29th of December: First lifer of the trip and more!

We started the day slowly and after a good spanish breakfast we left with the whole family. We wanted to go to the real cape of Cabo de Gata first. So we drove from San José to La Boca de los frailes to Ruescas to Cabo de Gata, passing La Almadraba and eventually ending up at  the cape. The cape itself wasn't that spectacular, but as with the entire coast here, you have an amazing scenery: high rocky mountains on the one side and a beautiful Mediterranean Sea on the other side. On our way we had 2 Black Wheatears. And just before the cape there was a group of Cattle Egrets foraging close to the road. I was able to get a few good shots:

They were foraging on a grassy patch just between the rocks, not a place where you would expect them!

A quick scan over the sea delivered us 4 close Balearic Shearwaters and 5 Gannets. After our visit to the cape we drove back to look for our main target species here: Trumpeter Finches. A few 100 metres after we passed the white ruïn church of La Almadraba we stopped at a spot along the road, along the sea. Just opposite of the first hide you see on your right hand site near the Salinas. Just as I got out of the car I already had a Trumpeter Finch loudly calling, flying overhead. That was easy! A few minutes later we saw a Trumpeter Finch flying over again (perhaps the same one) and it dropped down in some vegetation/bushes. We walked towards the place where we'd seen the bird dropping down and soon we discovered a flock of mixed finches: Greenfinches, Serins, House Sparrows, Corn Buntings but also +10 Trumpeter Finches! We looked at them through the scope and had a great looked at these wonderful finches. This is the only place (I know of?) where you can see Trumpeter Finches in Spain, pretty cool! During the winter months small groups of these Trumpeter Finches winter here near the Salinas. On the sea we spotted a group of 12 Razorbills, which was quite a surprise (but as we found out later they seemed pretty common along the coast!)

Three Trumpeter Finches (to what it seems an adult male on the right on possibly young birds on the left).

And more of these cool birds!

With this quick succes we decided to head to the hide on the other side of the road, to check out the saltpans. We found: 32 Dunlins, 5 Little Stints, 4 Greenshanks, 3 Grey Plovers, lots of Flamingo's, 15 Shelducks, manye Little Egrets, 3 Sandwich Terns and a flock of 150 Serins. Next destination was the Lagune de Rambla close to the campsite of Cabo de Gata. This is a beautiful lagune situated along the beach. A huge diversity of bird species can be found here! Our main reason for going here was to try and see a lifebird for us: White-headed Duck! And so we did, we found 35+ White-headed Ducks on the Lagune. Soon we found out that they weren't really shy ducks. There was one pretty male with a blue bill, still (or again?) in summer plumage.

I like the interaction in this photo: on the background a female and a male displaying and the male with the blue bill displaying as well. While displaying the White-headed Duck dropped its head in a weird position (layed its head in its neck) and made a weird bubbling sound with its bill! It looked like the male ducks were filled with a lot of testosteron already;)

An adult male in winter plumage

A young (?) male, tailless.

Greater Flamingo, one of the few young birds present in the Laguna. Black-necked Grebes were also found in this Laguna. Near the campsite of Cabo de Gata we had a flock of 17 Golden Plovers. 

It was already 14.00 and we got hungry so we went back to our appartment and had a good meal. In the late afternoon my dad and I couldn't resist making another small tour, mainly because we wanted to photograph a Blue Rock Thrush or a Black Wheatear. So around 16.15 we left and fairly soon we stumbled onto a surprise along the road:

A superb Little Owl perched in an Alöe Vera tree close to the road.

We drove further and soon came across some Black Wheatears sitting on a small building near Playa del Monsúl. We had our first Red-legged Patridges of the trip too. They were playing hide and seek with us but in the end we came up with these pictures:

With a brown-green background 

And with a blue background.

Thekla Larks were frequently found at every possible place in this type of habitat. This was actually the first time that I really paid good attention to the differences between Thekla Lark and Crested Lark. And after thoroughly studying them, it has become much clearer; the short blunt bill, the clear supercilium, the neat crest and spots on the chest and in flight the contrasting colours of the upperside of the tailfeathers. And above all, they have a distinctive call, different from Crested Lark.

For comparison a great picture from my dad from a Crested Lark of a few years ago. Taken in Amersfoort, in the Netherlands. One of - what was then - the few remaining Crested Larks in the Netherlands:

Crested Lark, made by Tammo Meijer

We saw two more hunting Little Owls and 1 more Black Wheatear and a Blue Rock Thrush before coming back to our appartment complex in darkness!

28th of December: A last look at El Hondo before proceeding our trip down south!

28th of December


An early start this morning at the South Gate in the hope of finding a roosting Greater-spotted Eagle. The only eagles to be found in the trees were Booted Eagles, not what we were looking for but when do you ever have the oppurtunity to observe a perched Booted Eagle from this close? :

Credits for this great (digiscoped) photo go to my dad Tammo Meijer!

Here another photo of two dark morphs Booted Eagles albeit somewhat distant.

After scanning the trees we could find 5 resting Booted Eagles. In a canal along the reed a group of 6 Black-necked Grebes was found swimming and in the reeds we had views of a pretty male Penduline Tit. 

The Penduline Tit

In the cropfields behind us a group of 80 Skylarks had dropped in and furthermore we had some hundreds of Lapwings passing by and a Snipe was flushed along the canal. On a small stone bridge in the canal we had views of a Grey Wagtail.  Around 9.45 we left the South Gate and decided to head to the western side of El Hondo for one final time to see if we could find a Spotted Eagle perched or flying somewhere.

We stopped a place with fantastic views as you can see on the above picture. Apart from 2 Hoopoe's, a male Hen Harrier, 2 Sparrowshawks and a Southern Grey Shrike that performed highly skilled diving attacks to a Zitting Zisticola - that just got away - there was nothing else special to be found. We drove back to the appartment, without a Greater Spotted Eagle, too bad! We quickly packed all our stuff in the appartment and headed south. We drove past the Salinas of Santa Pola where we saw some new species for the list from a driving car: Spoonbills, Sanderlings, Kentish Plover, Shelducks and Little Stints. Close to El Hondo we had a flyover of an Osprey! That was kind of unexpected! 

During the 300 km drive to Parque Natural Cabo de Gata we didn't see anything noteworthy. We arrived at the village of San José around 15.00. We had an appartment with amazing views on the sea:

Around 16.30 we decided to explore the area and drove to the Playas west of San José. The gravel road lead us through one of the greatest landscapes I'd ever seen in Spain. Really special.

We arrived at Playa de Genoveses first where we had a Southern Grey Shrike and 5 Woodlarks near the parking lot. The playa itself was really beautiful - and luckily for me and my dad also some really photogenic birds - and we did a walk along the playa.

Playa de Genoveses.

On the playa we found some great Kentish Plovers and Sanderlings, foraging together in the sand Two Ravens were seen flying and calling overhead.

Some images of these cool waders.

The two 'Meijers' in action!

After our visit here to this playa we drove on for some more kilomtres along the gravel road seeing our first Blue Rock Thrush, Black Wheatear, Rock Buntings and Thekla Larks of the trip. I was also able to photgraph this male Black Redstart:

The Black Redstart, the sun had already dissapeared behind the hills!

Last but not least we witnessed an amazing sunset at Playa del Monsul:

And gone was the beloved sun!

26th and 27th of December: Arrival at Alicante & El Hondo NP

26th of December

Our journey started early on the morning of the 26th of December. We left Apeldoorn around 6.45 to drive to Weeze Airport in Germany where we would fly to Alicante. The plane departured on time which meant a few hours later we had switched the cold, grey and rainy weather for clear blue skies and pleasant temperatures: welcome to Spain!

The Pyrenees with snow!

We had rented a car so after we got our luggage (the first luggage on the belt for a change!) we went to the car rental and picked up our car: a nice Mercedes. From the airport it was only a 15 min drive to our appartment in Gran Alacant, just north of Santa Pola. Our main reason for being here was to try and see the wintering Greater Spotted Eagles et El Hondo parque natural. After we ate something and after we'd installed ourselves in the appartment we left for El Hondo with the four of us. The first place we would visit was the visitor centre at San Felipe Neri on the western side of El Hondo.

The parking lot at the Visitor Centre and the surrounding area.

We arrived there around 15.00 and started the boardwalk just behind the visitor centre. Soon we saw two Booted Eagles flying low above our heads! That was a nice starter already. After scanning the area with the telescope the total of Booted Eagles was raised to 9 hunting birds in the area. Further species seen near the hides were: Purple Gallinules, some Kingfishers, a Little Egret, a lot of Chiffchaffs, a couple of Sardinian Warblers, 2 Zitting Cisticola's, a Bluethroat, a lot of Crag Martins in the sky along with a unexpected bird: a Swift!! was hunting amongst the Crag Martins. and a good variety of ducks: Shovelers, Gadwalls, Pochards and also Little Grebes. After having explored this area we decided to head off to the South Gate, which would be a good place for seeing Greater-spotted Eagles since they would roost in the Eucalyptus trees close to the road. No spotted eagles were seen during our stay here but we did see quite a few Booted Eagles again, of which some were perched in the Eucalyptus trees. Furthermore we had singing Cetti's Warblers, Corn Buntings, calling Water Rails and Purple Gallinules and 2 Hen Harriers. When we drove back to Gran Alacant we came past the Salinas of Santa Pola. On these Salinas we saw hundreds of Greater Flamingo's, Yellow-legged Gulls, Audouins Gull's, Slender-billed Gulls as well as good numbers of Little Egrets and Cattle Egrets and some Ringed Plovers and 50 Black-winged Stilts. Before we headed back to the appartment we did some grocery shopping at the local Mercadona.

27th of December


My dad and I left after breakfast to El Hondo. We would start at the South Gate. On the way to El Hondo we saw a 3 Southern Grey Shrikes, a Great Egret, a Curlew, some 100 Pied Avocets and lots of Slender-billed Gulls at the Salinas. We arrived at the South Gate around 10.00. First thing we saw were 30 Corn Buntings feeding in the reeds. While scanning for Greater Spotted Eagles we saw 6 Booted Eagles of which some were perched in the trees again. In the reed in front of us we had close views of a real skulky Moustached Warbler! A Bluethroat showed itself better in the reed though:

Bluethroat, male

When we walked back to the car we had a nice surprise: a group of 13 Cranes had dropped in, in the fields behind us, calling loudly. From the South Gate we drove to the Visitor Centre again. We had a nice road along the (very disclosed) park. We heard a Penduline Tit and saw a Southern Grey Shrike that wasn't really shy:

Southern Grey Shrike ssp meridionalis

At the hides near the Visitors Centre we saw 7 Black-necked Grebes along with the common stuff. Also, some Booted Eagles were just giving phenomonal views! They were hunting close to us and didn't seem shy at all!

Light morph Booted Eagle.

After we had made great pics of these amazing eagles we went back to our appartment again for a warm meal. After our warm meal we made a little tour with the four of us along the coast. Starting at Gran Alacant we drove along the beach to Santa Pola. The drive was nice. The road along the beach goes along a rocky coast with no urbanisation at all which makes it a beautiful drive. We stopped halfway to take a walk along the beach. I couldn't resist taking out the telescope and scanning the sea: a couple of hundred (distant) Balearic Shearwaters, three Shags, some Sandwich Terns and 2 Gannets was the result in a short time. We had a drink at the beach in Santa Pola. At the harbour of Santa Pola we had some good birds: 12 Common Scoters, 1 Common Sandpiper, 13 Mediterranean Gulls, about 125 Audouins Gulls, 6 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 3 Sandwich Terns and a Grey Wagtail.

some of the 75 Audouins Gulls on the beach

some of the 50 in the harbour

7 Mediterranean Gulls

A 1cy Yellow-legged Gull

12 Black Scoters

Beach at Santa Pola.

Another day had gone by without seeing the Spotted Eagles, but it didn't really matter because of all the other great stuff we'd seen and photographed. Tomorrow morning we would have our last try to see one, would we succeed??

Back from Spain!

The last few weeks (or should I almost say month??) some of you might have noticed that I haven't written any blog posts. The main reason for this was because I was gone to Southern Spain for two weeks (and the two weeks before that were really boring concerning birds haha). We (me, my parents and my sister) had an amazing time in Andalucia. We made a great tour starting at Alicante (El Hondo) - Alméria (Cabo de Gata) - Granada - Sierra de Andújar and last but not least Sevilla. It was a 12-day lasting trip.

Of course, a full trip report will follow together with lots of photos of birds on my blog! Eventhough this trip wasn't a full birding trip (we did lots of cultural things too!) my dad and I managed to get a pretty good list totalling 160 birdspecies.

So stay tuned the coming days!

And here is a sneak peak already!

Little Swift/ Apus affinis, one of our highlights this trip!