Having established Valencia Birding back in 2011, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting an array of lovely people along the way, many of whom have become firm friends. Jan and Rab from the UK spend a considerable amount of time on the Costa Blanca and have been loyal friends and supporters of Valencia Birding since the early years. Together we’ve travelled through the regons wetlands, mountains, steppe and forests and have shared many special birding moments together. Earler this month I was delighted to get together with them again.
Firstly, we spent a morning together, walking around Oliva Pego Marsh, where we had great views of Booted Eagle, Marsh Harrier and huge flocks of Glossy Ibis before I gave a brief talk on the Osprey reintroduction project there, a venture that I’m honoured to be involved in. We then strolled alongside the river to a cafe bar where we enjoyed a late breakfast together.
Marsh Harrier
It was a week or so later when we set out together again on a 2-day trip around some of Alicante’s southern wetlands and coastal sites. Our first stop was at a small reserve where much work has been done to protect the Marbled Teal, and indeed we managed to get some great views of this pint-sized beauty. Other wildfowl and aquatic species included Red Crested Pochard, White Headed Duck, Common Pochard, Eurasian Teal and Little Grebe.
Marbled Teal
We then moved further to the south to another of Alicante’s many wetland sites, where we had lunch beside a lagoon, delighted to see migration in progress before us, with great numbers of Sand Martins, House Martins, Barn Swallows and Red Rumped Swallows all feeding in flight above us. Such a sight really makes one feel that spring is only just around the corner! Purple Swamphen, Glossy Ibis and Snipe were amongst other fabulous creatures seen from our lunch spot.
Snipe
Once fed, we began a stroll through the reserve, which gave us the chance to enjoy quality views of Red Knobbed Coot (another of the area’s conservation success stories), Greater Flamingo, Sardinian Warbler, Black Necked Grebe and Booted Eagle.
Red Knobbed Coot
We’d opted to stay overnight at Santa Pola, a fishing town sandwiched between the Mediterranean Sea and vast coastal salt flats. One the way to the hotel, we made a diversion to visit a new site for Jan and Rab. This salt marsh brought the day to a lovely close with views of Avocet, Black Tailed Godwit, Kentish Plover, Slender Billed Gull and Mediterranean Gull. In the evening, we had dinner together, catching up on a year’s worth of news and adventures.
Kentish Plover
The next morning, after a good breakfast and an anti-seasickness pill, we boarded a fast launch from the port at Santa Pola to the small marine reserve island of Tabarca. This tiny island is home to a historical car-free village, but the majority of it is covered by Mediterranean scrub, its coast comprising of low cliffs and rocky islets. Once in the tiny harbour, we spent a while watching Shags, Yellow Legged Gulls and Sandwich Terns before enjoying a coffee on one of the village’s street terraces.
Tabarca’s water taxi in its tiny harbour
The geographical location of Tabarca makes it an interesting spot to see birds on migration, so there’s usually a surprise or two. I remember a previous visit when one of the rocky spires on its coast was covered with Northern Wheatears which were resting whilst passing through on their journey north. Each year a colony of Pallid Swifts takes over a fortified tower and Sardinian Warblers make use of the low scrub as nesting sites.
Tabarca
Today’s walk around the island and exploration of the rocky inlets and islets gave us views of Whimbrel and Ruddy Turnstone. We also added Audouin’s Gull and Black Redstart to our list. It was soon time to board the boat back to Santa Pola, and as on the morning crossing, the sea was thankfully flat calm!
There are usually way more Yellow Legged Gulls than people on Tabarca!
After a comfortable journey back to Javea, it was time to say our farewells, but only for the time being. We’d already talked about our next potential trips together, and hopefully we’ll see each other at the Global Birdfair later this year. It had been a real pleasure as always to spend time with Jan and Rab, and we’d certainly added to our collection of fond memories.
The species list for the trip included…
Audouin’s Gull, Avocet, Barn Swallow, Black Headed Gull, Black Necked Grebe, Black Redstart, Black Tailed Godwit, Blackbird, Blackcap, Booted Eagle, Chiffchaff, Common Pochard, Common Swift, Coot, Cormorant, Crag Martin, Eurasian Teal, Glossy Ibis, Greater Flamingo, House Martin, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Kentish Plover, Kestrel, Little Egret, Little Grebe, Magpie, Mallard, Marbled Teal, Marsh Harrier, Mediterranean Gull, Moorhen, Purple Swamphen, Red Crested Pochard, Red Knobbed Coot, Red Rumped Swallow, Sand Martin, Sandwich Tern, Sardinian Warbler, Shag, Shelduck, Slender Billed Gull, Snipe, Spotless Starling, Stonechat, Turnstone, Whimbrel, White Headed Duck, White Wagtail, Yellow Legged Gull.
Written by Dave Warrington.
Valencia Birding.