I recently received an unusual email that I would like to share with you, so I have copied it below. I hope you will engage your imagination as you read the email.
Hi Martin
I have thought very hard about whether it is wise to get in touch with me/you, but I decided to take the risk. I am now an old man and it is the year 2044, which probably seems quite weird to you. Since your era in 2023, technology has grown to the point that I am able to communicate with you from the future. However, it isn’t a cheap option and is still a very uncommon thing to do.
Reflecting on our lives, it appears that your decisions have been a mixture of good and not so good, but on balance they haven’t been bad. Your best decision was undoubtedly convincing Jessica to marry you; a lifetime’s blessing.
My reason for writing is to let you know that in the here and now, in 2044, our planet is suffering a lot with industrial and agricultural pollution. I don’t think you would recognise your beloved region of Murcia. Due to the loss of biodiversity, I now consider myself lucky to see more than 10 species of birds on visits out in the countryside. The interior of the region resembles a desert and the Mar Menor is a thick pea green soup of bacteria, pesticides and chemicals and completely devoid of life. It is all quite depressing when I remember how Murcia was when you/we arrived back in 2003.
I am sorry to be the bringer of sad tidings, but hopefully you can help a little bit to change the future. Therefore, I beseech you to support the environmental associations who are battling for a better future. Also, I am sure you are conscious of reducing your carbon footprint, food miles and food wastage. Every little helps.
With lots of love to you and Jessica.
Martin
I don’t know if you share old Martin’s view of the future, but what isn’t in dispute is the loss of biodiversity in recent years due to agricultural intensification, pollution, habitat loss and some mechanisms of the global economy. We can all help by thinking of small changes in our behaviour, for example reducing food miles and food wastage, which are very easy to do with a little bit of thought and planning. I think the first steps are the hardest, so please add “Tu granito de arena”. (Your grain of sand – a Spanish expression which sort of means; I will do what I can, even though it is quite small in the grand scheme of things, but if everyone does something it can have a big impact.)
OK, that’s the serious bit over, so let’s go birding.
I’ve often wondered what the birding would be like over the border in that strange land called Valencia. They even speak a different language! I was interested to find out what avian differences there may be to the east of us, so Valencia was on the agenda.
I met an English bird guide called David Warrington, who trades under the name of Valencia Birding, at the bird fair in the UK. I booked him for a two-day trip at the end of November. I think it is important to be able to tap into local birding knowledge on this type of trip. It can save you a lot of frustration and time at a pretty reasonable cost. After spending two days with David I have no hesitation in recommending him as a bird guide if you fancy a similar trip.
The first day was spent near the coast visiting the famous Albufera wetlands and the beach. I had been to Albufera previously, but found the access quite difficult and felt frustrated and thwarted in my birding because of this. However, David removed all that frustration by guiding us to the visitor centre reserve, Raco de Olla and a restricted access wetland reserve called Tancat de Millia. After visiting these two sites we drove slowly around the flooded paddy fields birding on the way to the coast, Playa de El Saler. (There is also a freshwater lake next to the beach, Estany de Pujol).
It was interesting, but based on this single visit I think our Murcian wetlands compare very favourably as regards to the birdlife. However, I was very pleasantly surprised to see so many Kingfishers which seemed almost as common as Sparrows. Talking of which, we were seeing Tree Sparrows that are quite an uncommon bird in Murcia. They are occasionally reported from the Saladares del Guadalentín and El Algar.
On arrival at the coast, we wandered slowly towards the beach, past the inland lake where we saw common Wildfowl, Waders and a few Terns. The big surprise was when we arrived on the beach as there was a Razorbill, diving and fishing just two metres offshore. These birds are true ocean-going species. They breed on narrow cliff side ledges in parts of the UK and Northern Europe. The rest of the year they live out in the oceans, mainly the North Atlantic, but some enter the Mediterranean every year staying well offshore. At Cabo de Palos you can see them flying past at migration time. Our bird didn’t look sick, (often a reason for coming close to shore), so it was a bit of a mystery why it was there. This autumn there has been a lot of reports of dead and dying Razorbills close to shore or even beached. These reports have come from all parts of Spain’s Mediterranean coastline. At first, the scientists thought avian flu was the cause. It has been in the news a lot this year. However, after many autopsies, it has been concluded that the deaths are a result of severe malnutrition, mainly affecting this year’s youngsters. It would appear that adult birds have more experience to catch fish in times of shortage. What’s the root cause of this lack of fish? Overfishing?
Afterwards we walked slowly upstream at the side of the estuary. We were seeing lots of winter plumaged Black Headed Gulls, but nothing to get excited about, until we saw another Gull, but this one had a yellow coloured bill instead of the normal red and black beak. We looked away and then looked back at this strange Gull, before we both looked at each other in amazement and said, “It’s a Kittiwake!” This is another ocean-going bird that definitely shouldn’t be here. It was the first time David had ever seen one here in all his years of birding in Valencia. I have only seen them in Spain flying offshore at Cabo de Palos during migration. It was a good way to end our first day birding in Valencia.
On day two we headed off to the mountains. David had told me that he knew a great spot to see Alpine Accentors, a very uncommon winter visitor. Although, they have been recorded on odd occasions in Murcia it is considered a rarity in our region. It would be the first time in my life seeing this particular bird, so it would be a lifer (Bimbo in Spanish).
As we approached the peak of Sierra de Serrania the views were amazing and we saw a pair of Ravens flying alongside us as the mountain road clung to the hillside. A little bit further along this high road a group of Griffon Vultures were flying alongside and below us sometimes as close as 20 metres away from the car. It was a true spectacle watching them effortlessly glide on the thermals around the mountainside. The road finally took us to the peak and we parked alongside a number of buildings that had been constructed for the maintenance of the masts. From here we walked towards the highest point to look at the little brown jobs (LBJ’s) flitting around the building and feeding on the ground alongside. I was delighted to see that they were the rarities we had been searching for – a family group of Alpine Accentors that surprisingly were completely unbothered about our presence.
Alpine Accentors are found throughout the mountains of southern temperate Europe, Lebanon and Asia at heights above 2,000 metres (6,600ft). They are mainly resident, wintering more widely at lower latitudes, but some birds wander as rare vagrants as far as Great Britain. They are closely related to the Hedge Sparrow, sometimes known as Hedge Accentor. If you compare the birds in the photos I think you will see the similarity between the two species.
What a great birding spot and what a surprise to find our much-yearned-for rarity within five minutes of our arrival at the site. After all the excitement we dropped down the other side of the mountain and ate our sandwiches by the cliffs of the Nevero de Lácaba, an old snow house. These cliffs are used by nesting Vultures in the spring. There were a few Griffon Vultures flying about that kindly provided our meal-time entertainment.
After lunch we meandered down the valley until we came to a small village that had a wonderful clear mountain stream. It reminded me of some of the Welsh valleys as it was the sort of habitat more often seen in the UK rather than Southern Spain. We explored a little bit upstream and were pleasantly surprised to see a common UK bird, a Greater Spotted Woodpecker.
They are quite uncommon in South-east Spain. However, our final surprise was to see a Dipper along the stream edge, occasionally hunting in the fast flowing water. The Spanish name for this bird translates as an ‘Aquatic Blackbird’; a pretty good description. Dippers are so-called because of their bobbing or dipping movements. They are unique among Passerines for their ability to dive and swim underwater searching for aquatic insects. I have only ever seen them a few times in Murcia near some of the fast flowing streams in the mountains of Moratalla. They were considered extinct in our region a few years back, but they seem to have established a very small breeding population in recent years.
It was a great end to our day in the mountains with David; a true avian delight.
If you have any comments or queries please do not hesitate to contact me on antrimbirder@gmail.com