As during
the night there had been a spattering of rain, I decided to have a look at the
lighthouse garden at Cabo de Palos first thing, to see if anything had dropped
in. However the garden looked very dry,
and the only birds of note were a Southern Grey Shrike (presumably the same one
seen on Saturday) and two Red-rumped Swallows.
I have a
theory that we are only going to get any birds there when there has been a good
period of rain storms, and there is laying water (in the form of puddles), as
at present there seems to be very little insect life and no water for the
birds.
The Southern Grey Shrike at the lighthouse garden
On my way
back home, as usual I called into the Marchamalo Salinas. Here there definitely were more birds about,
with a total of 50 Greater Flamingos (with 2 juveniles – the first I have seen
this year), and a winter plumage Spotted Redshank being the star birds. Three of the flamingos wore colour rings
which I was able to read.
On the
downside for here, I noted that no water was being pumped into the Salinas.
A view across the salinas
In the
afternoon, I took a tour around the west side of the Mar Menor, ending up at
the Salinas at
San Pedro del Pinatar. I started at
14:40 hrs. at the old sewage farm (EDAR) at El Algar, but drew a total blank –
not a single bird. Maybe it was due to
the time of day, but it’s the first time I’ve been here and seen nothing at
all!
Next I
called in to the farm reservoirs at San Javier.
Here thank goodness, there were birds, the best being 9 Black Terns and
3 Turtle Doves, with a supporting cast of Black Winged Stilts, Cattle Egret,
Little Ringed Plovers and Southern Grey Shrike.
The Black Terns, still being seen in the farm reservoirs
From here I
moved on to the new sewage farm (EDAR) of San Javier, which is opposite the
airport. However because it IS new and
not a lot has established itself, all I saw were 12 Little Grebes, 4 Moorhen
and 15 Yellow-legged Gulls.
I carried
on to the Salinas
at San Pedro del Pinatar, arriving just after 3:30pm. What a relief it was to be able to set up the
scope/camera and not have people flushing all the birds away before you can get
onto them. Helped by the time of day,
you could see that the summer was over for most people. Birds of note here were the juveniles. There were very few (c240) Greater Flamingos,
but the first juveniles put in an appearance.
And the same with Curlew Sandpiper – of the 5 I saw, 2 were juveniles,
and with Sanderling – 12 seen, only 2 with vestiges of adult plumage. Also there had obviously been an arrival of
Spotted Redshanks, as I saw 7, all in winter plumage (and possibly juveniles as
well). Of the
summer visitors, there was no sign of Sand Martin, and I only saw 4 Little
Terns.
Only the third juvenile Greater Flamingo I've seen locally so far this year
As it was
relatively quiet (of people I mean), I decided to walk down the ‘Mota’, which
is a walkway that divides the Salinas
from the Mar Menor. Normally used by
thousands of people walking/running/cycling up and down it, this was also
quiet. And as there were juvenile waders
about, I thought it was worth the 3 km. walk each way to see if any Knot had
arrived as this is a favorite area of theirs when the juveniles first come
in. Well, I was unlucky with the Knot as
there weren’t any, but I counted the moulting flock of Black Necked Grebes that
gather here each late summer (515 in total), and did see some strange antics of
a Whimbrel, which were very comical to watch.
Part of the flock of Black Necked Grebes....
...and the full flock - what's the collective noun for Black Necked Grebes - I suggest a 'smudge'
There were a fair number of Sanderlings, mainly juveniles...
... but with the occasional adult...
...and with them, Turnstones...
... and a couple of juvenile Little Stints, one pictured here
There were winter plumaged Turnstones too
This Black Winged Stilt wandered in quite close...
... and wandered back out again
About 2 km.
down the Mota (which is like a sea-wall with a 3 metre wide sandy top, the
Mar Menor on one side, the Salinas pools on the other), I noticed a Whimbrel a
way off on a small sandy area in the Salinas.
As they are normally very difficult to photograph, I thought that when I
got to the area, I’d see if I could get close enough to get some photos without
disturbing and flushing it. Well, I
needn’t have bothered worrying about flushing it – it flew up onto the top of
the Mota to where people walk, and started dodging in and out of the high weeds
that were at the side of the path, and every so often it would disappear into
the weeds and then come out with something in its bill – and on a couple of
occasions it dropped what it had caught while trying to swallow it, and the
prey (presumably a grasshopper) would hop around on the ground with the
Whimbrel after it. It let me get
reasonably close and I got some photos – not brilliant ones as the sun was in
the wrong position, but I also managed to video it. It wasn’t too bothered by people walking past
– it’d just fly to the bottom of the 'Mota' and return when they'd gone by, or fly around in a loop coming back onto the ‘Mota’. Eventually it
WAS flushed by a cyclist, and flew over to the other side of the Salinas.
The antics of this Whimbrel had me in stitches
A short video of the Whimbrel feeding (quality not brilliant - it was quite windy)
Occasionally it got off the path to join all the other waders
On the way back, Slender/billed Gulls were gathering together
Bird species seen
Greater
Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus)
Grey
Heron (Ardea cinerea)
Little Egret (Egretta
garzetta)
Cattle
Egret (Bubulcus ibis)
Little
Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis)
Black
Necked Grebe (Podiceps nigricollis)
Shelduck (Tadorna
tadorna)
Mallard (Anas
platyrhynchos)
Kestrel
(Falco tinnunculus)
Black
Winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus)
Avocet
(Recurvirostra avosetta)
Turnstone
(Arenaria interpres)
Ringed
Plover (Charadrius hiaticula)
Little
Ringed Plover (Charadrius dubius)
Kentish
Plover (Charadrius alexandrines)
Common
Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos)
Curlew
Sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea)
Dunlin
(Calidris alpina)
Little
Stint (Calidris minuta)
Sanderling
(Calidris alba)
Ruff
(Philomachus pugnax)
Redshank
(Tringa totanus)
Spotted
Redshank (Tringa erythropus)
Greenshank
(Tringa nebularia)
Whimbrel
(Numenius phaeopus)
Black-headed
Gull (Larus ridibundus)
Slender-billed
Gull (Larus genei)
Mediterranean
Gull (Larus melanocephalus)
Audouin’s
Gull (Larus audouinii)
Yellow-legged
Gull (Larus cachinnans)
Sandwich
Tern (Sterna sanvicensis)
Little
Tern (Sterna albifrons)
Black
Tern (Chlidonias niger)
Coot
(Fulica atra)
Moorhen
(Gallinula chloropus)
Rock
Dove / Domestic Pigeon (Columba livia)
Collared
Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)
Turtle
Dove (Streptopelia turtur)
Southern
Grey Shrike (Lanius meridionalis)
Red-rumped
Swallow (Hirundo daurica)
Blackbird
(Turdus merula)
Sardinian
Warbler (Sylvia melsanocephala)
Spotless
Starling (Sturnus unicolor)
Goldfinch
(Carduelis carduelis)
Greenfinch
(Carduelis chloris)
House
Sparrow (Passer domesticus)
No comments:
Post a Comment