Good morning to you all,I have been very busy lately with friends out from UK including two young Grandchildren of a friend of mine.Now these boys are keen birders and wanted to see the migration.Unfortunately the weather has not helped their quest with strong easterlies prevailing up to and including gale force nine.Now this tends to spread the birds all over the Straits from Guadalmesi near Tarifa right to Barbate without any major concentrations.
However on Saturday last was at Punta Camorro(Traffico) and a few birds were coming through,Booted short toed eagles and black kites but this dried up and I saw that the bird s were now arriving at Guadalmesi.My two young friend and their family had not arrived so I diverted them to Guadalmesi where for a few hours we were able to see the inbound migration at low level with booted,short toed eagles black kites sparrowhawks,griffon vultures and black storks arriving in good numbers,much to the delight of the boys.
After lunch in Pelayo went back to same area but the birds had dried up with only a handfull coming through.
We decided to call it a day and made arrangements for an early start for the next day Sunday for a last trip to La Janda before the boys went home.We met at my house and went to the Benalup entrance and there saw white stork,cattle and little egrets,glossy ibis and common kestrels all within the first 200 m.The weather was cloudy and the wind had subsided a little but still was about force 5.We made our way gingerly along the now very potholed road and as we drove by a ditch Toby the elder of the two boys shouted stop.He had seen something in the ditch which turned out to be a little ringed plover.Oh for young eyes.As we went over the Celemin river bridge it was nice to see the housemartins had again taken up residence as they have done for more years than I wish to remember.We thought we would go along the dirt track to Facinas for a few K but we saw good numbers of birds of prey in the air over the Dehesa towards the farm so we turned round and as we did so Oliver the younger brother shouts out Egyptian vulture so we got out and had good view of a near adult Egyptian flying towards us.Now Oliver who is only 10 is also into photography and he produced some excelent shots of this probably 5CY bird.
So up to the dehesa and there were black kites,booted eagles and the ever present jackdaws everywhere.Toby was scouting the distant trees and shouted Imperial eagle and we all swung round to see this full adult Spanish Imperial eagle hunting low on the other side of the fields.Not only had Toby seen the bird, at thirteen, he had correctly identified it which is no mean feat at his age.
We waited in this area for some time in case it came closer but two cars driving across the fields put paid to any further sightings.Toby and Oliver could now go home that afternoon with the memories of a glorious morning on La Janda to dream about that night.Two very good birders indeed.
Yesterday I went with friends to Bonanza which although not in the Straits is often enjoyed by visiters to this area.We come to the river Guadalquiver via Trebujena and then travel south to the fish pools where we saw flamingoes,red crested and common pochards,avocets,common and green sandpipers,glossy ibises and many Iberian yellow wagtails.On to the pine woods at La Algaida where there were nesting black kites and white storks together with treecreepers,great tits and my first of this year Bonelli´s warblers.On to la Laguna de Tarelo where there were spoonbill,cattle and little egrets,squacco and night herons,white headed duck and common and red crested pochards.Two groups of mentally disabled children were at the Laguna, together with staff from the Andalusian environment dept,and were getting a first hand taste of birding and wildlife observations which was really nice to see.
Now onto the salinas at Bonanza where for the first kilometer no birds were present but as we reached the end of the track the birds were in the last two pools.Redshanks,dunlin,sanderling ringed plovers little stints,knot, and several hundred slender billed gulls feeding on the plankton.Flamingoes and avocets were also in abundance and a red kite was hunting over the nearby fields.A black kite was chasing a y/l gull which had a blue piece of plastic or something attached to it´s foot but it gave up after a few minutes.Going on tto the pool by the pump station little and gull billed terns were feeding together with dunlin and redshanks and a lone grey plover in non breeding plumage.Collared pratincoles had been seen here earlier but were not presnt at this moment.
After lunch on to Chipiona and the little swifts at the Fishing Port where they were,together with house martins, busy nest building.My photographic skills are not yet as advanced as to get decent photos.On the Sunday previous there had beena report of possible three red throated pipits on Los Lances beach in Tarifa and that they were still present.A life 1st bird for my friends and I so off we went and into the car park by the football stadium and onto the boardwalk where we met local birders who were trying to locate them.After a short time two small birds flew up from the dunes and with their call were identified as the pipits.Now the wind was such that you could hardly stand up and they soon went to ground again to give us a decent allbeit brief view of these very rare birds to the area.All in all a very good end to a long day in the field.Kind regards to all ....Eddy
