EVEN MORE REASONS…

The Santa Pola Wetlands

In the south of the Valencia region and not far from Alicante airport, these wetlands offer some easy roadside birding. It brought us Crag Martins, Audouin’s Gulls, Purple Swamphen, Black-winged Stilt, Red-crested Pochard, about 900 Greater Flamingos, waders, Glossy Ibis, Spoonbill, Spotless Starling and more.

El Hondo Visitor Centre

Easy birding around the visitor centre produced Marbled Duck (introduced), Red-knobbed Coot, Gull-billed Tern, Water Pipit, Bluethroat, and a Spanish Sparrow amid the House Sparrows.

Black Wheatear

Black flashed white on the hilltop crags – Black Wheatear. We were near Barranco de Pilatos, a rocky gully. And there was a supporting cast of Griffon Vultures, BlueRock Thrush, Crested Tit and Short-toed Treecreeper. The closest village is Losa Del Obispo.

Parque Natural del Prat de Cabanes-Torreblanca

A natural park on the coast in the north of Valencia region, with a visitor centre. Blacknecked Grebe, Mediterranean Gull, Audouin’s Gull, Purple Swamphen, Penduline Tit, Dartford Warbler and Zitting Cisticola were there in December. Thanks to Virgilio for guiding us here.

Griffon Vultures

Not particularly hard to see but spectacular! It’s well worth a visit to the colony at Rambla de Arquela.

Bonelli’s Eagle

Guide Dave took us to a reliable site to see Franco Andrea Bonelli’s Eagle. There are probably 80-90 pairs of Bonelli’s Eagle in the Valencia region. We saw one of them, and it was definitely a pair… A Bonelli’s settled on a rock high on the ridge that we had been watching for some time. The eagle was around 600 metres away and looked big even at that distance.

Then another one came in, looking huge, with a longish tail and more or less straight rear wing-edges. Actually, the new arrival was smaller than the settled bird – he was the male – she, of course, was the female (in most raptors, females are larger than males). And then they mated!

That’s not something you see very often. Thanks Dave.