The Birdman of Alcossebre (Spain)

December Muse

Weather.
Although the The maximum daytime temperature for December here was 65F degrees (18C) most nights saw it dropping to 40 degrees. We also had strong winds blowing down from the mountains on 13 days which kept temperatures low.There was light rain on 6 days.
Apart from the days with rain most days were fine and sunny with excellent visibility.

Farming Scene : The last of the Tomatoe canes were stacked away ready for another season. So Stonechats and Black Restarts lost their perches were less easy to see as they foraged on the ground.
A lot more fields were being ploughed and spread with chicken manure thus keeping Larks and Wagtails busy catching the flies etc attracted by the manure.
Orange groves were producing their crop of fruit soon to be harvested, although the strong winds shook a lot off. A bonus for Warblers and Finches feeding on the quickly rotting fruit.
The Almond groves were looking very bare as the surplus branches had all been burnt and the leaves had dropped off the trees. Most of the groves were ploughed to keep the weeds down, not so good for the Finches and Buntings, better for the Wagtails Robins and Chats.

Birds :
A quiet month with only 54 species seen.

Seawatching/Seabirds
A maximum of 3 Great Crested Grebes were noted off shore.
Mediterranean Shearwaters peaked at 190 birds on the 24th.This is the lowest December numbers in 3 years.
Only one Gannet was noted.
Cormorant numbers peaked at 21 birds.

Herons and Egrets.No Herons were seen this month which is about normal.
Cattle Egrets – could be renamed Tractor Egrets, as a maximum of 20 were seen following the tractors ploughing the fields!
Little Egrets were much scarcer with one or two birds feeding along the coastline.

Birds of Prey.
A single Sparrowhawk, the wintering Buzzard and two Kestrels were the total for this group.

Waders.A maximum of 6 Lapwing were the only wader seen.

Gulls and Terns.
Both Mediterranean Gull and Audouin´s Gulls with maximums of 51 and 43 outnumbered Black Headed Gulls (22) this month.
Yellow Legged Gull and Lesser Black Back Gulls were seen in their hundreds, either roosting on the beaches or following the fishing boats.
Sandwich Terns peaked at 28 birds.

Pigeons and Doves.
Collared Doves peaked at 47 birds.

Little Owls were very scarce this month with only one sighting.
A single Kingfisher was seen fishing off shore with Sandwich Terns – first time I’ve seen that.
Hoopoes peaked at 5 birds.

Swallows and Martins.
This group was only represented by Crag Martins this month with a maximum of 49 birds seen.

Larks, Pipits and Wagtails.
Resident Crested Larks with 9 birds were outnumbered by wintering s Skylark– peak of 56 birds.
A wintering Water Pipit and a peak of 11 Meadow Pipits were noted.
White Wagtails were seen in flocks of 18 maximum.

Robins and Chats.BlRobin, b>ack Redstart and Stonechat numbers were similar with peaks of 13, 15 and 12.
I had a male and a female Black Redstart in the garden this month, being constantly harassed by the wintering Robin!

Thushes.Both Song Thrush(3)and Blackbirds(1) were scarce this month.

Warblers.Still a nice variety of Warblers on show.
Single singing Cetti’s Warblers.
A peak of 6 Fan Tail Warblers.

The resident Sardinian Warblers(18) were outnumbering the wintering Dartford Warblers (4).

Chiffchaffs(12) were outnumbering Blackcaps(5), again winter visitors.
Two wintering Great Grey Shrikes were seen occasionally chasing warblers.
Magpies peaked at 12 birds.
Spotless Starlings were practising their range of mimic songs – one bird had a Golden Oriole call spot on, I had to look twice.

The winter numbers of Common Starlings seem to be increasing with flocks of hundreds seen.

Finches and Buntings.
Flock sizes of all the finches increased this month with 43 Chaffinch, 34 Greenfinch, 65 Goldfinch, 68 Linnet and 80 Serins.
Two Cirl Bunting and 12 Reed Bunting complete the list.

Posted by Flamingo at January 1, 2005 5:16 PM