Twitching in Benidorm

the birds and the bees

You might not know that Benidorm Island, which you probably spend all day looking at when you're lounging on the beach, is a special zone for the protection of birds.

Naturalists are cock-a-hoop over the success of this sanctuary for sea birds and report that it is now the most important colony of nesting Storm Petrels on the Mediterranean coast of Spain with over 500 pairs demonstrating why we use the expression 'the birds and the bees.'

You'll have to keep your eyes peeled if you want to see any because they're the smallest European sea bird – about the same size as a House Martin – and have a bat-like flight, keeping low over the surface of the sea.

3 January 2008 Stephen White.