a few Greenfinches and Serins, the Serins singing, but I did see a group of Long-tailed Tits and I thought I heard a crest.  By waiting and searching through the L.T.Tits, I eventually saw the crest - in actual fact there were two, and they were Firecrest.  The cold seems to make them less wary as I managed to get quite close to both a Firecrest and Long-tailed Tit to get a couple of photos.

 Although the habitat is ideal, I very rarely see Firecrest here, so was please to come across a pair

 

 'I can see you' - I think this Long-tailed Tit thought it was invisible

Once the tit flock had moved on, I drove over to the old disused salinas at Rasall to have a look for colour ringed Audouins Gulls.  There were 53 Audouins there and I was able to read 3 rings, but the biggest surprise was an adult Common Gull amongst the Audouins - a species seen very sparsely but annually here.

Scanning through the Audouins Gulls for rings, I came across this superb adult Common Gull

In the general area there seemed to be a lot of finches flying around in small groups of 30 - 50 birds, mainly Greenfinches, Serins, Linnets and Goldfinches.  I kept my eyes open looking around this area, as last weekend a Pin-tailed Sandgrouse had been seen here - the first one I've ever heard of in Murcia away from their Yecla stronghold, about 200 km. away.

After checking out the gulls, I took a walk to the end of Calblanque, climbing the shale hill at the eastern end with the forlorn hope of maybe finding Alpine Accentor.  I had no luck with this, but did see a Black Wheatear in its usual spot at the end of the day, finishing at 5-30pm.

And to end the day, a nice Black Wheatear

 

Birds seen and/or heard:

Kestrel; Southern Grey Shrike; White Wagtail; Crested Lark; Black Redstart; Dartford Warbler; House Sparrow; Common Buzzard; Greenfinch; Goldfinch; Linnet; Chaffinch; Serin; Long-tailed Tit; Firecrest; Stonechat; Great Tit; Meadow Pipit; Greater Flamingo; Red-legged Partridge; Yellow-legged Gull; Audouin's Gull; Common Gull; Greenshank; Redshank; Black Wheatear.
 

10th December 2012 - San Pedro del Pinatar salinas

It seems like (and has been) an age since I last made an entry, but the past few weeks have been pretty quiet and my outings limited, with just the same old same old being seen.  I was interested to see that towards the end of last week a small group of Common Scoter had been located in the Mediterranean Sea just to the north of the San Pedro harbour, and that they were actually staying, sitting on the water and not just flybys as they normally tend to be.  In fact there have been a few seen around the south eastern coastal area of Spain over the last few weeks.

I was unable to go over the weekend, as I was in Extremadura to see the spectacle of the Cranes there (I WILL write a trip report later), and so my first opportunity was Monday afternoon.  Arriving there around 3 p.m., I met up with Isidro Bartolome and I wondered if we'd have enough time to locate them before it started to get dark.  I needn't have worried - parking the car in the bottom carpark just before the harbour, and walking along the wooden boardwalk to the beach, there they were - pretty spread out along the shoreline and under constant attack from the Yellow-legged Gulls that were accompanying them, every time a gull approached them they'd dive under, and so it wasn't easy to make an accurate count.  We watched them for more than an hour, being joined by Javier Palacios, and my final count was of 14 birds, all females and juveniles.  It was nice to be able to see them relatively close in and on the water, some of them showing yellow patches on the bills.  Also on the beach were a group of about 10 Turnstones and 8 Sanderlings, and in the water with the scoter and gulls, a single Great Crested Grebe.

A selection of photographs taken during the hour of viewing

As the light started to go, I thought I'd have a rapid look in the salinas on the way back, but they were very quiet.  Numbers of Greater Flamingos down to around 100, and there were a few Redshanks, a single Spotted Redshank, a couple of Greenshanks, a group of around 25 Shelduck and a single Kingfisher.  Passerines were represented by around 20 Crag Martins, 8 Jackdaws heading into their roost, and a single Grey Wagtail.

  At the last light of  day, a Kingfisher looking for its supper

Out and about during the week (19th – 25th November 2012).

The weather over the past week has been typical for the time of the year, with lots of low cloud and heavy mist/fog overnight, clearing slowly during the mornings.  Then weak sunshine until sunset at around 5-30 pm.  There’s been hardly any wind, and very few novelties on the bird front.  I’ve been out a few times, more due to habit than anything else.  One of my favorite occupations at this time of year is colour ring reading.  Around here there are two principle species to read rings of, Greater Flamingos and Audouin’s Gulls.  My favourite places to do this are San Pedro del Pinatar salinas, Marchamalo Salinas (at the entrance to La Manga) and Rasall Salinas in Calblanque (Mediterranean side, between Los Belones and Cabo de Palos).  Although the two latter salinas no longer function, after the recent rains they now hold plenty of water, and at times the abovementioned species are close enough that with a telescope, colour rings can be read.

For that reason, on Monday afternoon (the 19^th November) I spent a couple of hours at Calblanque having a general look around, but also with the specific intention of  ring reading.  The afternoon started very well with a pair of adult Bonelli’s Eagles flying over me as I made my way down there. 

 The pair of Bonelli's Eagles, male left, female right

 Closer view of the female...

... and of the male

 

Apart from that I saw the normal species (Kestrel; Black Redstart; Robin; Great Tit; Greenfinch; Chaffinch; Serin; Linnet; Sardinian Warbler; Dartford Warbler; Stonechat; Meadow Pipit; Southern Grey Shrike; Black Wheatear; Redshank; Greenshank; Black Winged Stilt) and of my ‘target’ species, of the 6 Greater Flamingo I saw 2 were colour ringed, and of the 128 Audouin’s Gulls, I managed to read 16 rings (there may have been more of these ringed, but as they have the habit of sitting down on the walls of the lagoons, you never know unless they stand up).

 Audouin's Gulls on the 'motas' (walls) of the lagoons

A closer view

 

Black Wheatear keeping a lookout 

On Tuesday afternoon (20^th November), as it was a warm sunny afternoon, I took a trip down to the Saladares del Guadalentín, the area between Alhama de Murcia, Totana and Mazarron.  Here there is a chance of seeing ‘steppe’ species although the area itself can’t be truly considered ‘steppe’.  Here there were large numbers of passerines feeding on the fields, including 20+ groups of Skylarks, Goldfinches, Chaffinches, Greenfinches, Serins, Crested Larks, Meadow Pipits, and a single Tree Sparrow. I also saw a group of 15+ Lapwing in flight.  I thought I’d try to find them later (they were distant when I saw them, flying in the opposite direction to me), but when I tried I couldn’t locate them.  I did however find a group of 32 Black Bellied Sandgrouse feeding distantly in a field.  Apart from that, birds of interest were a couple of Marsh Harriers, a single Merlin, 3 Hoopoe, a group of 20 Cattle Egrets and a flock of 30+ Stone Curlews in flight, and as I left the area at dusk, a group of 15 Magpies and 5 Jackdaws flying, presumably to roost.

 On Thursday afternoon (22^nd November), I did a little tour of the Mar Menor starting with the Arenal (sand-dune area) at Los Nietos.  I was principally looking for Richard’s Pipits of which I neither saw nor heard.  There were however plenty of Meadow Pipits around, and I was lucky enough to see 2 Bluthroats (which winter around the Mar Menor) and a Wryneck in a reedbed.  This latter was interesting, as there had been one seen a couple of days earlier just west of Punta Brava (Los Urrutias – the next village along the Mar Menor).  Possibly the same bird, or had there been a movement of them – a few do seem to winter along the coastal areas of the Mediterranean, and there are regular reports of them from Calblanque around January/February time.  The most impressive sighting of the afternoon though, was the large flock of Cormorants on the Mar Menor (of about 500 birds).  They have been seen for several winters now, keeping very much together as a flock and just ‘descending’ on an area.  Sometimes they are feeding, but the group I saw this day didn’t seem to be bothering to.  The just tipped up just off the beach, stopped there for about 15 minutes, then all got up and moved further along the beach, some of them coming out of the water onto the beach itself.  They stayed for a while again, and then moved off into the Mar Menor.  Quite an impressive sight.

 Part of the Cormorant flock as it arrives...

 ...close up, sat on the water

 The front of the flock...

 ...the centre...

 ...and the rear

 The flock as it hits another part of the beach

 A pair of winter regulars, Southern Grey Shrike...

 ...and Meadow Pipit

On the way out from the Arenal, I flushed a Common Buzzard, and then en-route to my next site, I saw 3 pale phase Booted Eagles soaring low over the road.

My next stop was the sailing club at Los Urrutias.  There was nothing too spectacular here, but I did see a couple of Ringed Plovers and a Greenshank feeding in one of the roadside puddles, and there was a Water Pipit and Reed Bunting flying around.  On the Mar Menor was a group of 8 Sandwich Terns and 4 Slender-billed Gulls, which appeared very pink – in fact many of the S.B.Gulls I have seen recently seem to be in their breeding plumage.

Greenshank and Ringed Plover feeding in a roadside puddle

 

I then called in at the reedbed area just beyond Punta Brava (Los Urrutias).  Again nothing spectacular, but a flock of 18 Stone Curlews and a very nice male Bluethroat made it worth the stop.

 Male Bluethroat

 One of the flock of Stone Curlews...

 ... and two more

My final stop was at the Rambla de Albujon ‘estuary’ (where the rambla drains into the Mar Menor).  Normally at this time of year, this should be full of Reed Buntings, Snipe (Common and Jack) and the Penduline Tits should be here by now, but since the reeds in the rambla were cut late this year (in September) and following the heavy rains all the reeds that are normally left uncut were washed away (presumably together with the reed seeds that the Buntings and Tits feed on), there has been no sign of the Buntings and Tits this autumn, and numbers of snipe seem to be much lower than normal.  What I actually saw were a group of 15 Cormorants flying high but following the course of the rambla to the Mar Menor, 2 Greenshanks, 9 Turnstones a single Common Snipe and a Water Pipit.

On Saturday (24^th November) I started the day with a seawatch from Cabo de Palos with Salvador Garcia Barcelona.  Salva used to organize the seawatching here many years ago prior to moving down to Malaga province.  However, things were very quiet, and after just over an hour we’d only seen a group of 12 Balearic Shearwaters moving north, a single Audouin’s Gulls and around 60 Gannets (of all ages) moving principally north, so we decided to give up.

 I went on to Portman bay after this, as I’d been told that there was a lot of water there, and that during the week there’d been a reasonable group of Audouin’s Gulls there.  Well, there were around 500 Black Headed Gulls there together with at least 21 Grey Herons and a few Mallard, but they were tucked right at the back of the bay, too distant to see any rings.  Out to sea, over the Tuna ‘farm’ was a massive flock of birds, mainly Yellow-legged Gulls but with a good number of Gannets too, and probably other birds, but they were too distant and in the sun too much to be able to thoroughly check.

 Flock of mainly Black-headed Gulls tucked in the back of the lagoon behind the beach

 

 Out to sea, the flock of gulls over the Tuna farm

 Quite comical when I walked back to my car, were a couple of Water Rails in the reeds close to the car obviously trying to outdo each other in volume.  I only saw one very briefly but they were calling almost continuously with those ‘sounds like a pig being butchered’ calls of theirs.

Later in the day I called in once again to Calblanque, checking out the Audouin’s again for rings, and walking along the back of the Salinas (principally to see if I could see or hear any Wrynecks there).  No Wrynecks but plenty of mosquitos!  Birds that I did see were Goldfinch; Sardinian Warblers; Cattle Egret; Little Owl; White Wagtails; Fan-tailed Warblers; Kestrels; Stonechats; Redshank; Greenshank; Black Redstart; Green Woodpeckers; Greater Flamingo; Greenfinches, Serins; Meadow Pipits; Red-legged Partridge; Crested Larks; Water Pipit; Hoopoes; Songthrushes, Blackbird.

 A couple of shots of the Little Owl - one eye orange, the other yellow!  Is this normal?

 

 White Wagtail

Finally I called into the Playa Paraiso side of the Marchamalo Salinas. In the Salinas themselves from here I had very little (a single Redshank, Black Winged Stilt, 6 Little Stints and 9 Ringed Plovers), but in the area by the beach there were quite a few passerines flitting about, and I saw a group of about 30 Serins, 12 Spotless Starlings, Blackbird, 2 Black Redstarts, 3 Chiffchaffs, 3 Meadow Pipits, 2 Water Pipits, 2 Reed Buntings, a Robin, a male Bluethroat, 3 Fan-tailed Warblers and I heard a single Cetti’s Warbler.

 Male Stonechat at the salinas...

 

...and another Bluethroat

Yesterday (Sunday, 25^th) I just had time for a quick visit in the morning to Monte Cenizas in Atamaria (the hill with the guns behind the La Manga Club).  I wanted to see if I could find any more Goldcrests which I’ve seen in the past here at this time of year and which seen to hitch up in the Long-tailed Tit flocks.  However I was unlucky - not only not seeing crests, but I didn’t actually see any Long-tailed Tits (only heard them from a distance).  Other birds that I did see were a pair of Thekla Larks, Stonechat, Chaffinches, Sardinian Warblers, Dartford Warblers, Chiffchaffs, Serins (singing), Greenfinches, Great Tits, Wrens, Meadow Pipits and I heard Crested Tits on a couple of occasions.

 Record shot of a Wren, hiding as always

 

Thekla Lark