Day one of our winter visit to Gran Alacant. We headed along the Carabassi beach road seeing Cattle Egret and Black Redstart along the way. At Santa Pola there was a Razorbill swimming around in the marina.
After lunch we walked to the Clot, one of my favourite places in the area. First we went to the dry/marsh hide where Shoveler, Pochard, Mallard and Little Grebe were on the water, with a distant Western Swamphen in the far reeds. Chiffchaff, Robin and Sardinian Warbler were seen and a Grey Wagtail was feeding in front of the hide.
We moved on the the ‘new’ hide seeing Blackbird, Greenfinch, Robin and Black Redstart on the way. Arriving at the hide we flushed a Grey Wagtail and a Chiffchaff from just below the window. A scan of the lagoon found us White-headed duck, Red-crested Pochard, Yellow-legged Gull and a few Little Grebe. A Cetti’s Warbler was heard only and John spotted a Kingfisher flying away which I managed to pick up when it landed in the reeds to our right. A female Marsh Harrier drifted over the far reeds for a while before we moved on to the old scrape which is now filled with water.
At the scrape a variety of species of duck were seen and John found a Snipe on the bank to the left of the hide, and another one was nearby. We finished in the main hide where a good selection of species was found including Gadwall, Shoveler, White-headed Duck, Marbled Duck, Little Grebe, Coot, Moorhen, Little Egret, Cattle Egrets and a Western Swamphen. Not a bad first day.
Species list – Little Grebe, Little Egret, Cattle Egret, Greater Flamingo, Mallard, Shoveler, Gadwall, Teal, Marbled Duck, Pochard, Red-crested Pochard, White-headed Duck, Marsh Harrier, Coot, Western Swamphen, Moorhen, Snipe, Yellow-legged Gull, Grey Wagtail, White Wagtail, Robin, Black Redstart, Stonechat, Cetti’s Warbler (HO), Chiffchaff, Sardinian Warbler, Spotless Starling, Magpie, House Sparrow, Greenfinch, Serin, Goldfinch.