Posts about Alicante

Yellow-browed warblers in Font Roja

A Siberian migrant next to home: Birdwatching rarely gets as exciting as this! Only the 4th record of the species in Font Roja, the only inland place in the region where the species has been recorded.

Veles e vents

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.

Enjoying the hobby on Global Big Day

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.

Closing loops during fall migration

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.

Inland wildlife in a dry spell

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.

Storm-petrels of Benidorm

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.

Releasing threatened waterfowl

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.