March - Egrets, Med Gulls, Siskins

Four of five Little Egrets in the paddock behind the garden this evening

March is such an exciting birdwatching month in the garden. Resident birds start to nest, winter passage migrant birds are on the move and calling in to stock-up and perhaps, if the weather warms up, we may have some spring visitors call in too.

Over the garden today, Mediterranean Gulls calling within the drifting Common Gull flock touring the village - sadly I didn't see them. Siskins seem to be calling everywhere and are finally on the feeders quickly finishing off our sunflower seed. Winter Stock Doves, Wood pigeons, Fieldfares, Yellowhammers and the occasional Reed bunting are still here every day. Song Thrushes are nest building and the day ended with Five Little Egrets in the field behind the garden. So everything but sunshine is here!

Song Thrushes are nest building and are quite approachable at the moment. This bird waits by the patio window in the morning for a handful of raisans.

Not an expert on aging the Song Thrush, this bird has quite a lot of variation in its plumage and has a warm tone throughout. Just in this light, it seemed to have a quite  distinct Chestnut-topped head - perhaps a second year bird?

Dung-loving Egrets

Two adult Little Egrets continue to stay in the field behind the garden, despite being so close to the breeding season. Incongruous a sight as it is, these birds are quite content searching amongst mud and horse dung for who knows what. Evidence they're finding enough to eat is, that for a large part of the day, the birds just sleep, looking more like plastic garden centre ornaments than believable exotic wild herons.

On the edge of the village a flock of 300+ Common Gulls and smaller numbers of Black Headed Gulls are present in the sheep fields. The flock looks big enough to contain a surprise rarer Gull, so I must try and take a more detailed look before they move on to breeding grounds in Europe and Northern England. Here just for the winter, it's not that common, the Common Gull.

In the garden, Siskins are finally calling in, strangely, not to the feeders, but to Sallow catkins. A Reed bunting is continuing to tag along with the local Yellowhammers and a Moorhen has joined along with our ten 'pet' Pheasants for a big seed feed. Despite the dreadful weather, Robins, Song Thrushes, Blackbirds and House Sparrows are nest building.

Spain: Flamingos and friends

Any visiting bird watcher to the Alicante region can visit some fantastic Salt pans and Wetland reserves that in some way make-up for the relentless urbanisations that stretch from Alicante to Murcia on the coastal strip. At the salt pans, the birds seem much more approachable than in the UK - making for fantastic opportunities for photography, you just need time which sadly I didn't have enough of. Heres a few of the commoner stuff I snapped. The Costa Blanca bird club web site has all you need to know for visitor information and latest sightings.

 http://www.costablancabirdclub.com/latestsightings.htm

Greater Flamingo

Slender Bill Gull

Audiouns Gull

Black tailed Godwit

Avocet

Spoonbill, Great White and Little Egret

Cattle Egret

Lesser Spotted woodpecker - Shadoxhurst

A lunch time walk along Blind Grooms lane the byway from Hornash Lane, was rewarded with a splendid Lesser Spotted Woodpecker seen and heard, just my second bird this year. Also still 3 Little Egrets sun-bathing together in the adjacent fields.  A very loud bird scarer seemed to be keeping everything else away.

The speck that is Comet Panstarrs

There's something quite satisfying about seeing a new Comet and tonight seeing Comet Panstarrs for the first time was no exception. Just about visible with the naked eye, and through binoculars and film the unmistakable glow from the tail, Comet Panstarrs could have been better, but perhaps that might happen in the nights to come. 

Our view tonight was all about being there at the right time, as bands of cloud passed across the sunset obscuring the view for much of tonight's twilight. Under the earthshine of the waxing moon, I stood quietly at the back of garden looking for the comet, and was briefly joined by a beautiful fox who checked out our old shed for mice that banquet the night away on  discarded bird seed.

Can you see it? Comet Panstarrs is visible low in the western sky (bottom right).

The waxing moon

Earthshine, reflecting back to Earth, the comet hidden by the cloud below.

The accidental Spanish wildlife reserve

Looking back through the Vistabella Golf course urbanisation, this was once Orange groves and countryside

Cold, clean air, brilliant sunshine and bird song everywhere. Welcome to a February morning on an abandonend building site on the Costa Blanca.

Serin, Sardinian Warbler, Hoopoe, Crested Lark, Goldfinch, Corn Bunting, and migrant Chiffchaff and Black Redstart at every turn - could there be anywhere on over-developed coastal Spain that would have this number and variety of birds?  Based on places we were later to visit during our week in Spain, apparently not.

Late February seems a strange time to be visiting Spain, but thanks to an eccentric school half-term timetable and our good friend Hazel's holiday home, we found ourselves on a week's break 45 minutes from Alicante. We stayed on a new 'urbanisation' complete with it's own golf course (if you should want it). Our base was one of many hap-hazardly built retirement estates that seemed plonked into a pressure landscape of low rise development, golf courses and Orange groves. We were told that the urbanisation (just 10 years old), was once a landscape of orange groves and artichoke fields and is now a partly-built housing estate with acres of uncompleted, scrubby building plots.

In the early morning, Artichoke pickers intensively work their prestine fields - I'd recommend washing your hearts before cooking..

For mile after mile out of Alicante, Orange and Lemon trees were laden with fruit waiting to be picked.

On the face of it, not a home for wildlife, but like so many other 'urbanisations' in Spain the property bubble has burst, and unfinished building plots have, in some way, become a temporary respite for wildlife displaced from lost habitat the length of Costa Blanca.

Before construction stopped, the Spanish builders left in place a pristine network of pavements, street lights and tarmacked roads dividing building plots, and these were to be my footpaths to an over-looked Spanish wildlife.

Venturing out through our estate at dawn, with artichoke farmers and orange pickers already collecting their fruits in the surrounding fields, retired British pensioners walked their dogs as only the English do.

Walking a 2 hour grid through the over-grown building plots, my first walk was in beautiful weather and little wind. The air was alive with the sound of bird song that, despite the desolate scene of abandoned plots, couldn't help but bring a smile to your face.

As I left our apartment, Black Redstarts flirted from every house top in the company of House Martins already at their nest sites, and fed in the company of Crag Martins, not yet ready to return to their mountain breeding sites. Occasionally we saw Swallows heading North (high in the sierras too). Back down at ground level it seemed that every bush and fence top had a migrant Chiffchaff singing away - accompanied in the scrub by Black Redstarts and resident Sardinian Warblers.

Migrant Chiffchaffs were abundant and sang the mornings away between feeds, ready for their next trip to the UK

Black Redstarts common everywhere - if only they'd come to Kent ( and take advantage of low exchange rate!)

Serin - so common everywhere

Also, flirting amongst the undergrowth, Sardinian warblers would occasionally pose in the sun before disappearing off again. In the spoil mounds Serin, Crested Lark, Stonechats, Corn Bunting, Gold-, Green- and Chaffinches all fed in good numbers in beds of opportunistic weeds. And then to my surprise it seemed every abandoned plot had a little flock Stone Curlew roosting the day away. Never have I seen so many Stone Curlew, occasionally flocks of 50 birds would fly over head.

Resident Stone Curlews stayed hidden away in the undergrowth during the day, but I often saw flocks of 30 - 50 birds, perhaps dispersing North for spring.

 

So despite a landscape that seemed to have no space for birds, we found ourselves immersed in migrant birds and Spanish residents benefitting from this accidental environment. My walks were to get more enjoyable still, in the more remote areas of the complex a pair of Great Grey Shrikes perched in the higher scrub looking for prey.

Great Grey Shrikes seemed to be common everywhere on the Costa Blanca, even on our urbanisation wasteground

Never seen so many Hoopoes on any Mediterranean trip. In February they're very vocal and easy to spot as they chase each across their territories

Even better, Hoopoes posed and called the day away. Never, in many visits to the Mediterranean, have I seen so many Hoopoes. Back in the scrub a brief view of a Ladder snake (eats rodents) and a resident pair of Kestrels added more interest, and at night they'd be joined by Little Owls and Nightjars. Another bird easy to make you jump was the Iberian Green woodpecker a seeming cleaner more brilliant coloured version of our own.

We returned back to the UK at the beginning of March and before Spain's own Summer migrants had arrived back. No doubt that Bee-eaters, Scops Owls and Nightjars will soon be arriving back in Spain for the summer. I hope they can find a true Spanish countryside to live on, and not just the short-lived building site environment we'd witnessed.