Birds in Spain Blog

  En castellano, más abajo On 23 May 2017 an unusual Purple Heron ( Ardea purpurea ) was seen at Rambla de las Moreras ponds, Mazarrón, Murcia (Antonio Jesús Hernández). A flight shot was taken (see above).  The bird show ed at least 9-10 outer white primaries as well as some underwing coverts as well. The colour aberration is symmetric.  References on leucistic Grey Herons ( Ardea cinerea ) are not unfrequent but they appear to be scarcer in this species       Spanish Garza imperial leucística en Murcia.  El 23 de mayo de 2017 una garza imperial inusual fue observada en la Rambla de las Moreras, en Mazarrón, Murcia (ver mapa) (Antonio Jesús Hernández). Se obtuvo una foto en vuelo, que se incluye en este post. El ave mostraba al menos 9-10 primarias externas blancas así como al menos algunas infracobertoras alares. La aberración cromática era simétrica. Existen referencias diversas de garzas reales ( Ardea cinerea ) con diferentes patrones

Figure 1. Falco eleonorae. Individual in flight c.26 nautic miles off Llobregat delta, Barcelona, Catalunya, 6 July 2017 (Ricard Gutiérrez)   On 6th July 2017 , 16:32 hours, Spanish time, an Eleonora's Falcon ( Falco eleonorae ) was seen in active flight c. 26 nautic miles SSE of Llobregat Delta, Barcelona at UTM ETRS89 coordinates 31T zone, x=423444, y=4521012. The bird was seen from MV Sicilia, a Balearia company vessel. Sicilia is a ferry connecting Eivissa island and Barcelona and the falcon was seen during a regular survey of endangered vertebrates (seabirds, cetaceans, turtles) conducted by the Catalan SeaLife Rescue Network ( @FaunaMarinaCat ). Photographed and identified by the author, the bird was flying at low level, c.20-30 meters over the sea level (force 1 wind in that moment). It was apparently flying towards NW Mallorca (figure 2), at a further 66 nautic miles. The record was introduced in the ornitho.cat database where recordings of the species in C