After our trip to the Pyrenees we were feeling a bit flat, so on Monday after doing a few chores we had a quick drive to El Pinet and around the El Hondo fields to see what we could find. At El Pinet the Avocets, Black winged Stilt, Common Terns and Slender billed Gulls were still busy raising their young but we didn’t find the Collared Pratincoles or Curlew Sandpipers I had hoped for. This lead to our decision to have a drive round the countryside to see if we could track down anything interesting. We turned off the La Marina to Elche road and not far along this lane we came across a Wild Boar which was a bit of a surprise!! Continuing along to the Beeeater site we found a Roller on a wire but strangely no Beeeaters. We drove on past the little reserve and saw a Glossy Ibis in flight and flushed a Purple Heron. A walk along the gated road near El Hondo found us a Black Tern and a Moustached Warbler and at the side of the Vistabella Road a single Stone Curlew was sitting in a dry field. I told John it would be good to see a Squacco Heron and within a few minutes one had appeared flying over the road and away! On our way back I got a good view of a Woodchat Shrike, much closer than the one I had previously seen at El Clot, so all in all I was happy with our two hour birding session. Later that day we met Dave, Linda, Paul and Greta (the unofficial five o’ clock Clot club) in the main hide at the Clot where the most notable birds were the regular Great Reed Warbler, White headed Duck, Red crested Pochard with young, and a single Godwit, not sure which type it was.
On Tuesday morning we went for a quick look for the Rufous Bush Robin but despite, sitting in the woods for over an hour there was no sign of this bird, although there were plenty of other things, including Serin, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Great Tit, Blackbird, Subalpine Warbler and Spotted Flycatcher. In the evening, as it was our last night in Spain before going to England for the Summer, we went for a meal with Dave and Linda and afterwards we had a short trip to the Lighthouse to look for the Red necked Nighjars, which we heard but did not see.