[Animals] The rarest birds observed in Spain

[Noticias ALEJANDRO]

 

In Spain, an average of 80 species of birds are seen each year, considered rarities because they are in a place where they do not belong. They arrive from America, Asia, Africa or northern Europe, confused by taking a wrong path in migration or caught in a storm with winds that propel them towards an unknown destination. Many die in the attempt, but some manage to reach land, sometimes on board ships where they rest to rest or to escape a storm, as is suspected to have happened to the two snowy owls that appeared in Asturias two weekends ago , arrived from North America. The couple has not been seen for days. But it does not matter. Fans of bird watching, who chase winged rarities, continue in Cabo Peñas (Asturias), at the foot of the cliff so as not to miss what they consider the most unusual appearance of a bird that has been recorded in Spain.

Uca Díaz, a neighbor of Santander, is part of that aviary legion. She has already seen the owls, but she keeps getting closer to shore when she drops her daughter off at school. "For a snowy owl, which should be coming down from Canada to Boston or New York and is in Asturias, it is worth driving two hours," explains by phone the 46-year-old naturalist, who became fond of birds 20 years ago, when she thought that only pigeons and sparrows existed. Then came her passion. "I will never forget that time when my daughter and I were in the car, raining, she sitting on the potty and I filming an ibis lark, an African rarity," she recalls.

 

 

These specimens are “putting in many hours”, confirms Gonzalo Pardo de Santayana, secretary of the Rarity Committee of the ornithological NGO SEO / BirdLife. Cabo Peñas is one of the key points, because it is a place through which many of the species that come from the sea pass. "You have to know that October is the month in which more rare birds can enter that area and you have to go every day," he explains. “There is always the incentive to find you a megarareza. That keeps you coming back again and again, ”he describes.

Among the most spectacular encounters, Pardo highlights a fine-billed albatross that was seen last year at Cape Estaca de Bares (A Coruña), the northernmost point of Spain and the best place to watch the migration. "It could have moved about 5,000 kilometers from where it should have been, but we don't know how far it went, because it is one of the largest birds in the world [2.30 meters] and they fly a lot," he explains. They breed in the southern hemisphere and can travel hundreds of miles to feed their young. Pardo points out that "it is possible" that a week later the bird returned to the area to which it belongs. "It could be associated with a group of gannets or another species that moves between the two hemispheres and thus change the migration route," he adds.

 

 

https://elpais.com/clima-y-medio-ambiente/2021-11-29/las-aves-mas-raras-observadas-en-espana.html