Kevin and Pat came out with me for their second outing, we decided to head for the coast to look for migrating raptors. Big Mistake! Whilst it was a lovely bright, calm morning in Gaucin it was blowing a gale in Tarifa!!! We stopped at Jimena to look over the meadows and hills to look for migrants but only found Griffon Vultures.
At Palmones the river mouth was very quiet despite a low tide. We found only a few Redshank,Greenshank, Whimbrel, Ringed and Little Ringed Plover, GreyPlover, Dunlin, Oystercatcher, Sanderling and Kentish Plover. At Tarifa we visited Los Lances beach and nearly got blown away! We only saw 3 Sanderling and 2 Kentish Plover on the beach and a single Northern Wheatear on the grass. A few Black Kites braved the crossing but nothing else.
At La Janda the wind was just as bad with very few species on show. White Stork, Yellow Wagtail, Grey Heron, Marsh Harrier,Montagu's Harrier, Booted Eagle and the odd Short-toed Eagle flew over.We also found Collared Pratincole (5)and a Long Legged Buzzard was a great find and a first for Spain for me! A distant juvenile Spanish Imperial Eagle cheered us up and large groups of Bee-eaters flew over several times during our visit. We drove back towards Facinas on a wide track where we found Lesser Kestrels, Corn Buntings, Calandra Larks, Hoopoe, more Bee-eaters and as soon as we returned to Algeciras the wind abated. We returned to Gaucin blown away from the coast by the weather!
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