Birding on the Costa Blanca – Tony Bishop

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Visiting birder Tony Bishop has sent in this report from a trip he did here in September.

It’s taken a while but there has been a lot going on. However, I spent 3 hours with Bryan Thomas on the morning of 8 September 2015 and this is a summary of our birding.

We gave El Clot a miss and began at Santa Pola Salinas, stopped off at El Pinet and made our way via many side roads, known only to locals, to the Palm Farm Track, and then to Vistabella road which was most productive from the hide. We could not take in El Hondo as a heavy thunderstorm struck and we headed home.

Species list – Little Grebe, c100 Black necked Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Little Bittern, Squacco Heron, Night Heron (ad and juv), Cattle Egret(6), Great White Egret(5), Little Egret (Too many to count), Grey and Purple Heron, Spoonbill, Glossy Ibis, Greater Flamingo , Mallard, Shoveler, Red crested Pochard, White headed Duck (M&F), Marbled Duck, Marsh Harrier, Kestrel, Purple Swamphen, Coot, Moorhen, Black winged Stilt, Avocet, Collared Pratincole, Little Ringed Plover, Kentish Plover, Bar tailed Godwit, Redshank, Greenshank, Wood Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper, Slender billed Gull, Audouin’s Gull, Yellow legged Gull, Common Tern, Little Tern, Whiskered Tern, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Common Swift, Pallid Swift, Kingfisher, Hoopoe, Bee-eaters (200ish), Roller, House Martin, Swallow, Red rumped Swallow, Whinchat, Northern Wheatear, Reed Warbler, Fan tailed Warbler, Sardinian Warbler, Willow Warbler, Southern Grey Shrike, Woodchat Shrike, Spotless Starling, Common Starling, House Sparrow, Linnet ( Large flock), Goldfinch.

Reverse migration helped.

Thanks to that superb naturalist, ornithologist and cameraman Bryan Thomas . I’ll be back in Guardamar in June. If you think Lesbos, Extremadura and Costa de la Luz are the places to watch birds, try the southern Costa Blanca. Check out the Costa Blanca Bird Club website. They are a very friendly bunch.