September brought the opportunity to look for long-awaited species: dotterel and northern bald ibis. Bee-eaters, wheatears, flycatchers, honey-buzzards, and whinchats showed up everywhere.

A long drought is especially evident by June. Rufous-tailed rock-thrush, tawny pipit, pin-tailed sandgrouse, stone martens, and Lataste’s vipers are some specialties found with friends and family.

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.