Funny old sort of day; sunny, relatively calm with light waves on the sea but not that warm in the morning. But we are promised, at last, better weather towards the week-end with the temperatures rising to the high eighties and, from Saturday, we are even allowed out of the house to visit our communal garden. Very much in need of stretching my legs and stiff from working on the computer updating the Family Tree, so decided to take the longer walk down to Caleta and visit Aldi's for my preferred chocolate bars and see what is about. See if there are any copies of Friday's free paper in English still at the newsagent (there were not) and back from Lidl's via my usual return route along the front, probably just over two miles in total.
Leaving the house I immediately recorded House Sparrow, Blackbird and Rock Dove and approaching the footbridge a Barn Swallow swooped past me. However, once on the bridge not a single gull in sight, neither on land nor sea. A few marauding Monk Parakeets and a Collared Dove but, using the bins, I did manage to identify the moving "shape" as a Dunlin with a close-by White Wagtail. Once at the far side of the bridge I watched maybe as many as a dozen Monk Parakeets feeding or stripping twigs from a very green bush but by the time I got the small camera out most had disappeared.
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| Only two of the 20 plus Monk Parakeets Myiopsitta monachus remaining |
Walking past the high apartment blocks lots of feeding Pallid Swifts around the tops and even lower down once at my usual turn off inland to Lidl's. However, on this occasion I was continuing all the way down to Caleta and the entry harbour to the fish dock. Once under way a near view of a single Mediterranean Gull with its head still "spotty" and then a further two resting on the beach with a quartet of Audouin's Gulls. Very close and just a shame that I did not have the main camera with me. Finally, the harbour beach only contained a handful of Yellow-legged Gulls plus a quintet of feeding Sanderling.
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| Audouin's Gulls gaviota de Audouin Larus audouinii |
The final part of the return journey revealed nothing new and, indeed, hardly a bird of any description. Once back on the footbridge both the previous small birds had disappeared but there was a Ringed Plover exploring the river's edge below the upstream side of the bridge and the Audouin's Gulls had moved eastwards from their previous position and were now at the river's mouth. A little further out on the sea itself a few Lesser Black-blacked Gulls had come to rest on the water. And so to the house with a total of 17 species recorded.
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| Too late to capture the quintet of Sanderling! |
Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Sanderling, Mediterranean Gull, Audouin's Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Yellow-legged Gull, Rock Dove, Collared Dove, Monk Parakeet, Common Swift, Pallid Swift, Barn Swallow, House Martin, White Wagtail, Blackbird, House Sparrow.
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I didn´t know that Aldi has chokolate bars, worth 601€ !!! ;-)
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