the August hot weather continues, so today I set off really early to collect Chris and Nathalie from their finca track at 6:15am. The sky was clear it was 17C and the stars above were absolutely stunning, I even saw a 'shooting star', a good omen perhaps?
Chris and Nathalie joined me for their second day out and they wished to visit La Janda to see some raptors. We set off in the dark and drove towards Casares, as we passed Sierra crestellina the headlights of the car caught the reflection in the eyes of an animal, I slowed the car and as we passed by we all saw a GENET, what a fantastic start to the day. This rarely seen nocturnal mammal is a a member of the cat family and it was the first time I have ever had a good look at a 'live' GENET!!! I was made up for the day before we had even left the car.
We arrived at La Janda at 8am, the weather was perfect, it is not often that La Janda is windless but today it was. We started with a couple of Common Buzzards perched on pylons and a Raven flew over, then we stopped to watch a flock of finches and a couple of Zitting Cisticola. We then found our first Black-winged Kite which was rather distant but it was perched on the electricity cables and we saw it well in the scope. A very close Monatgu's Harrier was next followed an hour of excellent birding when we saw hundreds of Glossy Ibis, White Stroks, cattle and Little Egrets.
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| La Janda central track - 8:30am this morning |
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| Juvenile Collared Pratincole - its nice to see that they have bred here |
As we approached the track to Benalup we found good numbers of Turtle Doves on the electricity cables and lots of Spanish Sparrows in the hedgerows. A couple of juvenile Woodchat Shrikes, lots of Stonechats, the odd Chiffchaff and huge numbers of Goldfinches were feeding in the Sunflower fields as the crop was being harvested. We also saw a couple of oddities, the first was a female Pintail which was associating with the local Mallards and then a flock of four Common Snipe were found. Both of these species are early winter visitors and shouldn't really be here now!
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| A sign of the times - the hunting season has just re-started |
Further along the track we found more of the same but we added Red-legged Partridge, Common Pheasant, Eurasian Jackdaw and a couple of Black Kites to our day list. A few more Monty's and Marsh Harriers and another Black-winged Kite completed our visit to the Benalup track, we then returned to central track of La Janda and drove towards the Vejer exit. We only added Short-toed Eagle to our list on this part of the trip, in fact, raptor sightings were very disappointing considering the time of the year and where we were!
Barbate Marshes was our next venue, they were covered in birds. Hundreds more Glossy Ibis were seen and a host of Black-winged Stilts joined them in the quagmire, in fact so did I as I slipped and landed with both feet in the mire! We found several more Green Sandpipers, another Common Snipe and four Wood Sandpipers. It was now getting up to 30C and a little too hot for birding so we set off for the coast for a relaxing lunch.
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| One of the pools at barbate Marshes - covered in Black-winged Stilts and Ibis |
Our first two stops for lunch proved a little fuitless as both Zahara and Bolonia were jam packed with tourists, so we headed back to Tarifa and stopped at a beach-side Hotel where we ate lunch on their terrace overlooking the sea, perfect.
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| Chris and Nathalie at the Mirador de Estrecho with Morocco and the Strait of Gibraltar behind them |
After lunch we made a brief stop at the Mirador de Estrecho which overlooks the Strait of Gibraltar, the sky was crystal clear and we could see Africa in fine detail, a few Griffon Vultures drifted over and headed towards Morocco.
We arrived back at Gaucin at 4:30pm after 8 hours in the field, all of us were a little hot and well pleased with day's outing.
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