Firecrests are working hard to defend their territories during my morning walk in El Romeral urban park in Alcoy today. A female hawfinch returns to this wintering hub for the species.

Two common eiders showed up in south Alicante after the deadliest storm of the century casted over Valencia. Looking at the sea seems promising this incoming winter, with jaeger, gannets, and shearwaters seen too.

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.

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: 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.