I am sorry this is a bit of an epic, but it was such a good trip I just had to tell it as it was.
On the 29th April, my wife Gwen and I flew to Alicante for a Valencian short break with Oliva Rama Tours. We were met at Alicante airport by BF member Jules Sykes. We headed off to a truck stop for lunch and whilst eating our bocadillos we spotted a Peregrine flying over carrying prey. After lunch we headed for a nearby wooded hillside where a short walk produced Crested Tit, Short Toed Treecreeper, Serin, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch and Crossbill. Next, we headed for a valley at a place called Monnegre. As we turned into the valley Gwen spotted a large raptor, circling overhead, which turned out to be a Short Toed Eagle. We had a Dartford Warbler fly across the road in front of the car and a Raven circled over the valley. We pulled into the side of the road half way down the valley and we quickly picked up Rock Sparrow and Blue Rock Thrush. A bit of a scan of the valley ensued, producing both Black and Black-Eared Wheatear, Thekla Lark and a distant Peregrine. Whilst watching these I looked up and there was a pair of Bonelli’s Eagles flying overhead. After a little while here, we found our target bird, a pair of Trumpeter Finch, feeding on the ridge across from us. All the time, there was a constant movement of Bee Eaters, Swifts and Hirrundines overhead, heading north. Back at the car we found a Whinchat and a Warbler which we initially struggled to identify. It turned out that it was a Spectacled Warbler. Jules was quite surprised at this as he had never seen them in that area. What made it more surprising was it appeared to be nest building. Moving further down the valley we came across more Bee Eaters, a couple of Woodchat Shrike, Southern Grey Shrike, Crag Martin, Willow Warbler and a Nightingale singing out in the open. We then called it a day (but a great one) and headed back to Jules’ B&B in Oliva.
On 30th April we headed to Pego marsh before Breakfast. As we turned onto one of the tracks into the marsh the first birds we saw were Whiskered Terns. The first couple of stops produced singing Moustached, Savi’s, Great and Eurasian Reed Warblers, Zitting Cisticola, Black-Winged Stilt, Curlew Sandpiper, Little and Cattle Egret, Grey, Purple and Squacco Herons and an Osprey sitting on a pylon. Moving up to the paddy fields, a Black Kite took off from one of the pylon, but unfortunately flew away from us. In the paddy field were Yellow-Legged and Audouin’s Gulls and a flock of Yellow Wagtails that included Blue-Headed (flava) Grey-Headed (thumbergi) and Iberian (iberiae). Scanning across the reeds, Jules spotted a Little Bittern flying low, but it soon dropped out of site. We were all feeling a bit hungry by now, so we headed back to the B&B for breakfast. What a way to start the day!
After brekky we headed for a headland near Denia. As we pulled into the car parking area over looking Javea, the sky seemed to be full of Swifts, of which most were Pallid Swifts as they breed on the cliffs here. A walk through the scrub to the cliff tops produced Sardinian Warbler, Nightingale, Blue Rock Thrush, Woodchat Shrike, Northern and Black Wheatear. The sea was very quiet apart from a flock of Gulls feeding around a couple of trawlers, a very long way out. After a while two trawlers started fishing a lot closer in. Amongst the feeding frenzy of Yellow-Legged Gulls behind the trawlers, we picked out a single Cory’s Shearwater and twenty plus Balearic Shearwater. We also had a Kestrel and a Peregrine heading out to sea, the later seemed to be homing in on a flock of Pigeons before we lost sight of it. Gwen later spotted a Peregrine coming back into the cliffs, but we didn’t get a good enough view of it to see if it was carrying a pigeon.
On the way back to Denia for lunch, we found about fifteen Bee-Eaters sitting on a wire but as soon as I made a move to get my camera out of the boot, they were off (oh well).
After lunch we returned to Pego marsh, where Jules immediately found five Collard Pratincole feeding over the marsh. Walking around the Southeast corner of the reserve we found Whiskered Tern, Audouin’s Gull, Black-Winged Stilt, Curlew, Wood and Common Sandpiper, Dunlin, Red-Crested Pochard, Marbled Duck, Hoopoe and Iberian Yellow Wagtail. Then a drive past the allotments and a walk round the back of the hill produced Tree Sparrow, Woodchat Shrike, Squacco Heron, a Nightingale sitting out in the open on the wires singing and couple of Alpine Swifts in with the hundreds of Common Swifts. Shortly after this Gwen asked us what the bird circling above was? When Jules and I looked we immediately identified it as a falcon of some description. Jules was talking to Gwen and discussing the size of the bird. He initially talked about it being a kestrel but its tail seemed too short. Gwen seemed to think that it was much bigger than that and said she thought it was too big to be a kestrel. Jules and I quickly disagreed and said that it could be slightly bigger but not a lot. Gwen then looked across at Jules and I, only to discover that we were actually looking through our binoculars at a different bird. She was actually looking at a Short-Toed Eagle. This caused a lot of laughter from us all, as she knew it was bigger than a kestrel and Jules knew it wasn’t. Actually they were both right, as they were talking about different birds! As it turned out we couldn’t accurately identify the falcon as we did not have our scopes with us at the time but we could honestly say it was either a Hobby or a Red-Footed Falcon.
Good stuff Gary,
keep it coming!
best regards
Merlin