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On Tuesday 22nd April 2008 nine members of the Lisburn RSPB Local Group flew to Murcia airport from Belfast Int airport and drove to our Field Trip base in the town of Torrevieja along the south east coast of Spain.
The circled area encompasses the area we covered on the trip. Torrevieja is a few miles north of Murcia along the main Cartagena to Alicante route, the N332.   

Day One
On Wednesday 23rd April at 7.00am we walked around the streets surrounding our villa. House sparrows are in abundance in most places, favouring the roofing tiles for nesting. In Northern Ireland our first swifts arrive about the first week in May but there was an abundance of swift in flight above our heads and their piercing, screeching calls were very welcome .Individual Pallid Swift could be picked out from the Common Swifts and Swallows. Spottless Starling could be seen perched on roof tops and fences and in larger garden ares Black Birds and Common Magpie could be seen. In a small orchard we viewed our first Serin and a pair of Pied Fly Catchers. Other common birds were Collared Dove and Pied Wagtail.  

After breakfast we headed north towards SantaPolo to the Salinas De La Mata, a salt lake and nature reserve. This lagoon regulates the much larger Salinas de Torrevieja, a salt pan where sea water is pumped in and as the heat evaporates the sea water, salt is left behind and it is harvested. The shores of the two lagoons run from muddy beaches to reed beds, rushes and salt marsh. The surrounding area is a mosaic of extensive pine plantations, vineyards and irrigated farmland.


                        
           Viewing birds from the car park        View of Las Salinas and vines     Viewing birds closer to the waters edge.
                                                                              in fore ground 
 On arriving at the car park we viewed Crested Lark, Pallid Swift, Common Swift, Swallow house Martins and Spotless Starling. After a short walk to a view point overlooking the lake we set our scopes and viewed on the foreground, a vine plantation, Serin, Crested Lark, Wood chat Shrike, Green finch, Gold Finch, House Sparrow, and Green Woodpecker could be heard calling in the distance.after a walking 500 to 600 metres down to the lake we viewed Greater Flamingo, Avocet,Slender Billed Gull,Shelduck, Squacco Heron, Whiskered Tern, Curlew Sandpiper, Dunlin, Turnstone, Little Stint, Grey Plover, Kentish Plover, Ringed Plover, Redshank, Sanderling, Common Sandpiper and Black Winged Stilt. There were two hides to view the birdlife on the lakes.
Turtle Dove and Wood Pigeon were in the trees along with common birds such as Blue Tit, Coal Tit and Great Tit and Pied Fly Catcher were common in the trees. On surrounding scrub land we viewed Whinchat and Stone Chat. Hoopoe could be heard. We went to a location further north on the lake by car to the most northernly hide. At this location we added Sardinian Warbler and a brief glimpse of a Montagu's Harrier.

We headed north towards Santa Pola and stopped a couple of miles shot of the town at an area of salt lake on the mainland side of the carriageway and a small lagoon and reed beds on the coastal side of the carriageway. This salt pan system, Las Salinas De Santa Pola,  is almost identical to the De La Mata y Torrevieja system. It lies at the mouth of the River Vinalopo and the coastal area like DeLa Mata is a nature reserve, a designated Ramsar Site.

The small lagoon proved to be rich in its variety of birds. One of the first birds we saw the striking Red Crested Pochard along with Purple Heron, Purple Gallinule,Mallard, Pochard, Moor Hen, Coot, Black Winged Stilt, Avocet, Grey Heron, Shelduck, Glossy Ibis, Little Egret, Great White Egret, Whiskered Tern, Little Tern, Herring Gull, Yellowed Legged Gull, and a great views of Greater Flamingo, a couple of hundred, flying in to roost for the night. A great end to the day!  


Day Two  24th April 2008

Again we headed out early around Torrevieja to a walled area on the edge of town and close to our villa's. this walled area is rumored to have been bought by the King of Spain to build a residence for his family. The ground was like an over grown ploughed field and it wasn't long before Stone Curlew became visible as they walked on top of the ridges.Red Legged Partridge also made themselves visible. On most prominent stones and mounds Wheatear stood giving fine views. Serin and Hoopoe were viewed on the ground as well as Red Rumped Swallow among the common swallow in flight above our heads.Greenfinch were vislble on overhead power lines.

After breakfast  we headed north towards Alicante and turned off heading north west towards a town call Dolores. Our destination was a Ramsar site called El Hondo. ( See previous map)


 It is important for Marbled Teal which are globally threatened. About 60 pairs breed at El Hondo along with white headed duck and many other species including the largest breeding colony of Whiskered Tern in Valencia. Our timing should have been good but unfortunately only a small section of the reserve was available to us because a dispute with local farmers over access. This was dissapointing but we were still able to get excellent views of a number of species. One of the most spectacular were the Collared Praticole, in flight and on the ground. There were also Red Crested Pochard, Coot, Pochard, Yellow wagtail, Fan-tailed Warbler, Kestrel, Hoopoe, Sardinian Warbler, Little Egret, Squacco Heron, Purple Heron, two Booted Eagle, Avocet, Black Winged Stilt, Little Tern and  Cuckoo and Great Reed Warbler were heard. The area we did have access to was a path of board-walk through the reed beds and marsh with a viewing platform over looking a lagoon. This reserve has much to offer with nearly two hundred species recorded and so we were dissapointed but there is plenty to see on a return visit for the group. We missed opportunities to look for the Marbled Teal, Greater Flamingo, White Headed duck, Marsh Harrier, Water Rail, Moustached Warbler, Bearded Tit, Penduline Tit,Black-necked Grebe, Little Bittern, Spotted Crake, Savi's Warbler, Great Reed Warbler, Spectacled warbler, plus many passage wading visitors. We moved on to a roadside view point where we could see over a large expanse of the reed bed. After a short time a pair of hunting Montague's Harriers came into view, quartering over the reeds for food .

On return to Torrevieja we headed back to the walled garden area and also the shore and added a few more species to our list. We viewed Whinchat, Redstart, Woodchat Shrike, Sandwich Tern and Red Rumped Swallow.        


Day Three 25th April
 After our early morning stroll we headed out for the main trip of the day. We headed to the  Los Solares De Rio Guadalentin. This is a restricted area of salt steppe or salt marsh alongside the River Guadalentin south west of Murcia. It is partly cultivated for cereals and has scattered trees and shrubs.
 On entering the area we stopped at an irrigation reservoir and found Black Winged Stilt and Little Ringed Plover. A Little Owl could be viewed at long distance and a Great Grey Shrike landed on a nearby fence. Not more than a hundred metres along the road we saw our first Bee-eater, in fact a small flock. As we viewed them in flight above an olive grove a Roller came into view and rested on a fence before continuing on its journey.It sat on the fence long enough to give us excellent close up views of it  Further along the road we stopped at another reservoir with an orchard beside it. After several minutes a Greater Spotted Cuckoo few in and landed on the ground giving great views. It was joined by a second bird minutes later. Beside the reservoir a Squaaco Heron, and several Little Egrets were viewed. Hoopoe and Bee-eater could be seen at many locations along the roadside.

 We went to an area of agricultral land where Little Bustard and Dark Bellied Sandgrouse are known but it wasn't our day. We saw plenty of Stone Curlew, Crested lark and a Short Toed Lark but the only view of the target birds was a brief shoulders and head shot of a Little Bustard for about 30 seconds. The area is flat and vast but after a couple of hours intense scanning non others were seen.

We headed west up into the Sierra De  Espuna, part of the south-west section of the Andalusian Mountain chain which has three peaks that exceed 1500 metres.The Andalusian Montain chain touchs the Atlantic ocean at the Bay of Cadiz and travels north-east to the mediterean sea north of Alicante. The Sierra De Espuna has been designated a Natural Park.  
After a great meal for a modest price in a mountainside cafe we continued up the mountain and stopped to view  some rugged mountain skyline. A large flock of Chough could be seen and heard. The pine trees around us were alive with common Blue Tits, Great Tits and Coal Tits Chaffinch and Greenfinch. Two Bonelli's Eagles came into view  for about two minutes and then a Golden Eagle showed itself for a brief time. We continued along the mountain roads stopping a various view points hoping to see other raptures such as Eagle Owl, Goshawk, Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, Peregrine but non were seen. At one point whilst scanning the area over the trees and taking in the panoramic views a Crossbill was found sitting on tree branch not more than ten feet above our heads. It obliged us for ten minutes and then flew off. The journey continued up the mountain only adding Tawney Pipit and a herd of Wild Mountain Goats to our list. 

Day 4 26th April

For our final days birding we headed north beyond the El Hondo Reserve we had visited on day two and onto the Sierra De Crevillent, one of the northern areas of the Andalusian Mountain chain which meets the Mediterean sea north of Alicante on the Iberian Peninsular. Driving through the town of Crevillent and the small village of San Pascual we stopped at a via-duct accross the road  which marked the start of our days birding.

Our target birds were the Black Wheatear, Black-eared Wheatear, Bonellie's Eagle, Blue Rock thrush, Alpine Swift and Crag Martin. On arriving at the area we scanned the rugged terrain for Black Wheatear and Blue Rock Thrush. It wasn't long before we found our first Black Wheatear but after a couple of hours walking along the mountain roads we returned to our cars for lunch, failing to find a Blue Rock Thrush. We drove along the narrow roads coming accross Bee-eater, Hoopoe and Woodchat Shrike quite often as well as Black-eared Wheatear.
We stopped to view one rocky crag and got great views of Alpine Swift. It was easy to compare them with the Common Swift that were in abundance flying with them. So too were the Crag Martin, a greyer much larger bird than our Sand Martin. Other birds seen on this trip were Serin, Melodious Warbler, White Wagtail, Little Owl, Red-legged Partridge, Sardinian Warbler and Kestrel. We failed to spot any Bonellie's Eagle on this trip.

We headed back  towards Torrevieja and stopped along a dual carriageway to view about 25 Cattle Egret in a field. We turned off the carriageway and drove a short distance towards San Miguel and stopped at a dried up river bed. We got great views of two Turtle Doves sitting on the power cables above our heads. a Little Owl was found peeking out of a hole in the steep river bank and two Booted Eagle and a Kestrel flew over our heads.A couple of Corn Bunting were on the overhead cables on the the other side of the road.  

We returned home on the following Sunday morning, exhausted from the intense time table but pleased with our "list"  and the quality of the views. This was a memorable trip and there are plenty of birds to go back on another visit to find.