Our final full day began at 8:30am as we left Gaucin for the coast, we were joined by Paul who lives in the village. The weather looked promising, whilst it was dull and overcast in the mountains it looked bright and sunny at the coast.
Our first stop was at the railway bridge near San Martin where a small colony of Lesser Kestrel usually breed. They showed very well, we saw saw about a dozen birds there, other species in the area were: White Stork, Jackdaw, Blackcap, Griffon Vulture and Cattle Egret.
Next we stopped at the Hotel Castellar to look into the sand quarry that sits behind the hotel, we were looking for Bee-eaters, at least 50 pairs breed there but we saw about six individuals, they obviously haven't got back from Africa yet. Several raptors were soaring high up in the sky they included: Black Kite, Booted Eagle, Marsh Harrier and Common Kestrel. We passed through San Roque where we saw about 50 White Stork's nests, many had sitting birds.
The good weather approached as we arrived at the coast, but it was very windy as we got out of the car at the Los Lances Beach in Tarifa. Despite the windy conditions we saw several new species, there were many Short-toed Larks on the short turf with Meadow Pipits, Crested Larks and Yellow Wagtails. We also saw Northern Wheatears, my first in Spain this year, as well as Corn Buntings, Stonechat, Zitting Cisticola and Spotless Starlings in the same area.
BEAUTY AND ELEGANCE ON STILTS!On the beach we found Kentish Plover, Grey Plover, Sanderling, lots of Sandwich Terns, Meduterraneasn Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Audouin's Gull and a solitary Little Tern.
Off shore there many more Little Terns and a few Balearic Shearwaters.
We reached la Janda late morning and our first sightings included: Corn Bunting, Goldfinches, Linnets, Greenfinches and many White Storks, Griffon Vultures and Black Kites in the air. As we drove the central track we saw Purple Swamphen, Cetti's Warbler (heard), Calandra Lark (distant), Mantagu's Harrier, Marsh Harrier and plenty of White Storks. We saw a single Eurasian Spoonbill in a ditch and as we asyte our picnic lunch we located a Black-crowned Night Heron. One highlight was the sighting of a Balck-winged Kite perched in a bush, we approached quietly and Paul amanged a few photographs.
We follwe the Benalup track over the hill passed the farm and into the olive groves where we looked for Great-spotted Cuckoo, we found their 'victims', the Eurasian Magpie, but not the cuckoo. At onbe point we flushed five Short-eared Owls from a thicket, is was quite a surprise as hadn't anticipated their presence! The sky was full of raptors: we added Common Buzzard to our list as they joined Griffon Vultures and many Black kites on the thermals. It was now very hot so we decided to go back to the coast to the marshes at barbate, we drove back along the dirt track to the main road avoid the many Common Pheasants and Red-legged Partridges that ventured onto the track.
The marshes were full of birds but not many species, there must have been over 200 Common Moorhens!! Also many Black-winged Stilts, twenbty or so Glossy Ibis, lots of Mallards and Common Coots. The few waders present were: Wood Sandpiper (2), Ruff (1) and a distant Green Sandpiper.
BARBATE MARSHESDriving round to Barbate we took the coast road to Zahara and it was along there that we drove passed a small group of 'Ibis', a quick shout from the back of the car had us turning around to view the birds.They were indeed, Bald Ibis, a party of the re-introduction programme, all the birds were 'ringed' and appeared quite tame. A Little further along the road we saw a large flock of them flying over the road, there must have been 30 birds, the programme is proving successful as the produced young birds last year for the first time!
ITS NO WONDER THAT THE BALD IBIS IS ONE OF THE RAREST BIRDS IN THE WORLD - THEY ARE SO UGLY THAT THEY CAN'T BEAR TO MATE!!After a short stop for coffee at the Mirador over the Strait of Gibraltar we set off for Gaucin arriving at 7pm just in time for a delicious Mousaka dinner with chocolate brownies for sweet. yum, yum!
That was the last of the birding for Steve and Sue, they elected to have the final morning 'off' so they could explore the village before setting off to Malaga to catch their cruise ship for a med cruise, its alright for some!
We listed 125 species and heard 4 more, this figure would have been higher had it not been for the inclement weather on days 2 and 3! Steve voted Woodchat Shrike as his bird of the week whilst Susan (a non-birder) liked the White Storks on their nests and the Collared Pratincole that she found on day 1 at Guadlahorce.
No comments:
Post a Comment