Have you ever stopped somewhere, for no particular reason, and had a brilliant time?

[Reader]

A long title I know but it expressed something that happened to us when we were in Spain the other week.

There is a track near to Fascinas (part of La Janda-north of Tarifa) that we have used in the past. This time we ventured further and came to a spot where a dip was in the road and an area that had seen water in the past. We decided to stay there and have a bite to eat.

Straight away I noticed the amount of Chiffchaffs there. There seemed to be dozens and most of them were close by. Quite a few doing an imitation of a Spotted Flycatcher as they shot up for passing insects. Some were obviously Iberian Chiffchaffs). Fan tailed Warblers were quite confiding and it was unusual to watch them just walking about and not zip zipping all over the place.

We settled back to eat our sandwiches and as we did quite a few Griffons came into view, them more and more until we could count well over 150+ circling around us about 100-150' above us. As they drifted away more came into view then a suprising sight greeted us when a Short toed Eagle made an appearance. I would have thought that they might have not been around at this time. More suprises came our way when a pair of Honey Buzzards drifted less than 50' above our heads and caught the thermals and spiralled higher and higher before drifting off towards the African continent. That was one bird I would have expected to have gone.

Even more suprises came our way in the shape of 2 Black Storks slowly drifting over us before catching the same thermals as the Honey buzzards then the glorious sight of a Golden Eagle drifting over us before turning and drifting back to the mountains it came from. More brilliant sightings were of a couple of Bonellie's Eagles, 3 Hen Harrier's (one a gorgeous grey adult in pin perfect condition) and lastly approximately 10 Calandra Larks, 2 of which flew so low they seemed to skim over the cars roof.

This was on Nov 7th and it lasted for two glorious hours. Certainly a most fortuitous stop.

[Stephen Dunstan]

These may not be quite what you are driving at but here goes:

I once pulled over at a place called Claughton-on-Brock because my daughter had thrown up in the back of the car. As we stopped a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker landed in a tree next to the lay by, singing. It stayed a couple of minutes then flew off. It was a tick for me at the time.

I also remember an occasion when I had promised not to do any birding and my wife and I went to Pilling Lane Ends amenity area just to get some fresh air. The estuary wader counters were there. They were clearly excited about something. In the end I said to Jane that they must have something and could I go and ask. She dais yes, I did, they showed me an adult Long-tailed Skua in the scope. It is the only adult I have seen to this day.

Stephen.