May 2, 2007
April 2007 -Foul Weather brings in the birds.
A record breaking 95 Species were seen this April,dispite the Weather, or maybe it was because of the Weather!
Four new species were added to the Alcossebre List :- Spotted Crake; Short Toed Lark; Sedge Warbler and Bonelli´s Warbler.
Photo by Sam Shippey
In addition the following 29 Species were the first seen this Spring:-
Squacco Heron; Greater Flamingo; Black Kite; Montagu´s Harrier; Osprey; Whimbrel; Curlew; Greenshank; Common Sandpiper; Caspian Tern; Common Tern; Black Tern; Turtle Dove; Common Cuckoo; Bee eater; Blue Headed Wagtail, Nightingale; Whinchat; Nortern Wheatear; Black Eared Wheatear; Grasshopper Warbler; Reed Warbler; Melodious Warbler; Subalpine Warbler; Wood Warbler; Spotted Flycatcher; Pied Flycatcher; Golden Oriole and Red Backed Shrike.
My daily bird count walk revealed the following:-
Overnight rain on the 1st April brought in the first Northern Wheatear & Woodchat Shrike of Spring. 8 Black Winged Stilts headed East.
There were 3 Balearic Shearwaters and 10 Sandwich Terns feeding offshore.
The last wintering Common Buzzard departed.
The 3rd April was one of these rare days – two new Species added to the Alcossebre List, Sedge Warbler and Short Toed Lark!
The Sedge Warbler was in the reeds at Capycorp Laggon and the Short Toed Lark was feeding at the side of the road,until a car made it move,but I got good view of both,including a video still of the latter.
Other overnight arrivals were 4 Woodchat Shrikes; 2 Northern Wheatears and a fine male Subalpine Warbler,the first of Spring.
10 Black Winged Stilts were resting at the Lagoon.
The 4th April provided another new Species for Alcossebre, a Bonelli´s Warbler. I found it while trying to relocate the Sedge Warbler.
At one time I had the Sedge,Bonelli´s and Willow Warbler all in view at the one time!
An obliging Osprey flew East over the sea,followed by a Great White Egret.
The former a Spring first.
Overnight arrivals included 6 Woodchat Shrikes, 11 Willow Warblers; a male Common Whitethroat; 3 Blue Headed Wagtails and another male Subalpine Warbler.
Three days of heavy rain followed giving us the worst Easter weather for many years!
When it cleared for a while on the 8th April, I found two Night Herons,a Little Egret and a Purple Heron sheltering in the same small patch of reeds at the Sewage pond!
The 9th April saw a flypast of 8 Night Herons heading East and the first Turtle Doves (5 birds) arrived.
The 10th April was another halt on migration with more heavy rain.
Next day,the 11th April,birds were on the move again – 84 Cormorants; one Great White Egret; 2 Little Egrets; 4 Grey Herons; 3 Black Kites and 2 Alpine Swifts all headed North East.
Overnight arrivals included two male Common Redstarts; 8 Blackcaps and another 3 Night Herons at the Sewage Pond.
Another day of rain on the 12th April halted migration yet again.
When the weather cleared on the 13th April, the birds made the most of it.
Common and Pallid Swifts were going through at the rate of 235 birds per hour on a broad front.
119 Cormorants; 8 Curlews, 1 Whimbrel and a male Montagu´s Harrier headed East, the last three species being Spring firsts.
Overnight arrivals – 6 Woodchat Shrikes; First Spring Golden Oriole and Black Eared Wheatear; 3 Common Redstarts; 2 Subalpine Warblers; one Common Whitethroat and one Blue Headed Wagtail.
The 14th and 15th April saw yet more heavy rain halting migration again.
Dispite the heavy rain the first Spring Bee eaters flew east- 18 birds
When the weather cleared on the 16th April I had company on my walk –Sam Shippey,visiting the area again. We saw the following passage birds:-
4 Cormorants; 2 Grey Herons; 2 Little Egrets; 1 Mallard (a rare duck here!);
3 Marsh Harriers and one Red Rumped Swallow.
Overnight arrivals – The first Spring Pied Flycatcher, a male; 3 Turtle Doves and a Subalpine Warbler.
Sam accompanied me on my walk again on the 18th April and together we got the 4th new species for Alcossebre this month, a Spotted Crake! It flew from the side of the Sewage pond and landed in view in the reeds and preened for long enough for us to I.D. it.
The Sewage pond also provided the first Spring Melodious Warbler.
We also saw two other Spring firsts, a Spotted Flycatcher and a female Whinchat.
Overnight arrivals – 10 Black winged Stilts; 3 Turtle Doves; 6 Northern Wheatears; 5 Willow Warblers; one Subalpine Warbler and one Blue Headed Wagtail. Two Marsh Harriers flew North East.
The 19th April was a quiet day for migration. One Great White Egret flew East and 11 Northern Gannets were the highest total for the month.
A Caspian Tern was the bird of the day on the 20th April and a Golden Oriole and female Pied Flycatcher were overnight arrivals.
There was a small movement of birds on the 21st April. 3 Common Greenshank and 23 Turtle Doves flew East.
Overnight arrivals – First Spring Common Cuckoo (much rarer here than the Great Crested Cuckoo); 3 Woodchat Shrikes; one Northern Wheatear and one Common Redstart.
The 23rd April gave one passage bird –a Purple Heron heading North East and some overnight arrivals. A belated Spring first Common Sandpiper; 14 Willow Warblers and 11 Blue Headed Wagtails.
The 24th April was a quiet morning with only 3 Whinchats and 4 more Woodchat Shrikes appearing.
16 Common Terns fishing offshore were a Spring first on the 27th April and
5 Little Egrets flew East. There was still a late Black Redstart at the Sewage Works.
Some more heavy overnight rain on the 29th April produced a good variety of birds.
8 Greater Flamingos headed East, the first this year,followed by an Ospey.
Overnight arrivals included Spring firsts for Reed Warbler; 2 Grasshopper Warblers and a sub-adult Red backed Shrike (only my 3rd record here).
Red Rumped Swallow;two female Pied Flycatchers;one Spotted Flycatcher;6 Northern Wheatears; one Whinchat and four Nightingales complete the list.
There were still birds on the arriving on the 30th April.
17 Bee eaters headed East.
Overnight arrivals- one Common Sandpiper; 2 Common Greenshank; another Red Rumped Swallow; 5 Whinchats; 2 Grasshopper Warblers; a Wood Warbler yet another Sping first; one Common Whitethroat; 3 Spotted Flycatchers and 6 Blue Headed Wagtails.
A memorable month indeed!
Alcossebre Weather for April,2007.
While Britain had it´s warmest April on record, we in this part of North East Spain experienced one of the poorest Aprils on record!
We had 12 days with rain, with the worst being the 29th April with 4.8 inches or 122mm. This caused substantial flooding – see photos.
The Total rainfall for the month was 13inches (332mm). This was in direct contrast to April 2006 where the month total was only 0.9 inches (20mm)!
From the 1st to the 15th April the average daytime temperature was only 17C, improving from the 16th to 30th April to 22C being normal for this time of the year here.
The warmest day was the 24th April with 26C and the coldest night was the 3rd April at 7C.
12 days in April were overcast,with a futher 5 days cloudy, another 5 days had a mixture of cloud and sunshine.
Only 8 days out of the month were fine,sunny and warm.
The predominant wind direction this month was Easterly – 16 days.
10 days were a mixture of North to North West winds.
Wind strengths were mainly light to gentle, with only 7 days reaching moderate strengh.
