Monday 24th February – We arrived in Gran Alacant for a short visit to our old patch and a quick trip to El Clot was an obvious first stop. Red Crested Pochards were already paired up and White-headed Duck, Little Grebe and a Grey Wagtail were a good start.
Tuesday 25th February – This was not really a birding day. We collected Linda and headed across the Salinas to Guardarmar for a walk along the river and a nice lunch. The Salinas were busy with Greater Flamingos as usual. A few Audouin’s Gulls and Yellow-legged Gulls were on the beach and along the river at Guardarmar. A brief stop at El Pinet on the way back found us a single Kentish Plover on an island but most of the birds were on the far lagoon, including Shelduck, Avocet and Slender-billed Gulls.
Wednesday 26th February – Today we picked up Linda and set off for our usual drive across the Salinas and the tracks to San Felipe. The first birds seen were Magpie, Spotless Starling, Flamingo, Pochard, Yellow-legged Gull, Black-winged Stilt and Shelduck. We also had an odd sighting of a Western Swamphen along the edge of the N332!
Heading towards the old monastery we added Collared Dove, Blackbird, Crested Lark, House Sparrow, Cormorants on top of the telegraph poles, and a Booted Eagle. At the monastery a Stonechat was showing well as they usually do, and John and Linda heard a Green Woodpecker. I couldn’t hear it initially but finally heard it when it came a bit nearer. We saw another Green Woodpecker later flying beside the Elche to La Marina road. Kestrel, Black Redstart and Iberian Grey Shrike were also added here. We continued our drive along the PFT where, as well as a Marsh Harrier flying, we found Paul and Greta!
We had our usual coffee stop at San Felipe (4 euros for 3 drinks and John broke a cup! We would pay that for one drink in the UK!) We finished up at the El Hondo Visitor Centre at San Felipe seeing a single Cattle Egret on the way. We usually see lots of them. It was great to see plenty of House Martins flying over the water but we couldn’t spot a single Swallow, sadly. We headed to the picnic area to eat our lunch and after a while Jo and Gary turned up. I had promised to bring them some maps of Extremadura. It was nice to have a good chat about places visited/to visit and birds to see.
After lunch we went back along the boardwalk and round to the first hide. It was very peaceful there, especially after being invaded at the picnic area by a group of noisy school children! Other birds added to my list included, Sardinian Warbler, Glossy Ibis, Shoveler, Shelduck, Little Grebe, White-headed Duck, Chiffchaff, Red-knobbed Coot, Cetti’s Warbler (HO), Moorhen, Grey Heron, Gadwall and Robin. We left San Felipe and headed towards home but I couldn’t resist a quick visit to the Clot. This was enjoyable as always and I added a Black-necked Grebe to my list. Pochard, Crag Martin and a few other repeat species were also seen.
Thursday 27th February – Today was our big trip out to Corral Rubio and Petrola. We can’t resist doing this trip at least once a year. We followed our usual route seeing not very much. Magpie, Collared Dove, Kestrel, Spotless Starling, White Wagtail and a Buzzard were a modest start. I was searching for a Little Owl on old buildings and rock piles. Finally I spotted one but by the time I got the camera out it had moved. I took a photo anyway and looking at it later we could just see a pair of eyes peeping over the rocks! A stop further on gave us a flock of Linnets and three distant raptors, one of which we decided was a Golden Eagle. We stopped to photograph a Lark which a friend advised me was probably a Thekla Lark. We had still found zero Bustards so we went to the road by Petrola lagoon to eat our lunch beside the blossom trees.
After lunch we returned to our favourite track next to the road to Corral Rubio. I was just having a drink of water when I spotted a group of Great Bustards just on our left, not far along the track. Brilliant! We sat in the car watching and taking photos of the birds who did not seem worried by us as long as we stayed in the car. We were now happy to set off towards home via Higuerella. A stop in a small stand of trees found us 2 lovely Jays to finish off our day.
Friday 28th February – This was our last day and we had a morning trip to Santa Pola and an afternoon in the Clot. There was a cold wind blowing so we didn’t stay too long. We saw Black-necked Grebes again but didn’t add anything new to the list. We enjoyed our flying visit to the area but four days was definitely not long enough. The weather had been a bit mixed but the two birding days were both sunny and mild with the other days being a bit cloudy with a cold wind on the last day. Sorry about the quality of the photos but my camera got broken when I fell and broke my collarbone last year and both me and the camera ended up in a rock pool! Neither of us have been the same since!
