The good weather continues and the birds just keep on coming, we topped the 150 mark for the week and had a great day at the coast near Tarifa, it was sunny all day with very little wind, top temp was 38C.
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| Cattle Egret - well its an egret near the cattle so it must be! |
We set off at 7:45am in the dark and headed for the coast, on the way we saw 37 Griffon Vulture over Sierra Crestellina, Casares and there we also saw a group of 6 Red-billed Chough. The winds were in the wrong direction for a good passage and this together with a cloud covering over the Strait of Gibraltar did not bode well for a large raptor passage. All we saw were a few distant Griffon Vultures as we spent 30 minutes at Cazalla raptor watch point.
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| Some of the bunch at the the Mirador de Estrecho - tarifa you can just see Africa in the back ground |
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| Lunch time again! |
We then drove down to the beach and visited Los Lances where we found a good selection of waders and gulls. On the shoreline we found Kentish Plover, Ringed Plover, Black-winged Stilt, Dunlin, Sanderling and a Ruddy Turnstone. The gull flock consisted of Lesser Black-backed, Yellow Legged, Audouin's and Black Headed. A few Sandwich Terns fed just off-shore and in the distance we found Northern Gannet and Balearic Shearwaters.
Above us we saw several Black Kites, lots of Short-toed Eagles, Booted Eagle, Egyptian Vultures and a few Sparrowhawks.
Our visit to La Janda was as good as expected we found a great variety of species, we drove through the central track and onto the track to Benalup. We found many White Storks, Glossy Ibis, Hen Harrier (fem. adult), Marsh Harrier and Montagu's Harrier, all were seen in the vast complex of rice fields and drainage ditches. A nice find was a Black-winged Kite (Ist summer) which perched nicely on top of a pylon.
Along the main drain we saw Black-crowned Night Heron, Zitting Cisticola, Common Kingfisher, Green Sandpiper and a flock of Spanish Sparrows. We then turned onto the track to Benalup where we stopped for lunch, w ate our picnic at the back of the bus in the shade of a tree, it was now 30C. During lunch we watched Red-legged Partridge, Common Pheasant and Jackdaw.
We visited a small pool near benalup where we found a good variety of species. Common Snipe fed out in the open as did Green Sandpiper, Common Ringed Plover, Black-winged Stilts and our first lapwing of the autumn.
We drove back the way we had come but this time we stopped to look over a freshly mowed field where a flock of some 50 Yellow Wagtails fed, in the distance we could see about 200 Cattle Egret, a couple of Marsh Harriers and a single Black-winged kite hunted nearby. There were 19 Lesser Kestrels also feeding over the field, all in all it was quite a nice spectacle in the afternoon light.
After a short break when we took coffee in a Venta just below the village of Vejer we set off for the Sewerage works - AKA - Barbate Marshes. The smell faded as our noses got used to it and the marsh was covered in birds. Glossy Ibis numbered in the hundreds as did Black-winged Stilts. We slowly started picking out the waders which included: Common, Green and Wood Sandpipers, Common Snipe, Ringed Plover, Redshank and a nice surprise was a Spotted Redshank.
It was now getting late so set off for the long journey back to the village arriving at 7pm - after a quick wash and brush up we ate one of Dawn's delicious dinners at 8pm.
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