Christmas lunch 2016

The Volunteers of La Mata celebrated their Xmas lunch at La Cosecha and enjoyed an excellent meal with 21 of us around the table.  In spite of the dire weather we all arrived safely and spent a couple of hours enjoying each other’s company.  Our next get together will be the monthly meeting on January 7^th

Birthday party

The celebrations to mark the official recognition of the Natural Park of La Mata-Torrevieja continued on Saturday 10th of December with an event at the Park which attracted a large number of interested people. We were glad to see so many children and young people taking an interest.  There were 7 tables all of which were environmental or ornithological. The Volunteers of La Mata attracted a lot of attention and we hope that by explaining personally all the things we do, we may get more members

 to help look after this precious green space so near to towns and roads.

Thanks to Jenny Dodd for this post

Birds' nests exhibition

Arquitectura Natural

There is currently an exhibition of birds nests in the Visitor Centre at La Mata Parque which will be on until 11 December. These are genuine nests that have been removed from their sites (along with supporting branches) in the park at the end of the breeding season. It is an interesting display and demonstrates the ingenuity of our avian friends.

If you get the opportunity, pop in and see it.

Releasing fartets!

To continue to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Natural Park of la Mata-Torrevieja two more events have been held, in which the Volunteers of La Mata could take part.

The first of these was about “The Secret Life of Birds”.  A talk was given by Justo Ferrer accompanied by short video clips which revealed to the audience the territorial squabbles, sometimes quite ferocious, the courtship, nest building, mating and finally the chicks which resulted.  Normally we, the humans, cannot see these activities s we are too noisy and clumsy to keep still enough, but the fascinating vignettes showed a whole world going on around the park, with not only the flamingos but also all the little birds which live there.  A walk around the park followed for those who hope dot see something of this activity.

The next event concerned a tiny fish, the “fartet”, Aphanius Iberus, or Spanish toothcarp.  These have been on the verge of extinction and determined efforts are being made to protect them and encourage them to breed and increase in number.  Ten of the fish were available for the Volunteers to return to a part of the Torrevieja Lake.  A talk and slides preceded the activity which showed the male and female fish and it was pointed out that they are a natural way to help to combat the problems of processionary caterpillars and mosquitoes as both of these are eaten by the fish.  In this way it is hoped that the area around Los Balcones will be controlled against these pests in a natural way.

From this week on there is an exhibition in the park centre, of the various nests built by the different birds which live in the park.

Pretty but pesky rodent?

The staff at Parque La Mata have recently confirmed the presence of Eliomys Quernicus (el lirón in Spanish and garden dormouse to us) in the park. Although it is widespread throughout Europe (but not in the UK), it has not previously been seen here.

It is between 10 and 17cm in length with a tail of 9 to 13.5cm. The tail ends in a white tassel. El lirón is mainly nocturnal and comes out of its nest at night to eat insects, snails, eggs, young nestlings (so may represent a threat to our birdboxes), small rodents, berries, fruit and nuts. 

Celebrations!

The Natural Park of La Mata-Torrevieja is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Park this year and various events have been organised to draw attention to this.

It is hoped to refer in the future to this area as  a “Protected Space”  rather than a park which gives the wrong connotation, as if a place to play ball games, have swings, let dogs run about,  and so on.

The first of the talks prepared was a presentation about the Taro Blanco – the shelduck, which was based on observations and study of this bird over the last 9 years by Park official Justo Ferrer.

This proved to be very interesting with a slide show of various places where it is to be found and its habitat.  One surprise was learning that it nests in old rabbit burrows rather than making a nest on the ground.  The birds mate for life and the father bird is very defensive in looking after its young.  The chicks are led out to the water as soon as they are able, to look for food, which is the artemia, the small crab-like crustacean which lives in broad salty water. The audience were loud in their applause and a group then went to see some of the ducks in situ.

The next event held on the 28^th of October was a photographic exhibition of photos taken by Justo Ferrer to show “Birds in Action”.  These photos have been taken over a period of time of the many birds to be seen in the Natural Park, in various places and at various times.  They were often taken from Justo’s car as it served as a sort of “hide” so the birds were not frightened away.

Further events are to be: On Sunday 6^th November, a presentation about the birds of  La Mata

On Friday 11 November there will be a bird walk. On Friday 25^th November a presentation in the Palacio de la Musica and on Sunday 4^th December a walk around the Wine route.

All times will be available on the Park website in due course.

The Volunteers of La Mata hope to support and be involved with many of these activities.

Día de las Aves

Día de las Aves

This event was organised and run by the Parque staff, actually Jose Manuel, and took place on Saturday 1 October at the Parque. Approximately 35 people including 10 children attended.  Jose gave a presentation on the theories of the evolution of birds, some anatomy and a bit of physiology and then lead us on a walk through the Parque giving information about the various plants and also history of the vines. 

First stop was the acequión but apart from a couple of flamingos and a heron there was little to see.

Next stop was the hide and from here we were able to ascertain that what looked like a black raft on the lake was actually a flock of some 2-3000 black necked grebes. From the hide we went to the picnic area where some people made use of the observation tower and others enjoyed a picnic.

There will be more events over the coming months to celebrate the Parque's 20th birthday so worth keeping an eye on their website.

Stephen

German group visit

I took a lovely group of German holidaymakers around the park this morning. Fortunately the sky was overcast and it wasn't too hot! We have a €25 donation for our coffers.  However there were three dogs running loose, two of them very big. I spoke to one of the owners who shrugged and muttered something into her phone......hey ho!

Visit to El Hondo

Trip to El Hondo (North gate)

25 June 2016

At 0830 on a sunny Saturday morning, eight members of our group met at the North gate of the El Hondo Parque. We were joined by Stefan and Els from the Costa Blanca Bird Club who had kindly agreed to act as our guides.

The North gate of El Hondo is approximately 2 km further on from the visitor centre and can only be accessed on a Saturday morning between 0830 and 1130 and by prior arrangement with the visitor centre (access is free).  This restricted access means that there is less human disturbance and therefore  different bird species can be seen.

Our first stop was the tower platform which gives good views over one of the lagoons and reed beds. Here, we were fortunate enough to meet Graham, an extremely experienced and knowledgeable birder who directed our attention to various species.  We then moved on to the hide at the end of the track and during a stay of approximately 1.5 hours over 40 species of bird were seen.   A brief stop at one of the smaller hides on our return to the entrance revealed a variety of warblers.

At 1130 and after thanking Stefan and Els for their help we left.

Three members continued bird watching at the visitor centre where several more species were added to the list.

We hope to arrange a further visit during the migration season.

 

 

Habanera in the Park

On 21 May the world premiere of  an habanera written and performed by the teachers and children of school “Cuba” in Torrevieja took place behind the Information Centre at the Parque Natural de La Mata.  This was the culmination of months of work done by members of the park staff, Jose Manuel and Silvia, attending the school and the children visiting the park to learn of the importance of the salt lakes to the economy and natural history of the area. The habanera thus represents a fusion of the cultural and natural heritages of the area.

As well as their own habanera, the children and musicians performed several other more traditional habeneras.

The setting, the weather and the performances added up to a magnificent occasion and all those present were extremely appreciative.

 

Andouin Gulls ringing

Ringing Audouin Gull chicks

On Monday 13 June, Peter Green, Ana and I joined a group of Parque employees and other  personnel at the Salinas in Torrevieja for the purpose of ringing the Audouin gull chicks.

The Audouin gull is a threatened species and the population at Torrevieja is extremely important both nationally and internationally.  Ringing of these birds allows scientific data related to these birds to be collected. Two rings are placed on each bird, a metal one which has a unique number,this is registered internationally so that if any bird is captured (or found dead) all data relating to that bird can be accessed. On the other leg a plastic ring with prominent black numbers and letters on a white background is placed. These codes can be read using binoculars etc so the birds do not need to be captured, this provides information regarding age, population movement etc.

We were split into teams consisting of one qualified bird ringer, a person in charge of the rings, a recorder and two people to find the chicks (that was Peter and I in our team).  Within two hours 200 birds had been found and rung. In addition our team found an adult gull injured by a fishing hook and a chick with a damaged wing, both these were taken for appropriate veterinary care.

All in all an enjoyable and useful morning's work.

                        Audouin Gull chick

             Audouin chick with rings

Santa Pola visit

Some of the volunteers of La Mata Natural Park recently made a visit to the Natural Park information centre at Santa Pola instead of our usual monthly meeting.  We had a most interesting talk about the exhibits and learnt a great deal about salt and its uses from Jose Ramon, who is the guide there.  We can now appreciate how valuable as a currency salt was, and still is since there are 14,000 uses for salt in all its various forms and it touches every aspect of our lives. We hope to make more excursions like this in the future.

Hooray!

We are back! Haven't been able to access our blog for months. Thanks to Stephen and Mr Google for bringing us back to life!