July 1, 2007
Migration all but halts - time to see how our breeding birds are doing,
I saw 53 species in the Alcossebre area this month.
No new species were added to the list, but five species provided my first June records – Balearic Shearwater, Eleonora´s Falcon,Whimbrel, Common Tern and Whiskered Tern.
As we expect at this time of the year migration is almost halted but there is always some local movements of birds,particularly non-breeding birds.
There are also feeding movements as in the Terns,some coming from the Ebro Delta to feed offshore locally.
The following birds were seen passing by :-
Balearic Shearwaters 6 flying West on the 3rd and 3 West on the 17th June.
Northern Gannet 1 to 4 birds through out the month.
Only single Shag and Cormorants seen offshore.
A single Night Heron appeared at the Sewage Pond overnight on the 3rd.
2 to 5 Grey Herons passed by on the 6th,17th and 21st June.
Cattle Egrets were only seen twice one bird on the 1st and 3 birds on the 27th June.
Two Mallard flew East over the sea on the 23rd.
Single male Montagu´s Harriers were hunting over the farmland on the 23rd and 27th June. No doubt from their breeding area in the Cabanes El Prat.
One to three Common Kestrels were seen throughout the month.
A splendid male Eleonora´s Falcon was seen on the 8th June. Probably from it´s breeding area on the Columbretes Island.
Four Black Winged Stilts flew West on the 10th June.
A Whimbrel at Capycorp Lagoon on the 13th was my first June record here.
One to four Black Headed Gulls flew West on the 8th,13th and 29th June.
The highest count of Audoiun´s Gulls was on the 17th June when 137 birds were counted flying East.
Sandwich Terns were seen every day with a peak of 26 birds on the 21st.
I got my first June records of Common Terns on the 13th –8 birds and the 27th June – 4 birds.
Likewise my first June Whiskered Terns were seen on the 14th – 9 birds flying West.
A Westerly movement of over a 150 Common and Pallid Swifts were seen on the 27th June. No doubt searching for feeding places out of the moderate to strong Northerly winds.
The following is a list of the breeding birds in the Alcossebre area.
As is normal some birds increase in numbers year on year and others decrease. The reasons are not always evident but thankfully some are!
A pair of Little Grebes attempted to nest in the Sewage Pond for the second year in a row. Unfortunately their nest got completely flooded in the heavy rains in April – worst in 26 years!
Two pairs of Common Kestrels held territory, but so far no young seen.
Moorhens successfully bred at two locations – Torre de Capycorp pond and the Sewage pond. Two or three pairs at each place.
Three pairs of Wood Pigeon holding territory is a good total here.
Compare this with 23 pairs of Collared Doves (up from 18 pairs in 2006).
There only seems to be one pair of Turtle Doves nesting,same as last year.
Three juvenile Great Spotted Cuckoo´s were seen being fed by their Magpie foster parents – 5 juveniles were seen last year.
Eight pairs of Little Owls holding territory is the same as last year.
Red Necked Nightjars have increased from three pairs last year to five this year – and I have still have not got a photo!
There only seems to be two pairs of Bee eaters nesting this year in the dry river beds,compared to three pair last year.
Eight pair of Hoopoes holding territory is up by two pairs on 2006.
Crested Larks are virtually the same as last year at eight pairs.
20 plus pairs of Barn Swallow were noted nesting, up by about four pairs from last year.
House Martins have increased from six pairs last year to 14 pairs this year.
Blackbirds are slightly down on last year at three pairs.
Nightingales stayed the same at five pairs holding territory.
An increase in Fan Tail Warblers was noted from 12 pairs in 2006 to 16 pairs this year.
One loss was Reed Warbler (one pair bred last year) with none noted.
Eight or nine pairs of Melodious Warblers holding territory was an increase of 3 pairs on last year.
Sardinian Warblers had also increased from 16 pairs in 2006 to 20 pairs this year.
One Spotted Flycather pair was the same as last year.
Likewise, six pairs of Great Tits were the same number as last year.
Four pair of Golden Oriole were the same as last year.
Woodchat Shrike pairs had increased from one pair last year to two this year.
Magpie numbers were down slightly from 14 pairs to 12 pairs this year – a number of birds werte trapped in Crow Traps this year.
Spotless Starling numbers remained stable at 40 plus pairs – the first young fledged on the 10th May.
House Sparrow numbers appeared to increase from 80 pairs last year to a hundred or so this year.
Tree Sparrow numbers remained stable with four colonies of 30 pairs.
Greenfinch numbers were down from 14 pairs last year to 10 pairs.
Goldfinch numbers were similar to last year with up to 20 pairs.
Serin numbers continue to increase from 30 pairs last year to 35 plus this year.
Cirl Bunting numbers had dropped slightly from 3 pairs in 2006 to 2 pairs this year.
While three pair of Corn Bunting held territory last year only one bird was seen during May and June.
So to sum up of the 33 species nesting in the Alcossebre Area 14 species have increased, 9 have decreased and 10 have remained the same.
Alcossebre Weather for June 2007.
June was a fairly settled month for weather with fine sunny hot days being the norm (11 days). On a further 8 days there was a misty/cloudly start which then became fine sunny and hot again.
8 days were a mixture of sunshine and cloudy spells,some of which produced light rain.
Only three days were completely overcast for most of the day.
The average daily temperature was 29C (84F) This was 3C warmer than June 2006. The the hottest days 33C (92f), were on the 14th and 25th June.
The average nightime temperature was 19C (67F) with the lowest night being the 7th June at 15C (59F).
Total rainfall for the month was 1.6 inches or 44mm.
Most of the rain fell on the 5th and 6th June with 1.1 inches (28mm).
A trace or light rain fell on the 15th,16th and 18th June.
There was only two days of strong winds on the 2nd and 26th June.
The wind strenght on the majority of days was light to gentle.
Wind directions were predominantly from the East or South East – 24 days, with only 6 days of wind from the North.