Birds and butterflies of the Marina Baixa

One of the questions I am often asked by walkers is what wildlife can they expect to see. To some extent this depends on the time of year and the time of day, most mammals are nocturnal and so you may see signs of their presence but not much more. So birds, reptiles and insects are much more apparent and a good place to start.  I have been compiling a bird list for the area around Tàrbena for some time, but have had on my wish list for some time the desire to extend this to the areas covered by the Marina Alta and Moorish Villages treks.

At last this wish has been fulfilled, thanks to trekkers Rachel Hicks and Rex Eckley who, in mid March compiled, the first bird and butterfly list for the Moorish Villages trek. There are a couple of question marks for sightings they could not verify, but this will provide the foundation for future observations and the compilation of comprehensive species lists, a truly valuable point of reference for wildlife spotting in the Marina Baixa area. As Rachel notes “We are not experts, just interested amateurs so some are just educated guesses.” These are the bird and butterfly species seen between March 15 and March 22, 2015:

Birds

• Blackbird;
• Blackcap;
• Black Redstart;
• Blue Rock Thrush (on slopes of Aitana);
• Chaffinch,
• Chiffchaff (or Willow Warbler)
• Chough,
• Coal Tit,
• Collared Dove,
• Cormorant,
• Crested Tit,
• Goldfinch, Great Tit,
• Grey Wagtail,
• Hoopoe (just as we reached Facheca),
• House Sparrow,
• Little Egret, Linnet (or Redpoll)
• Long-tailed Tit,
• Mallard,
• Moorhen,
• Peregrine,
• Pied Wagtail,
• Grey Redstart,
• Ring Ouzel (Aitana),
• Robin,
• Rock Dove,
• Sardinian Warbler,
• Siskin (probably Serin as well),
• Starling, Stonechat,
• Swallow,
• Tree-creeper (or short-toed tree-creeper)
• Wren.

Butterflies

• Blue of some sort;
• Brimstone;
• Fritillary of some sort
• Green Hairstreak;
• Green-veined white;
• Large White;
• Orange-tip;
• Painted Lady,
• Red Admiral;
• Small Tortoiseshell,
• Small White;
• Swallow-tail; 
• Humming-bird Hawkmoth.

Acknowledgements and thanks to Rachel Hicks and Rex Eckley. April 9, 2015.