2 up - 4 to go.....

Following on from the previous post – New Project, Sunday saw myself, Paul and Mart, who had kindly offered to help, installing the 2 Kestrel boxes. Having 3 of us definitely made it a lot easier, still fairly hard work but a far lighter load with Mart aboard.

In 3 hours, we stood and postcreted both pole boxes in – 18 bags postcrete apiece, substrate added, finished digging a hole, the results look very inviting hopefully.

When I took the struts off on both Monday morning, a female Kestrel was present on both occasions in the vicinity, due to the distance from each other, I like to think separate birds.

However, time will tell and hopefully they will also provide hunting perches which in turn may lead to a connection to each box.

It may be that Stock Doves or even Jackdaws may take a shine to the boxes but hopefully the Kessie’s will get there first and bond to the nest box.

New Project

This has been in the pipeline for a few months, a number of nest boxes aimed at 3 species, Barn and Little Owl along with Kestrel.

In total

3 Kestrel Pole Boxes

1 Barn Owl Tree Box

1 Barn Owl Pole Box

1 Little Owl Tree Box



First up was 2 of the Kestrel Pole Boxes.

Paul/ myself and our Van driver Rowan, have started making inroads into getting everything ready, on Thursday we picked the timbers/postcrete up and located it to their respective fields.Not easy distributing it with the distance involved and the ground underfoot.

I had ordered 2 of the RSPB Kestrel boxes previously and these were connected up to their respective timbers.

Doubled up on treated 6x3’s with joining screws/bolts for posts, the plan now is to concrete them in on Sunday – more to come.

 

 

Beckton Latest - October

A good visit last weekend, it looks like the Common Buzzards on the Sewage Works have bred with 3 birds seen together interacting, I would say the 3rd bird was a juvenile. All 3 were given a torrid time by the local Crows and Magpies as you can see from the photos.

In amongst the Crows also, I came across a Rook, common in rural areas but a bit of a mega for the Sewage Works. It bought the year list up to 98, I try to make 100 every year, I have surpassed last years total of 95 so hopefully achievable this year.

The first returning Redshank was also seen last weekend,winter is on its way, no Black Tailed Godwits as yet.

Pied and Grey Wagtail numbers have gone through the roof on the Sewage Works with a count of 24 Greys recently, Pied’s are easily 40+.

 

Spain - Sea watching in the Med

Having had a good look at E Bird previously, I had discovered a sea watching venue not far down the coast, basically at La Cala, it was a hotspot as well so decided to give it a go.

Less than 10 minutes down the A7 saw me arriving Punta y Observatorio de Calaburras, a headland with a lighthouse nearby. Easy and accessible, with parking right next to where you watch from, I got in position and started a sea watch.

Winds were not ideal and not many species came to close, but all in all I thoroughly enjoyed it, beginning at 8.45a.m, I watched until 10.30a.m and recorded 18 species, highlights below.


Cory’s Shearwater – 31 – one or 2 relatively close but most far out.

Balearic Shearwater – 12 – again none close.

Sandwich Tern – 6

Whimbrel – 2

Audouins Gull – 1

Gannet – 6


I also recorded 2 Ringed and Kentish Plover on the beach, along with 6 Sanderlings, these gave very good views.
Lots more crossing further out but too far out to ID confidently.

                                                                Very distant Cory's

                                                                      Grey Herons

                                                 Kentish, Ringed Plover and Sanderlings

A good site and judging by some of the checklist totals on Ebird, fantastic numbers going through in the right conditions, another site to go to next year.

 

Spain - El Torcel, El Chorro and Fuente de Piedra

September 14th



With the chaps also staying out in Spain close by at the same time, Mart, Paul and Lee, we had arranged a day out birding on the itinerary above, Torcel, Chorro and Fuente De Piedra visiting in that order.

They picked me up pre-dawn, the idea being to get there before the crowds and have a good walk round. Having previously visited here a couple of times, I knew it held some good birds and Spanish specialities.

Around an hour driving from La Cala, we arrived at dawn, however we couldn’t see a thing as we hit cloud/fog on the way up the mountains. Black Redstarts were present in the Car Park near the centre, but it soon became clear that it was not going to clear.

Driving back down the mountain eventually produced visibility and we started to pick up birds, all a bit distant but good to see the following.

Black Wheatear, 2 Rock Bunting, 3 Rock Sparrows, Blue Rock Thrush, 4 Stonechat and various others. I also got the best views of Spanish Ibex I have had, and we also picked up Red Deer closely.

From here we then made our way heading towards El Chorro, good birds seen along the way included Crag Martin, Booted Eagle, Bonelli’s Eagle,Crossbill,20 odd Chough and a flock of around 50 Bee Eaters en route.

Moving onto El Chorro was a bit time consuming, entirely my fault as I couldn’t remember where I had gone previously on my visit with Louis back in September 2017. We eventually arrived at a place I recognised, all thanks to Lee who did a sterling job of getting us from A to B throughout the day on the Spanish roads.

As we arrived at the watchpoint, it soon became clear that this was a Griffon Vulture flythrough route up against the mountain. We kept a careful out for Ruppel’s but no luck, however we all got really good views of Griffons, which probably numbered around 40+ birds of this massive raptor.

We also picked up Black Kite and Booted Eagle high overhead but no Bonelli’s Eagles, 2 were previously seen at this venue in 2017. A bit of a disappointment in what was seen, despite visiting and recognizing this watchpoint before definitely, I had a sneaking suspicion that it was not the same area I visited back in 2017, if that makes sense.



Time was moving on and food was calling, so we visited a local town and enjoyed a cold beer and some fantastic Tapas, before then heading for our final destination – Fuente De Piedra.

I had talked this place up to Paul due to our last visit with myself, Mart and Lee, the birding we had back then in 2019 was fantastic and one of those days you never forget.

However back then it had the magic ingredient – water, we arrived to find a majority of it dried up other than some very distant remaining floods on the main lake, which we could see held Greater Flamingo’s amongst others.

We decided to walk and try and get better views, on the way we had a male Goshawk, and a Spotted Flycatcher and a couple of fields held around 4 Crested Lark.

We then checked the remaining water area, lots of Greater Flamingo’s and Lesser Black Backed Gulls, in amongst these were various waders. Views were still distant, and a heat haze wasn’t helping but we picked up Ruff, Little Ringed Plover, Avocet, Snipe, Black Winged Stilt, Greenshank, Redshank, Spotted Redshank, Kentish Plover and some smaller waders could have been Little Stint.

                                                                   El Chorro Walk

                                                          A dried up Fuente de Piedra

                                                             Distant Greater Flamingos

                                                                          Bee Eaters

                                                                        El Chorro

                                                                          Griffons

                                                                         Booted Eagle

                                                                  Greater Flamingos

                                                                      Crested Lark

                                                Presumably a Lesser Kestrel/Roller Tower

Booted Eagle was again seen as was 2 Raven earlier, with water levels like last time it would have been a different story no doubt, especially on the Pool on the left as you drive in where we saw a lot of birds last time ,this was bone dry.

All in all, though, a great day out again with the boys, thanks to Paul for the driving, easy birding with my mates and always thoroughly enjoyable and great company.