Wildlife of Alicante

The bird species that are available for observation near Alicante are simply stunning, ranging from the globally rare and endangered marbled and white-headed ducks, to the stunning and colourful bee-eaters and coracias. Additional favourites are cuckoos of two types, Bonelli's eagles (which I sadly had no time for this year) and perhaps a migrating short-toed eagle, the latter being by far the rarest regularly-occurring bird of prey in the region. 

Day 1. Clot de Galvany

After yesterday's surprising discovery of no flowering mirror orchids in the mountains, I decided to visit Clot de Galvany, an unassuming at first glance reserve that can offer some of the most amazing moments with two globally rare and endangered bird species, the white-headed duck, and the even rarer marbled duck. Both are abundant on the reserve, although frequently elusive at that. On the way there I spotted a migrating whimbrel by the sea. 

When I arrived on the reserve, initially everything was quiet. But as the atmosphere warmed up and the wind increased, more and more birds began to appear. One of these was a marbled duck par, which came out of the reeds by a hide and then cruised past, displaying and courting. Less than five meters away from the hide. A spectacular series of images followed.

These would have been good enough with any duck species, but with a globally endangered duck and one of the most highly-sought ducks in the world due to its rarity? Absolutely unbelievable. After this pair flew off, a white-headed duck appeared, but stayed distant in the far reeds. 

I soon left, my head spinning

Day 2. El Pinet and Old Monastery

For my first trip in the area, I forgot to take water with myself and so limited the amount of time I would spend in this area. So I decided to visit El Pinet first to search for collared pratincole. I see them regularly in the autumn, but they have the most beautiful plumage in the summer, when they unfortunately become slightly harder to find and always distant. This was the case today, although I eventually found a few which were very close to the screens by the car park, allowing me to take wonderful images of them. Two in particular stood out to me. 

Afterwards, I went on to the Old Monastery and had only just arrived when I saw a pair of great spotted cuckoos chase each other through the area. I was unable to recover them, but I did manage to see a woodchat shrike and stone curlew at phenomenal range instead. 

Day 3. Old Monastery I: Common cuckoo

Revisiting the Old Monastery, I initially could not find anything of note and visited El Hondo to look for a lesser flamingo, but it unfortunately was nowhere to be seen. But eventually I found a perched booted eagle in the area, which was perched with a bunch of pigeons. 

Also in the area was an unusually showy Iberian green woodpecker, which typically seem to fly off no matter how close you are to them, even if they are distant. 

And eventually, just as I was giving up hope and returning home, I found an incredibly showy common cuckoo. These birds are typically extremely shy and elusive in my experience. Before last year's event, the closest I ever got to them seemed like 50-80 meters. But this cuckoo was much closer to me. Completely oblivious to my presence. It was not calling. 

I took my best ever photo of a common cuckoo that day. But I still needed photos of the great spotted cuckoos. On the way back, I spotted a bunch of cattle egrets following a tractor around

Day 4. Old Monastery II: Great spotted cuckoo dogfight

Today was the day I had been hoping for and dreaming for. But it began as a rather boring and bleak day, completely unlike what it would ultimately turn out to be. Patrolling the area around the Old Monastery and saying to myself I would not leave until I saw a great spotted cuckoo properly, I heard some loud croaking form a nearby reservoir. An investigation revealed two Iberian green frogs in the reservoir, including one beautiful green frog sitting rather close to the edge. 

Now Slightly happier, I tried to take photos of a hoopoe pair, but was interrupted when two birds shot past me almost overhead. A pair of great spotted cuckoos! The same birds from last year. 

I watched them display and dive at each other, but eventually this dogfight became too distant to photograph. I decided to go out and see if I could find where they flew. I eventually did...

:)