More of a brief summary than a report, as new species have been few for me this February. That is not because the birds are not there: other observers have already reported first sightings of House Martin, Swallow, Spoonbill, Great Spotted Cuckoo, Crane, Lesser Kestrel and even a couple more Jack Snipes. So, mea culpa – I haven’t been out and about enough to really get to grips with the current birding offer in my local hotspot.
OK, what have I seen? New species I recorded in February were Nuthatch and Eagle Owl, both in the Montsec area, and both recorded in the course of a family outing.
Meanwhile, in the Hotring things have been just a little more exciting, with the addition of Moustached Warbler (3 birds singing at Utxesa), Bearded Tit (6 birds together), and Fan-tailed Warbler, or Zitting Cisticola if you like, on the edge of Lleida. The latter, surprisingly, is the only record I have of the species in the area this year, surely a sign that it has been hard hit by the cold periods over the last winter.
Local weather conditions didn’t always help me in the pursuit of the hotspot ideal.
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