The Birdman of Alcossebre (Spain)

Resident birds outnumbered by winter visitors.

Birds. I saw a total of 70 species this month.
Four species were the first I had seen in the Alcossebre area - Common Teal, Common Scoter, Goldcrest and Long-tailed Tit.
This brings the species list up to 168 for the area.
I also saw one exotic species – a Pin Tailed Wydah, see photo.

Winter birds continued to flock into the area with three species being the first for winter – Great Crested Grebe, Red Breasted Merganser and Razorbill.
Normally my bird count walk takes me about two hours, but with the number and variety of birds seen lately it takes nearly three hours.

Seabirds and other birds passing along the coast.
The first Great Crested Grebes returned on the 18th with two being the most seen.
Mediterranean Shearwaters were seen twice with 2 and 14 birds seen.
One to four Gannets were seen during the month.
One to three Shags were seen, but as usual were out numbered by Cormorants. Apart from 4 wintering birds a total of 237 birds were seen flying south west.
Only 5 Grey Herons seen, 4 going south on the 3rd and one going east on 26th.
My first record of Common Scoter was on the 27th November, well off shore.
The first Red Breasted Merganser of the winter returned on the 21st.
The first Razorbills of the winter were seen on the 16th November with one to five birds there after.

Herons and Egrets.
The only Grey Herons seen were passage birds.
A maximum of 20 wintering Cattle Egrets were seen, with only single Little Egrets seen along the coast.

Ducks and Mergansers.
It’s not usual that I can include this group of birds as we don’t have a lot of fresh water – only two small ponds. Most members of this group are seen at sea. However, a pair of Common Teal turned up at the sewage pond from the 17th to the 20th November, giving me my first record here.
Then on the 27th I got another first record, a small flock of 10 Common Scoter well off shore.
The first Red Breasted Merganser of the winter was seen off shore on the 21st.

Birds of Prey.
Three Marsh Harriers flew East on the 24th November, putting the local finches in fright mode. They were probably headed for the Ebro Delta.
Our usual wintering Common Buzzard returned on the 1st November and was seen daily on a variety of Pylons and trees.
A late Booted Eagle was seen on the 16th November.
Up to three Kestrels were seen in the area.

Wading Birds.
The only wader seen this month was up to four Lapwings wintering in the local fields.
Moorhens in the only two places holding this species had 14 max. and 8 max. Torre De Capycorp and the Sewage pond.

Gulls and Terns.
With the beaches and headlands being devoid of tourists the Gulls and Terns were taking advantage by roosting and preening in good numbers.
Up to 62 Mediterranean Gulls were counted, 70 Black headed Gulls, 84 Audouin’s Gulls, 41 Yellow Legged Gulls, and 240 Lesser Black Back Gulls.
Our only wintering Tern the Sandwich Tern peaked at 20 birds.

Pigeons and Doves
Only two species seen in this group this month.
The usual farm Feral pigeons and a maximum of 57 Collared Doves feeding in the fields.

The Rose Ringed Parakeets, first seen last month were still around.

Little Owls were fairly scarce this month with only a maximum of 3 birds seen.
Two single Kingfishers were seen, one at Capycorp lagoon and one along the coast.
Up to 6 Hoopoes were counted.

Swallow and Martins.
A late Swallow passed through on the 3rd November.
Up to 8 Crag Martins were wintering, flycatching amonst the apartments in town during the colder days.

Larks,Pipits and Wagtails.
Wintering Skylarks continued to out number the resident Crested Larks by 41 birds to 18.
Meadow Pipit numbers averaged 19 birds.
Single Grey Wagtails were outnumbered by White Wagtails with a maximum of 21 birds.

Robins and Chats.
Robins peaked at 37 birds on the 7th.
Black Redstarts peaked at 16 birds on the 18th. Females out numbering males by 8 to 1.
Stonechats peaked at 11 birds on the 16th and males out numbered females by 2 to 1.

Thrushes.A single female Blue Rock Thrush was still present until the 18th November.
One or two Blackbirds were wintering.
Song Thrush numbers were lower than past winters with only a maximum of 3 birds noted.

Warblers.Six species of warbler were wintering with good numbers of some.
One or two Cetti’s Warbler were heard singing their explosive song.
Resident Fan Tailed Warblers seemed low with only 4 birds maximum.
Only one Dartford Warbler was seen wintering.
Up to 14 resident Sardinian Warblers were counted.
Blackcap numbers peaked at 9 birds on 20th November.
Chiffchaffs were the most numerous warbler with a peak of 30 birds on the 27th November.
A single Goldcrest was a first for this area on the 25th November.

Tits.For the first time in the four years of study I saw three species of this group in the same month.
I got my first record of Long Tailed Tit on the 26th November, two birds feeding with finches in Olive Trees.
Single Coal Tits were seen in conifirs through out the month.
Resident Great Tits peaked at four birds.

Up to two Southern Great Grey Shrikes were seen through out the month on their typical high vantage points – pylon wires or tall bushes and trees.

Maximum numbers of Magpies counted was 16 birds.

There were thousands of wintering Common Starlings and much lesser numbers of Spotless Starlings.House and Tree Sparrow were also foraging in the fields in big flocks.

Finches and Buntings.
Six species of Finches and four species of Buntings were seen this month.
The finches in particular were in good numbers.
Maximum numbers of each were – 155 Chaffinch, 43 Greenfinch, 72 Goldfinch, 40 Siskin, 45 Linnet and 40 Serin.

Up to three Cirl Buntings were seen.
The first Rock Bunting of the winter was seen from the 19th November.

Up t
Up to nine Reed Buntings were seen and 16 Corn Buntings.

Weather in the Alcossebre Area for November 2005.
The first eight days of November were fine and sunny with light winds.
Then over a seven day spell from the 7th to the 14th we had overcast conditions with heavy rain,thunderstorms and strong colder winds.
This produced a total of 24.7 inches (634.8 mm) of rain, the wettest month of the year.
Therafter it returned to mainly fine and sunny days but cooler lighter winds.
The average daily temperature was 18C (65F) with a high of 25C (77F) on the 2nd and 3rd November.
On average it was 2C cooler than November 2004.
The average night temperature was 8C (47F) with a low of 1C (35F) on the 26th.