A pelagic outing reaches Illes Columbretes, a Mediterranean archipelago inhabited by the Eleonora’s falcon. Dozens of shearwaters and gulls, storm petrels, parasitic jaegers and sunfish add to the show.

I join the monitoring staff of the local wildlife rescue center for a day to ring and count chicks of Mediterranean storm petrel in the caves of Benidorm Island, a breeding bulkward for this seabird.