Spending a day with colleagues from Asociación Ulula taught me a good deal about owl ecology while monitoring nests and driving Saladares de Guadalentín for little bustards and black-bellied sandgrouse.

A fieldwork-birdwatching day in El Hondo Natural Park provided awesome encounters with local winter goodies. Pallid harrier and several greater spotted eagles obliged, but a self-found red-breasted flycatcher stood out.

Tinença de Benifassà Natural Park provided red-backed shrikes, ortolan buntings, stock dove, common rock thrush, tawny pipits — all localized breeders in the region — and a handful of picturesque villages.