Eagle Day in Alicante

Friday December 4th :- I met Geoff and his sister Carol at Gran Alicant and the initial welcomes I asked "so what would you like to see today?", the response from Geoff was rapid "Carol wants to see some eagles". So there it was, I had my challenge and knew we had chances of three species today including a Spanish rarity Greater Spotted Eagle. So we headed straight for this site - the excellent El Hondo nature reserve, although access to the interior is difficult requiring pre-booking with arrival times etc you could still do well around it's perimeter. A drive through the Santa Pola salinas produced the ever-present Greater Flamingos, Avocets, Shelduck, Slander billed, Black headed & Yellow legged Gulls, Black winged Stilts and a few Dunlin. Not bad to say we didn't even stop!. Soon after we arrived at the Vistabella Road, parked by the back gate and took up residence on a mud pile overlooking the reserve and the surrounding area. I checked the small group of Plain Trees and quickly found our first eagle - a roosting Booted Eagle, which was quickly followed by a second, in fact we saw at least six in this area alone. Marsh Harriers were quartering the reeds and then I found an Osprey managing to get some decent flight views through the telescope. It had been a good start but unfortunately not the hoped for GSE. We continued to check the area finding a couple of Black necked Grebes with their commoner Little cousins, a group of 17 Common Cranes flew over and other species included Shoveler, Coot, Grey Herons, Little & Cattle Egrets, 3 Green Sandpipers, Kingfisher, Penduline Tit, Cetti's Warbler, Chiffchaffs, Crag Martins, Black Redstart and a brief glimpse of a Bluethroat. Next we called for a quick coffee stop, which was most welcome as I had been on the road since 7am, we sat outside the cafe basked in glorious sunshine. Next we drove round to the other side of the reserve and as we neared the main gate Geoff & I saw a large bird being mobbed, which flew out of sight over the reeds. At the first opportunity I pulled in where we had a good vantage point for looking over the whole area, and time was spent scanning. Geoff quickly found a few raptors near where we had seen the original bird but they turned out to be 2 Booted Eagles and a Marsh Harrier. Then off in the other direction there was the 2nd winter Greater Spotted Eagle in flight and I mangaed to get Geoff and Carol on to it. We again got good telescope views as it soared up into the sky before disappearing out of sight. We were delighted as this was a new Spanish bird for Geoff. We stayed in the area for a while longer but didn't manage to see it again, just how lucky had we been. I was planning lunch in the mountains so before we headed there we visited another part of this huge reserve San Filipe Neri. Generally it was quiet here with views of Red Crested Pochard, Zitting Cisticolas, Meadow Pipits, Crested Larks and of course four more Booted Eagles. So at lunchtime we drove up to Crevillente and had a torturous time negotiating the one-way system as my usual route was blocked by market stalls!. Eventually we got through and wound our way up to the Sierra de Crevillente and my usual Bonelli's Eagle canyon. I unpacked the picnic of soup, sandwiches, pastries and fruit and we sat in the sunshine scanning the skies for our target. Then Carol says "what's this large bird?", and sure enough she had found an adult Bonelli's Eagle, which was soon joined by the second adult bird - superb. We watched as they flew across the valley and out of sight, again getting some fantastic views against the beautiful blue sky. Before we left we added Thekla Lark, Stonechat and Sardinian Warbler to our daily list. Incredibly I had achieved my target and we still had the afternoon left, which was a fairly quiet affair taking in the sites of El Pinet (birdless), Santa Pola Salinas (Great Crested Grebes, another Osprey, Booted Eagle, Common Sandpiper) and finally the Clot de Galvany. Here I found there final request of a White headed Duck with just a female on the Charco de Contacto with lots of Teal, Shoveler and a Common Snipe. A walk around some other parts of the reserve produced a couple of Hoopoes, Iberian Green Woodpecker (to me), Red legged Partridges, Southern Grey Shrikes, Greenfinches, Goldfinches, Robins and Spotless Starlings. A very good day indeed.