The Birdman of Alcossebre (Spain)

Hot weather cool birds

Birds
I saw 53 species in the Alcossebre area in June 2005.
Highlights for me were : First June records for Night Heron, HSquacco Heron, Quail and Southern Great Grey Shrike.

Seabirds and other birds passing along the sea.
Single Gannet, Cormorant and Shag seen.
3 Grey Heron flew East on 20th June.
8 Greater Flamingo flew East on 17th June.
One Mallard then 5 flew East on 6th and 28th June.
28 Black Headed Gulls flew East on 20th June.
140 Audouin´s Gulls per hour flying east on 30th June – this movement lasted most of the day!
Most of these birds would be heading for the Ebro Delta.

Herons and Egrets.
Grey Heron, only record as above.
One of the my local hotspots – the sewage pond – produced a juvenile Night Heron on the 3rd (see photo) and a Squacco Heron on the 4th June.
Maximum numbers of Cattle Egrets was 30 birds on 13th June, while only one or two Little Egrets were seen.

Birds of Prey.
June is usually a poor month for this group and this year was no exception. One male Montagu’s Harrier was seen hunting over the dry riverbed at Rio San Miquel, on 4th June.

Pheasant the solitary male was only heard once this month and might have moved on.
Moorhen. Still a few breeding pairs seen some with second broods.

Wading Birds.
Only one species seen this month. One to six Black Winged Stilts frequented Capicorp Lagoon from 15th to 18th June. See photo.

Gulls and Terns.
Another quiet month numbers wise for this group.
Black Headed Gulls were seen on 5 days with the biggest group reported above.
Audoiun’s Gulls were seen daily, mainly in small numbers, except on the 30th as reported above.
Yellow Legged Gulls were also seen daily mainly flying from there inland nest sites to feed out at sea.
Sandwich Terns were also seen daily off shore but never more than 12 birds at a time.

Pigeons and Doves.
One to three Wood Pigeons were seen daily.
This contrasted with the much bigger numbers of Collared Doves seen – maximum of 46 birds.
Turtle Doves were eratic in their appearances, seen on only 4 days with a maximum of 6 birds seen.

Great Spotted Cuckoo – having a good season. I saw up to 5 juveniles been fed by the local Magpies. 3 juveniles were haranguing one unlucky pair of Magpies at the one time!

Little Owl. Up to 6 birds could be seen hunting during my morning walk.

Red Necked Nightjar. Still one or two birds calling up to the 30thJune.

Swifts, Swallows and Martins.
While Pallid and Common Swifts were still bringing up their first broods, Swallows and House Martins were in most cases bringing up their second broods.
Maximum daily numbers for each were as follows. Pallid/Common Swift – 110 birds. Swallows – 78 birds. House Martins – 12 birds.

Hoopoe. A bit of a puzzle with this species? Last month there were 7 or 8 pairs nesting and yet this month I’ve only seen 4 birds maximum. Also, no young birds seen. They do nest in very vulnerable places i.e. low down in holes in walls and trees.

Bee-eater. Found another breeding pair since last month so now 4 breeding pairs in the area.

Larks, Pipits and Wagtails.
Crested Larks – Family groups seen and some males still singing, indicating second broods. Maximum daily numbers – 12 birds. See photo.
One or two White Wagtails seen, so possibly nesting.

Thrushes.
The only member of this group seen Blackbird, with possibly 4 pairs breeding.

Warblers. Only left with the breeding warblers now.
Nightingales stopped singing after the 15th June, which makes it much more difficult to judge their numbers. Maximum of 2 seen.
Fan Tailed Warbler. Thankfully, unlike the above, they are still calling their zip-zip-zip call. Up to 6 birds noted.
Reed Warbler. The solitary male was last heard singing at the sewage pond on 1st June.
Melodious Warbler. Much better news for this species, still up to five pairs holding territory. A few pairs heard anxiety see photo.
Sardianian Warbler. Still at least 9 pairs holding territory.

Spotted Flycatcher. One pair breeding locally represents a poor overall picture – many more pairs breeding in the areas with more trees.

Great Tit. Some of the 6 pairs have now fledged their young.

Shrikes. Usually I have only one species to report at this time of year but I saw a Southern Grey Shrike on overhead wires near the sewage works on 21st June.
Woodchat Shrike. One pair still nesting locally.

Golden Oriole. Another success story to report. Out of four breeding pairs, one pair have two young and another pair three young. It still doesn’t make them any easier to photograph!

Magpie. Not all of the 10 pairs locally are unlucky enough to fledging aliens! Some have ‘normal’ broods.

Finches and Buntings.
Most of the Finches are flying about in family groups plus there are second broods being attended still.
Maximum numbers seen. 15 Greenfinch; 40 Goldfinch; 16 Serin.Still one or two pairs of Cirl Bunting holding territory.
Corn Buntings, on the other hand have stopped singing and like the Nightigales are hard to count.

Weather. This June was mainly sunny and hot with the average daytime temperature reaching 29 C or 85 F. The last 12 days got warmer still reaching 33 C or 92 F some days.m
There were 5 days when thunderstorms developed and 4 days with some light rain.
Winds were mainly light to gentle and from the east to south east.
With only 2 days of moderate east to north east winds.
Nightime temperatures rarely fell below 21C or 70 F.

Farming Scene.
The Artichoke fields provided a vivid splash of colour as they burst into flower, looking like giant blue thistles – see photo – and thus signalled the end of their season.See photo
The main manual work was transferred to tieing up the Tomatoe plants as they reached for the sky.
Almond Trees were showing off this years crop as they ripened in the sun.
Some farmers were cultivating Marrows and others trying out Sugarcanes. Interesting to see the results.

Finally a tale about a snake!
My friend Peter arrived at the house one recent Sunday morning and said that he had a snake lodged underneath his car. He didn’t know what species it was, but he reckoned it was at least four foot long! He asked me if I would be interested in removing it for him because he didn’t want to get that close to it.
I said “sure, just wait a minute, and I’ll get a big box and my snake grabber.”
However, when I got to his car, it had decided to leave on it’s own accord. We did get a good look at it as it slithered into my neighbours garden, and then out again, before disappearing into a cavity in a rocky wall.
What kind of snake was it? A Ladder Snake which only has the ladder pattern when it’s young. The adult has two continous green stripes down it’s back. See the difference in the two photos.
Is it venomous? No. Will it bite you? Only if you are daft enough to pick it up with your bare hands.

Posted by Flamingo at July 2, 2005 5:40 PM