Historians pretty much agreed that the palms in the Palmeral of Elche, just west of Alicante, were planted by the Moors during their long occupation of Iberia. Recent archeological evidence, however, coupled with DNA from the palms indicate that the first trees more likely were planted by Phoenicians some 2000 years ago. How's that for forensic botany?
White-headed duck
We had another mission in Elche besides visiting the World Heritage site. The nearby wetland park, Fondo (or Hondo, depending on the map) is the breeding site of the marbled duck or marbled teal (Marmaronetta angustirostris), one of Connie's target species. With explicit directions and a remarkably good hand-drawn map from Ismail at the Fondo visitor center, we located both the site - and the duck! Connie made a positive ID but I couldn't get a photo. I did manage to capture the white-faced duck (Oxyura leucocephala), a rare visitor from North Africa and another "lifer" for us. Connie's count, 3038, puts her at #301 on the surfbirds.com world life list. Watch out, Phoebe!
