A light-hearted chronicle and gallery of a stormy day in the rocky shore of Cabo Cervera. Audouin’s and Mediterranean gulls, ruddy turnstones, sanderling, and black-bellied plover seen at close range.
An intense full day watching birds in Alicante delivers a great final count for our party of three. Different migrant birds seen include four different Eurasian hobbies, definitely the top species of the day.
September brought the opportunity to look for long-awaited species, with dotterel and northern bald ibis as highlights. Bee-eaters, wheatears, flycatchers, honey-buzzards, or whinchats become usual sights for some days.
Despite a strong spring drought, the interior of Alicante is vibrant. Rufous-tailed rock-thrush, tawny pipit, pin-tailed sandgrouse, stone martens, and Lataste’s vipers are some specialties found with friends and family during June.
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.
Amidst an avian botulism outbreak, several birds are released after recovering in the local wildlife rescue center. These include the common pochard and ferruginous duck, both locally and globally threatened.