A NICE DAY OUT TO THE COAST - WITH A FEW 'FIRST' SIGHTINGS OF THE AUTUMN
1. COMMON CRANES
2. TREE PIPIT
3. SONG THRUSHES IN GOOD NUMBERS
Today I drove down to Gibraltar to collect John and Susan, we met at 8:30am and set off in good weather with a cloudy sky and light winds. We saw White Storks on their nest as we drove along the main A7 road near San Roque.
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| John & Sue at Cazalla observatory |
Our first stop was the mouth of the river Palmones, it was high tide which had just started to turn as we got there. The sandbar near the river mouth had its' usual array of species settled on it. We found Bar-tailed Godwit, Knot, Redshank, Grey Plover, Whimbrel, Oystercatcher, Sanderling, Dunlin, Curlew Sandpiper and Ringed Plover.
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| Bar-tailed Godwit |
There was also a nice group of Sandwich Terns and a single Little Tern sat with them. Amongst the Yellow-legged Gulls we found Black-headed and Mediterranean Gulls.
Out on the Marsh we could see a number of Grey Herons, White Storks and a couple of Eurasian Spoonbills which stood fast asleep with their bills tucked over their backs. An Osprey circled over the marsh before drifting out into the bay to fish, we saw it dive into the water a couple of times without success.
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| Grey Plover at Los Lances |
Next we drove through Algeciras towards Tarifa, the cloud thickened as we drove up over the hills and the wind picked up quite a lot. We noticed large groups of raptors in the valleys, none of them would attempt to cross to Africa with such a strong easterly wind. By the time we arrived at Cazalla the wind was quite fierce but we persevered. It was a waste of time as we never saw a single migrating raptor, but the views down to Tarifa and across to Morocco were superb.
We got blown into the hide at Los Lances beach and enjoyed a nice hour watching more shorebirds and gulls. the prize here was the beautiful Audouin's Gull, a lifer for John and Sue and always pleasing for me to see them. A couple of thousand Yellow-legged Gulls sat forlornly on the beach with a few Lesser-black-backed Gulls and a number of Sandwich Terns. Large numbers of Sanderling fed alongside Grey Plover, Bar-tailed Godwits, Dunlin, Curlew Sandpipers and Ringed Plover. The regular juvenile Greater Flamingo fed in the pools, it looked as though it was trying to bury its head in the sand - not a bad idea in this weather.
Out in the fields behind the beach we saw a Pipit which on further inspection was a Tree Pipit not a Meadow Pipit as we assumed, we also found Crested Larks, Corn Buntings, Spotless Starlings and Stonechats. A good number of hirundines flew over and the flocks included Red-rumped Swallows, Barn Swallows and House Martins. As we got back to the car we watched some Yellow Wagtails with White Wagtails amongst the herd of cows.
Higher up in the sky we saw Black Kites and Short-toed Eagles, looking in the direction of the Ojen Valley we could see a good number of raptors in the sky and so that is where we went next. We were now out of the wind as we parked a few kilometers inland. After half an hour of sky watching we had seen over 100 raptors, Short-toed Eagles (20+), Booted Eagles (20+), Griffon Vulture (50+), Egyptian Vulture (1), peregrine Falcon (1), Eurasian Sparrowhawk (2) and a Common Kestrel. There was also a single Black Stork up with them. A short walk produced our target butterfly - the Monarch - we also heard Blackcap and Cetti's Warbler singing. After eating our lunch we drove to La Janda where we spent the rest of the afternoon.
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| Monarch Buttery in the Ojen Valley |
It was windy again at La Janda so getting out of the car was a nuisance and made scoping quite difficult. So from the car we saw Green Sandpiper, Zitting Cisticola, Marsh harrier, Cattle & Little Egrets and lots of White Storks. As we watched our second Black Stork of the day we noticed a flock of 8 COMMON CRANES, this was my first sighting of the autumn and a sure sign that winter is on it's way!
Further along the central track we found a couple of pools full of water but not too many birds, a flock of Spanish Sparrows was nice, we also found 40 Common Coots, 100+ Glossy Ibis, Black-winged Stilts, Common Snipe, a single Wood Sandpiper and a few Corn Buntings. On one of the earth banks which borders the rice fields we found Northern Lapwing and a few Ruff, more Marsh Harrier appearances put up most of the birds but they settled time and time again.
We drove over to the back of the area and onto the Benalup track, along the way we stopped to watch Common Pheasant, Red-legged Partridge and small flocks of Linnets.
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| An Ocellated Lizard seen on the Benalup track |
After driving through Benalup and round to Vejer we stopped for a quick cup of coffee before making our last birding stop which was at the golf comples of Montenmedio. Alas we couldn't find the Bald Ibis we went for and came out with a large flock of Jacdaws on our list and not much else.
We called it day and drove back to Gibraltar where I left John and Sue to walk across the border whilst I drove home. A Raven flew across the A7 at Soto Grande and was the last bird on the list.
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