A Cape gull from Southern Africa and a laughing gull from the Americas have shown up in Northern Spain. We enjoyed awesome birding while twitching these stunners on a roadtrip.
Summer season brings an array of specialties to Helsinki, including broad-billed sandpiper and common rosefinch in Viikki, red-breasted flycatcher in Haltiala and stakeouts of Blyth’s reed warbler and river warbler.
Tinença de Benifassà Natural Park provided red-backed shrikes, ortolan buntings, stock dove, rufous-tailed rock-thrush, tawny pipits — all localized breeders in the region — and a handful of picturesque villages.
The Atlantic Islands of Galicia National Park is composed of four small archipelagos. Among them, Sálvora bears different herp gems: Boscá’s newt, Lusitanic wall lizard and the island-endemic ocellated lizard race.
Ceuta hosts different North African birds: African chaffinch and blue-tit, common bulbul, Levaillant’s woodpecker, long-legged buzzard, house bunting, black-crowned tchagra, Maghreb owl and Barbary partridge.
Spring has arrived to Alicante and prenuptial migration is all around us. Besides a surprising Rüppell’s vulture in Alcoi, the lowlands provide nuptial displays of ducks and different migratory warblers and swallows.
Firecrests are working hard to defend their territories during my morning walk in El Romeral urban park in Alcoi today. A female hawfinch returns to this wintering hub for the species.
Different seabirds seek shelter in the rocky shore of Cabo Cervera during a stormy day . Audouin’s and Mediterranean gulls, ruddy turnstones, sanderling and black-bellied plover are 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.
I visited São Miguel Island during the aftermath of COVID-19 lockdown. Besides incredible landscapes and a welcoming atmosphere, I looked for endemic plants and birds and went on a pelagic outing.
