November 2, 2008
Good birds but domestic trauma interups the flow!
76 species were seen in the Alcossebre area this October.
Pride of place goes to a Stock Dove seen on the 3rd October by Sam Shippey this was a new record for Alcossebre, and brings the list of birds seen to 199.
I am grateful to Sam for contributing his records for this months bird news, especially as I missed 15 days observation as my wife had to go into Hospital.
Other highlights of the month were: - First October records for Stone Curlew, Wryneck and Common Whitethroat.
The full list of birds seen are as follows -
Seabirds and other birds passing along the coast.
Only one sighting of Northern Gannet this month, was well below usual numbers.Although I didn't see any Shags this month, Sam saw 3 birds with 7 Cormorants on the 7th. Apart from the local Cormorants up to 120 birds were seen flying south.
A single Arctic Skua was seen chasing Sandwich Terns on the 2nd and Sam saw a record 5 birds heading south on the 15th October.
Herons and Egrets.
A total of 11 Grey Herons were counted this month in groups of one to three.
A maximum of 30 Cattle Egrets were seen and Sam recorded 20 birds coming in off the sea on the 15th and heading north.
Only one Little Egret was seen this month.
Ducks.
Two Common Teal flying south over the sea, were the only duck species seen this month.
Birds of Prey.
A good month for birds of prey with six species seen.
Sam saw an adult Short-toed Eagle drifting south on the 3rd October.
Then he recorded two female Marsh Harriers flying south on the 19th.
There was three sightings of Sparrowhawks this month.
One Common Buzzard continued to winter.
One Booted Eagle flew south on the 5th October.
Up to three Common Kestrels were holding winter territories.
Wading birds Moorhens and Cranes
Up to 32 Common Moorhens were counted from the two small ponds in the area.
Two Common Cranes flew leisurely south on the 30th October, my latest record here.
The first Stone Curlews of the winter were seen in the rural farmland on the 31st October, my earliest autumn record.
A solitary Northern Lapwing was seen flying east on the 26th.
Sam saw the only Common Sandpiper of the month on the 4th at Las Fuentas marina.
Gulls and Terns.
Two Mediterranean Gulls flew east on the 12th.
Flocks of up to 42 Black-headed Gulls were seen during the month.
The maximum count of Audouin´s Gulls was 112 birds on the 31st October.
A north westerly movement of Yellow-legged Gulls was noticed towards the end of the month.
Up to 20 Lesser Black-beacked Gulls were seen this month.
Sandwich Terns were seen daily with a maximum count by Sam of 172 birds flying south on the 15th October.
Pigeons and Doves.
As already mentioned Sam saw the first Stock Dove recored here on the 3rd October.
Up to 18 Wood Pigeons were counted, a high number for this time of year here.
A maximum of 92 Collared Doves were counted, normal winter numbers.
One to two Turtle Doves were seen up to the 14th October.
Owls
, Kingfishers and Hoopoes.
Up to three Little Owls were seen this month, below average numbers for October.
I had only one sighting of Kingfishers this month, two birds on the 4th at the Sewage Pond.
A maximum of 10 Hoopoes were counted, continuing the high winter numbers of late.
Wryneck.
I had my first October record of Wryneck on the 27th, in the coastal scrubland.
Swifts, Swallows and Martins.
Six Alpine Swifts were seen on the 6th by Sam and myself. They didn´t seem in any hurry to head south as the circled quite low above us.
One or Sand Martins were seen up to the 7th October.
Sam saw the first Crag Martins of the year flying around the apartments in the town, about mid month.
Barn Swallows continued to pass through heading south up to the end of the month. They were in lesser numbers than the 10,000 per hour that Sam recorded on the 30th September!
Much to my surprise I didn´t see a single House Martin pass through this month.
Larks, Pipits and Wagtails.
Up to 17 Crested Larks were counted this more, normal numbers.
The first Skylarks appeared on the 6th October and numbers increased to 34 birds by the end of the month.
The first Meadow Pipits of the autumn were seen on the 13th and numbers increased to 11 birds by the end of the month.
I had three sightings of Blue-headed Wagtails, with 2 birds seen up to the 7th.
The first autumn Grey Wagtails appeared on the 6th October and then one or two birds seen the rest of the month.
Numbers of White Wagtails gradually built up to a peak of 20 birds by the month end.
Robins, Chats and Thrushes.
From the first Robin seen on the 6th October, numbers built up to 30 birds by the end of the month.
Sam saw the first autumn Black Redstart on the 10th and by the month end up to 18 birds were counted.
One to two Common Redstarts were seen up to the last on the 12th.
The last Whinchats were seen on the 2nd October.
One or two Northern Wheatears were seen up to the 4th.
A female Blue Rock Thrush arrived for the winter on the 14th October, 15 days after a male arrived to winter, all be it in different areas.
Stonechat numbers continued to increase with up to 18 birds counted.
Although one or two Blackbirds were usual October numbers here, a maximum of only 8 Song Thrush were well below the usual.
Warblers.
The first Cetti´s Warbler of the autumn was heard at the Sewage Pond on the 2nd October. This was about a fortnight later than usual.
A maximum of 8 Fan-tailed Warblers were counted, average winter numbers.
Two Reed Warblers remained at the Sewage Pond up to the 6th October.
The first autumn Dartford Warbler appeared on the 27th October, about a month later than normal.
One or two Subalpine Warblers were seen up to the 27th. My latest record here.
A maximum of 18 Sardinian Warblers were counted.
A male Common Whitethroat seen at the Sewage Pond up to the 7th October was my latest record here.
Blackcap numbers increased to a maximum of 13 birds this month.
Three Chiffchaffs on the 26th October were the first this autumn, numbers built up to 8 by the month end.
One or two Willow Warblers passed through up to the 11th October.
Flycatchers.
Unusually no Spotted Flycatchers were seen this month.
One to two Pied Flycatchers were seen up to the 11th.
Shrikes.
Up to three Southern Great Grey Shrikes were seen in their winter territories.
One bird was in a very risky shooting area!
Finches and Buntings.
Finch number were gradually increasing.
The first Chaffinches appeared on the 11th October and built up numbers to a maximum of 55 birds.
A maximum of 25 Greenfinches 75 Goldfinches and 56 Serins were counted.
Only one or two Linnets were seen.
The first autumn Reed Bunting appeared on the 31st.
Alcossebre Weather for October 2008.
The first week in October gave us some fine sunny weather with light to gentle winds and an average daytime temperature of 26C (78F).
The second week was very unsettled with five days of overcast conditions and rain, the rain varied from light to torrential.
Dispite the rain temperatures stayed above 20C (68F).
The unsettled weather cleared by the 13th and 14th.
The third week started off well with the first three days mainly fine and sunny, with some misty mornings.
Then on the 18th and 19th the weather broke down again.
We had thunderstorms accompanied by torrential rain ,giving us over 6 inches
(152mm) over the two days, causing flooding.
More cloudy weather saw the week out . Temperatures remained relatively mild.
The last week and a half continued unsettled with only two sunny days.
daytime and nighttime temperatures took a dive on the last four days of the month.
The 28th October was very unusual with the night temperature of 18C (64F)
being 5C warmer than the day temperature!
The first snow of the winter was seen on the mountains on the 30th November, well early for here.
The average daytime temperature was 22C (72F).
The highest temperature was 26C (78F) on 9 days.
The coldest day was the 28th at 13C (55F)
The average night temperature was 16C (60F)
The coldest night was the 29th at 5C (41F)
The warmest nights were the 12th and 13th at 21C (70F).
Total rainfall for the month was 10.8 inches over 8 days.
The heaviest rain fell on the 18th and 19th.
Overall the winds during the month were light to gentle in strengh.
There were moderate to strong winds on the 3rd,10th and the 29th.
Predominant wind directions in the mornings were North or North West.
The wind changed direction on most days from mid morning to mainly East, South East or South.
We had the more unusual Westerly winds on the last two days of the month