Birding in Murcia (Spain), and UK visits: Saturday 5th May 2012

Sunday 6 May 2012

Saturday 5th May 2012 – Cabo de Palos & Marchamalo salinas

Cabo lighthouse garden & RAM seawatch, 08:30 – 10:15

Weather: Sky 8/8 spitting with rain, wind SW F1 - 2; 14º. With Antonio ‘Cuco’Fuentes Marín, Inés Chamón Fernández

When I got up this morning I thought conditions were perfect for a fall of birds – full moon last night and a clear sky, then clouding over for first light and spitting with rain. However it was not to be. There were a few migrants about, but not as many as I might have hoped for.

In the bay from the lighthouse back towards La Manga, we counted a total of 9 Shags in the water mixed in the Yellow-legged Gull flock, and walking around the gardens a fair smattering of migrants, such as 10 Woodchats, 8 Spotted Flycatcher, a single female Pied Flycatcher, 3 Northern Wheatears, 2 Black-eared Wheatears (male & female), 5 Willow and 2 Bonelli’s Warblers, 3 Melodious Warblers, 2 Common Redstart (male & female), a flyover ‘flava’ Wagtail, Turtle Dove, Swallows and my first Squacco Heron of the year being seriously harassed along the shoreline by some Yellow-legged Gulls. Actually, writing the birds out in a list like that, it wasn’t such a bad morning after all!

Close to a small breeding colony, the Common Terns are now being seen regularly

The Shags are now off their nests, and are also now seen on each visit

As it’s the first Saturday in the month, we also had our 3 hour RAM seawatch from the cliffs. Although I didn’t do the full 3 hours (as I was still walking round the gardens) I did get to see some reasonable birds although numbers weren’t particularly high. Gannet, Balearic Shearwater, Pom. Skua, Great Skua, Audouin’s Gull and a couple of Storm Petrels (I think we saw the latter as a result of the sky being totally clouded over, as although we watch close to what is probably the largest known colony in the Med., we rarely see them – when we do the RAM we normally have the sun coming up directly in front of us).

Species seen/heard

Gannet (Morus bassanus)

Balearic Shearwater (Pardela mauretanicus)

European Storm Petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus)

Shag (Phlalcrocorax aristotelis)

Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea)

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta)

Squacco Heron (Ardeola ralloides)

Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)

Yellow-legged Gull (Larus michahellis)

Audouin’s Gull (Larus audouinii)

Common Tern (Sterna hirundo)

Sandwich Tern (Sterna sandvicensis)

Pomarine Skua (Stercorarius pomarinus)

Great Skua (Catharacta skua)

Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)

Turtle Dove (Streptopelia turtur)

Swift (Apus apus)

Swallow (Hirundo rustica)

Blackbird (Turdus merula)

Northern Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe)

Black-eared Wheatear (Oenanthe hispanica)

Robin (Erithacus rubecula)

Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus)

Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata)

Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca)

Melodious Warbler (Hippolais polyglotta)

Sardinian Warbler (Sylvia melanocephala)

Bonelli’s Warbler (Phylloscopus bonelli)

Woodchat Shrike (Lanius senator)

Spotless Starling (Sturnus unicolor)

House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)

Marchamalo salinas, 13:45 – 14:50

Weather: Sky 8/8 spitting with rain, wind SW F2; 18º.

After a spot of brunch, I continued on my way home via the Salinas at Marchamalo. The lagoons below the go-kart track are drying out rapidly now – one is totally dry and the one next to the road half empty. (I think that’s why all the waders seen recently have been round the Playa Paraiso side). In some of the lagoons in the middle of the Salinas there were a few waders, with a group of 17 Redshank and 3 Curlew Sandpipers, a few Kentish Plovers and Shelduck. Passerines seen along the footpath here included 4 Spotted Flycatchers, 1 female Pied Flycatcher and 4 Willow Warblers, but still nothing of the bird I was particularly looking out for, Wood Warbler.

Although the majority of Pied Flycatchers have now gone through, the occasional one can be seen

The majority of flycatchers seen now though are Spotteds

Round at the Playa Paraiso side of the Salinas, a new arrival was a group of 7 Ringed Plovers (making the ‘resident’ Kentish Plovers very nervous), and there were still 2 adult Greater Flamingos and a group of 9 Little Stint. I counted 41 Shelducks although there may have been more, and 15 Avocet and 4 Black Winged Stilts. In the bushes were 2 Woodchats, and flying over the lagoons a large flock of hirundines again (I estimated about 50 House Martins and 300+ Swallows, but strangely enough, no Swifts there today).