A note from the hills of Alicante.

As the World remains constrained within the grip of the Corona Virus pandemic, like so many others, I´m finding such peace and inspiration from the birds around me. As every year, I´ve moved away from Valencia to spend the summer months in our little house in the hills in the rural interior of Alicante Province.  The house is exceptionally simple but is surrounded by rolling hills, crags and olive groves.  I often base myself here when working with clients who wish to discover this almost unknown corner of Spain and I always love to share this very special place and the joy that its bird life brings to others.  As this year, for obvious reasons, that´s not possible, I´d like to share a few special moments with you by writing. I´ve been here for around two weeks now, and the first week is usually a busy one, preparing the house and doing a few repair jobs.  However, on most days, a group of Griffon Vultures have appeared, circling over the valley.  A Hoopoe often visits the garden and the Bee Eaters are once again nesting in the lane that leads…

Continue reading

Improvements to Mountain Birdlife Spring & Summer Trip!

Our “Mountain Birdlife – Spring & Summer” trip has been an extremely popular choice from the moment of its creation and I´ve had many happy days with clients who have enjoyed the magnificent birds that can be seen on this outing.  However, I´m always looking to improve and evolve and one of the relatively few positives that the Corona Virus situation has given me is more time to do just that.  I´ve spent a few days exploring some new areas around the general vicinity of the sites where this trip takes us to, with a view to adding more habitat diversity.  After a few unproductive outings, my efforts were rewarded and I´m now delighted to report that I´ve been able to improve this already fabulous trip. Last week, I carried out a “test drive” using my friend John as a willing guinea pig!  We made the comfortable and very scenic journey from Valencia, and stopped briefly at our first spot to look for Bonelli´s Eagle.  After only a few moments, we had super views of a young bird in flight.  (This trip can also be adapted to include a session…

Continue reading

A morning at my local wetland site.

As (Corona Virus) restrictions are currently being eased, I recently enjoyed a morning´s birding at one of our local wetland sites with my old friend John. We´d arranged a birding trip together just before the lockdown so had to cancel and for obvious reasons hadn´t seen each other since early March. Although I´ve been birding regularly on my own, this was my first trip with another person, so the social aspect was most welcome! Applying the measures with regard to masks, distancing and common sense, we met and began our morning with a walk along the coastal stretch of the site. We immediately heard the song of Common Reed Warbler and then spotted a Turtle Dove that flew by. Then we had good views of my “lockdown bird” Zitting Cisticola, so named as during the time when I couldn´t leave my neighboorhood in Valencia, I found lots of them inhabiting patches of waste ground and urban allotments. A Great Reed Warbler then popped onto the top of a reed and began singing right in front of us, which is always a fabulous thing to see.  We decided to spend a…

Continue reading

Fabulous News – Greater Flamingo Breeds Successfully in Alicante.

Valencia Birding

A combination of factors have combined to provide the ideal conditions for Greater Flamingo to breed successfully at one of Alicante´s salt marshes for the first time in 37 years!  This site is one that we usually include in our multi-day birding breaks and is very reliable for Greater Flamingo, but the news that they have been able to successfully breed there is delightful. More about the factors that have provided such ideal conditions… In January of this year, the region suffered from huge storms with incredibly high rainfall.  Following this, early Spring in Alicante was also much wetter than usual.  This resulted in the water levels at all wetland sites  increasing, but as this sudden increase was due to rainfall, it also reduced the salinity of the water.  The reduction in salinity then resulted in a huge increase in the population of the brine shrimp Artemia salina, the principal food of Greater Flamingo. The birds also enjoyed a period of relative calm, firstly as there were far fewer humans around because of the Corona Virus lockdown, and secondly because predators such as foxes could not get close to the…

Continue reading

The Lives of Griffon Vultures.

Griffon Vultures – Magnificent Birds of the Spanish Mountains Often misunderstood, or at least badly portrayed! Spain is home to around 17,000 pairs of Griffon Vultures. That sounds like quite a lot, but the sobering thought is that this figure accounts for approximately 75% of the World´s population. The wingspan of an adult bird is almost 3 metres, and they can live for over 30 years. They are often seen as “flying planks” high in the blue skies of Southern Europe. But what of the lives of these mystical creatures? “Vultures!” is often a phrase, an insult indeed for someone who preys on the vulnerable, the weak, for their own easily gotten gains. No wonder then, that this carries over to the image of these most noble of birds. I beg to plead in their defence! Firstly, on a “personal” basis, they are monogamous, usually pairing for life. As these photos show, they breed on mountain crags, building their nests from sticks. The lay a single egg, which is incubated for 50-60 days. Four months after hatching, the chick is fledged and can fly, but usually needs further care and…

Continue reading

Whiskered Tern – Chlidonias hybrida

Valencia Birding

Here´s a short piece and a brief video on the Whiskered Tern (scroll down to see the video).  This is largely a migratory species, typically wintering in Africa, for which the extensive coastal wetlands of the Valencia region provide ideal breeding habitat.  They nest in colonies, often close to gulls and feed on crustaceans, insects, small fish and amphibians. In adult breeding plumage, one of the key ID features is the grey breast as well as the dark red stubby bill which is a little shorter on female birds.  They have a black cap and white cheeks, the latter said to resemble white whiskers when the bird is in flight, hence the name – although maybe a little imagination is required here! I have spent many happy times watching these graceful birds feeding by catching small fish from just below the surface of the water.  They also use the perching poles that have been placed in many of our local reserves as places to rest and preen.

Continue reading