It has been a long time since we have been to the Clot so on the first cloudy day for ages we decided to risk a walk round. We collected Dave and Linda and parked on the road that goes over the hill to El Altet where there is easy access. The first bird I spotted was a Southern Grey Shrike at the top of a tree, always a reliable bird and very easy to see. We had a look at the pool from the Mirador and saw one Little Grebe along with a few Teal who are arriving to spend the winter here as usual. We walked to the two towers (nothing to do with The Lord of the Rings) and saw and heard plenty of Sardinian Warblers. On the way to the main hide a Grey Heron flew overhead. The pool was, as usual, a bit short on water, and a bit short on birds too! An adult Moorhen was on the far side of the pool with four youngsters, presumably this years offspring. Two White Wagtails were in front of the hide, along with a couple of Goldfinches and more of these were flying around the area in small flocks. Good sized flocks of Common Starling were also around, another bird which comes here for the winter.
On the way back we were hoping to see a Little Owl as there is usually one here. A scan of the surrounding trees, however, failed to reveal on owl. While looking for the owl, Dave, who is fast becoming our ‘top bird spotter’ found a Green Woodpecker perched on a distant tree trunk so we all had a look at it through our bins. While we were doing so something caught John’s eye and this turned out to be another Green Woodpecker which had just flown in to a tree right in front of us! It climbed the tree and perched nicely on the top, it’s just a shame none of us had thought to bring our ‘big’ cameras with us, typical! When the bird flew away we headed back past the Mirador and another Green Wooodpecker (or it might have been one we had already seen) flew in front of us giving a nice display of it’s undulating flight and showing it’s distinctive yellow rump. By now the clouds had mostly disappeared and it was getting hot, (too hot for me anyway) so it was time to leave. It had not been our most productive trip but was still an enjoyable one. on reflection, it was probably not the best day to go, it being a Spanish holiday, as there were plenty of cyclists (not allowed!) and dog walkers (not allowed!) around to disturb the birds. Despite this I am sure things will improve as the year progresses and more winter visitors arrive.