August is a good month to see the difference between diurnal migrants and nocturnal migrants. So what birds fall into these two catagories? Generally speaking diurnal migrants are the large to medium sized birds , Herons and Egrets to Cuckoo. Glossy Ibis are a good example of a diurnal/daytime migrant. Nocturnal migrants are the small sized birds, Thruses to finches. Like all things there are some exceptions. Some birds of Prey for example will travel at night with the smaller migrants, picking off the weak or exhasted birds. Some finches and larks will migrate in daytime, but in flocks. Here in Alcossebre we are in fortunate position geographical wise. We have the Ebro delta to the north, about an hours flight for birds to reach us. The Valenciana wetlands are to our south again about an hours flight for birds to reach us. One more thing about nocturnal migration. Small birds get restless about an before sunset, and just before dusk they find a thermal and spiral upwards, until they find a wind to assist their flight. They will travel through most of the night weather permitting. During the daytime they rest up and feed ready to do it all again at night. 67 species were seen in the Alcossebre area in August 2016. Typical diurnal/daytime migrants seen were :- Three Common Shelduck flying south over the sea on the 13th. A total of 13 Grey Herons passed through this month. Three Purple Herons flew south on the 3rd. Three Great White Egrets also flew south on the 3rd. 10 Black-crowned Night Herons roosted overnight at Torre estate pond and flew south on the 13th August. One of the ten birds that roosted overnight. A total of 15 Little Egrets flew south during the month. 10 Glossy Ibis flew south on the 13th. A female Marsh Harrier flew south on the 15th. A single Northern Lapwing flew east (probably Ebro bound) on the 25th August. Little Egret below. A maximum of 16 Common Sandpipers were resting at the coast on the 16th. A mixed flock of 180 Common and Pallid Swifts passed through on the 10th. There were a host of typical nocturnal/night time migrants seen this month. The first Willow Warbler of autumn was seen on the 21st August, numbers increasing to 7 by the end of the month. This Common Sandpiper turned up beside my swimming pool! The first Subalpine Warbler of autumn was seen on the 23rd August, maximum numbers three birds. Two female Pied Flycatchers on the 24th August were a first this autumn. The first Whinchat for autumn arrived on the 31st August. Some of our breeding birds had moved on (at night). The last Scops Owl was heard on the 12th August. The last Red-necked Nightjar was seen on the 23rd August. The last Great Spotted Cuckoo was seen on the 3rd August. The last Woodchat Shrike was seen on the 20th August. Other interesting birds seen this month were :- Single Common Kingfishers were seen at the Torre estate pond throughout the month. Up to 40 Bee eaters were seen throughout the month. Below two of our nesting Bee eaters. A Roller was seen on the 4th August. The first Southren Grey Shrike since last December was seen on the 7th August. A Western Bonelli´s Warbler was seen on the 1st August. 800 Common Starlings on the 20th August were the first this autumn. August is the start of the hunting season here, which is very bad for the birds. Why? because the hunting is indiscrimnate and uncontrolled. In other words the hunters will shoot anything in their sights from Bee eaters to Song Thrushes! They start on a Feista/holiday the 15th August and continue on Thursdays, Saturday and Sunday of each week until next February. I It´s like a war zone with multiple guns going off all over the place. I´ll give you an illustration of how many birds they shoot, before the 15th August I counted a total of 488 Common Woodpigeon´s from the 15th to the month end 65 birds. So a very tough time for the birds. The Weather in Alcossebre in August 2016.
It turned out to be another hot ,dry month. The saving grace was there was a cooling wind most days. In the mornings the wind from come off the land/mountains (north west or north east) , until about mid morning. Then from mid morning until early evening the wind would come off the sea (south east or south west). The average day temperature was 31C. 1c above the August average. The average night temperature was 20C. 2C below the August average. Five days registered the highest day temperature of 33C, the 9th,17th,19th,20th and 26th. The lowest day temperature was 26C on the 10th. The highest night temperature was 24C on the 5th and 29th. The lowest night temperature was 17C on the 13th,15th,24th and 25th. Total rainfall was 0.2 inches (6mm) very little. The average rainfall for August is 2 inches (51mm)
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