Birdwatching in Straits of Gibraltar & La Janda (2 Viewers)

We needed Easterlies Alan but not gale force with the N African coast totally obscured by cloud. Several reports of Golden Orioles this evening one just a few hundred metres from our Hostal at 20.00hrs.

Did you get to the salinas at Barbate yesterday?

Stewart J. said:

We needed Easterlies Alan but not gale force with the N African coast totally obscured by cloud. Several reports of Golden Orioles this evening one just a few hundred metres from our Hostal at 20.00hrs.

Did you get to the salinas at Barbate yesterday?

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Yes. There was a big mixed flock of curlew sandpipers, ringed plovers and dunlin, with the odd sanderling wheeling about just past the entrance. Very spectacular.

I was photographing pratincoles at a range of about ten yards on and over the track. A worthwhile visit. The ibises had been there in the morning, but had left by the time I got there.

Regarding Orioles, they've been flicking about the eucalyptuses here the last couple of mornings. Not seen any this morning yet.

That wind that was so strong at the west end of the strait was just a light breeze at Pelayo, but the skies that were clear at Tarifa stayed heavy overcast all day at the west. I think the cloud was the problem yesterday more than the wind.

Sierra del Plata this afternoon found my first European Rock Buntings in the company of several other Brit birders, Egyptian Vulture pair put on a great show perching together good photo shots for those with telephoto lenses. Male is a 5 year old born in Cadiz province and fitted with a gps unit (original male killed by a wind turbine some years ago so hopefully they will breed)

Stewart J. said:

Sierra del Plata this afternoon found my first European Rock Buntings in the company of several other Brit birders, Egyptian Vulture pair put on a great show perching together good photo shots for those with telephoto lenses. Male is a 5 year old born in Cadiz province and fitted with a gps unit (original male killed by a wind turbine some years ago so hopefully they will breed)

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Saw that Rock Bunting there too yesterday. I did see this place mentioned for Rock Bunting in a Bonser report from more about 10 years ago.

Good passage of raptors yesterday apparently at lookout E of Tarifa. Unfortunately we only got to spend there about 30 mins in the afternoon in which we saw 50 Black Kite, 14 Honey Buzzard, 5 Booted Eagles, 5 Short-toed Eagles, 15 Griffons and 2 Sparrowhawks. A couple of birders had been watching there most of the day and had very good numbers coming through.

I found La Janda very disappointing but Barbate was good and we had a few good birds in/near Tarifa (incl 2 Lesser Crested Terns). Some very good sites further West though (Laguna de Medjorada, Brazo del Este, Bonanza, Sanlucar and Chipiona).
All in all a very nice short break.

Guadalmesi Cascabel, another heads up for anyone visiting. Parked at crossroads this morning and walked down road toward old camp thinking it was vehicles that military were objecting to. Wrong an army land rover turned up and very politely informed us is was private military land with no access whatsoever and we were to leave immediately.

So we returned to the crossroads where it is OK to park vehicles.

Stewart J. said:

Guadalmesi Cascabel, another heads up for anyone visiting. Parked at crossroads this morning and walked down road toward old camp thinking it was vehicles that military were objecting to. Wrong an army land rover turned up and very politely informed us is was private military land with no access whatsoever and we were to leave immediately.

So we returned to the crossroads where it is OK to park vehicles.

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It may depend on whereabouts you were on the road. Even when the camp was in use I understand that people regularly walked down the road to just short of the base where they then took a rough track (not drivable) to the left that skirted the camp and rejoined the main track on the far side of the base. Indeed, there is/was an 'official' footpath sign directing you along the track to Torre Guadalmesi (you can see it on Google Street View!). If you were on the section marked in red between the two gates then I'm not surprised, but if not then it would seem to mark a change in policy.

We were on what would have been the main road to the camp John used by snail and herb pickers walkers, birders and mountain bikers that we have seen for last 4 years on our visits. So there is obviously a policy change of sorts being carried out at present, we have parked at this camp and spent hours birding around it and never seen any military personnel or been challenged!

So something to be aware of for anyone visiting.

Stewart J. said:

We were on what would have been the main road to the camp John used by snail and herb pickers walkers, birders and mountain bikers that we have seen for last 4 years on our visits. So there is obviously a policy change of sorts being carried out at present, we have parked at this camp and spent hours birding around it and never seen any military personnel or been challenged!

So something to be aware of for anyone visiting.

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Thanks, Stewart. Like you I've walked the road & nearby over the years without problems. The only question is why they've suddenly cracked down ....

Although sunny and a cloudless sky it was a wild day in Tarifa today with Easterly gale force 9 winds and quite a sea running. This afternoon from a sheltered viewpoint on Sierra del Plata from 14.30 to 17.15hrs we had the following in off the sea. Honey Buzzard 93, Osprey 1, Booted Eagle 2 and Black Kite 2. Supried to see the birds undertaking their migration in such wild conditions. During same time frame several hundred Swifts passed through. Driving back to our Hostal at 19.00hrs 3 more low flying Honeys seen near Punta Palermo.

Stewart J. said:

Although sunny and a cloudless sky it was a wild day in Tarifa today with Easterly gale force 9 winds and quite a sea running. This afternoon from a sheltered viewpoint on Sierra del Plata from 14.30 to 17.15hrs we had the following in off the sea. Honey Buzzard 93, Osprey 1, Booted Eagle 2 and Black Kite 2. Supried to see the birds undertaking their migration in such wild conditions. During same time frame several hundred Swifts passed through. Driving back to our Hostal at 19.00hrs 3 more low flying Honeys seen near Punta Palermo.

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Thanks for that tip Stewart. I didn't even bother with the Strait today. When I saw the way the trees were tossing about here I thought it would be a no-hoper so I went north east instead to the Sierra de las Nieves south of Ronda. It was a nice day up there with light winds and clear skies. Black wheatears, Dartford warblers, woodlarks etc.

Tomorrow is forecast to be the last clear day this week and although it's going to be another strong levanter I was thinking of heading west of Tarifa in case any honeys made the trip and were driven west. Punta Paloma and Sierra de la Plata were on my places to check. You've given me hope. Were you watching from the swift cave layby or so where nearer Bolonia?

Wednesday is forecast cloud all day and although there will be less wind on Thursday and Friday they are forecasting heavy showers, thundery at times.

Hi Alan up on del Plata just past the top viewpoint there is a large doulder with graffiti on it (just past the swift cave) we reversed in there Desi and Jayne (van blanc) were there and had been all day. Nice and sheltered he got some stunning close ups of Honies

It is another gale force morning over here though sunny and cloudless

Stewart J. said:

Hi Alan up on del Plata just past the top viewpoint there is a large doulder with graffiti on it (just past the swift cave) we reversed in there Desi and Jayne (van blanc) were there and had been all day. Nice and sheltered he got some stunning close ups of Honies

It is another gale force morning over here though sunny and cloudless

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Thanks Stewart. I was out when you posted this so I missed it.

I went to Los Lances even though I knew it was a lost cause this morning and stayed just long enough to confirm that it was hard to walk, never mind fly in that wind.

I got to the swift cave just after 11.00 and at 11.09 I was rewarded with my first honey, just about overhead at close range, but already past. That was the first of 9 birds in the next 8 minutes, although the rest were further down the slope.

I moved back down the access road to various locations to try to get on a flight line with the birds on the right side of the sun with varying success. I think I got some good shots though.

The day's movement was mainly honeys with the odd few black kites. They mainly came in as singles, twos, threes or fours until mid afternoon when there was a mad spell. I looked out to sea over the big dune at 15.14 and there was a flock of 33 coming in. I got down the road in time to intercept some of them for photos. These followed a group of 14 half an hour earlier and another 18 came in less than ten minutes later.

Being mainly at low level I didn't see all the birds. Des came down after 16.00 and told me he'd seen 'several hundred' from the top, where he'd been all day.

These are my counts for the day:

11.00 to 12.00; 16
12.00 to 13.00; 6 (a group of 2 and a group of 4)
13.00 to 14.00; 9
14.00 to 15.00; 19 (3, 2 & 14)
15.00 to 16.00; 60 (including groups of 33, 8, two 4s and some odds and sods)
16.00 to 16.30; 11

Total 121 for the five and a half hours. A lot less than Des saw from the top, but I was trying for close views. It's also a lot less than a Norwegian birder I was talking to had at Punta Secreta in the last week of April last year. He had over 4,000 in a day. He comes out every spring and he was saying how poorly this year compares with the norm so far.

I would have expected high hundreds on good passage days last week rather than the dribs and drabs we got, with even larger numbers this week. Good to see its finally picking up though. Today's 121 is more than I saw in the 10 days preceding put together.

Just as I was getting back this evening the wind is showing signs of dropping fast.

Thanks for the update Alan pleased you had a good day. Wind lessened as we left Algerciras heading for Malaga as did sea conditions, calm and very hot here in Malaga. Good forecast for Northumberland this weekend supposed to be up to 20 degrees Sunday!

Stewart J. said:

Thanks for the update Alan pleased you had a good day. Wind lessened as we left Algerciras heading for Malaga as did sea conditions, calm and very hot here in Malaga. Good forecast for Northumberland this weekend supposed to be up to 20 degrees Sunday!

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You know what that wind was like yesterday, but at San Pedro when I turned off towards Ronda at ten am it was just about a force three to four. The funnel of the Strait has a lot to answer for.

The wind was still as strong as I left Bolonia at half past four today and the Strait was full of whitecaps from Tarifa to the Mirador de El Estrecho, but you could see the influence of the strait on the wind speed, because at Algeciras, while the wind was still almost as strong there as when I left in this morning, there were noticeably fewer whitecaps.

Saying that, by half past five the wind was dropping noticeably and by about seven it had gone. It's a calm night now.

Lighter winds forecast overnight and tomorrow.

Well, that was good.

I woke up to the forecast solid overcast, but there was hardly a breath of wind. Leaves not stirring at the cottage near Algeciras. The cloud looked high, so I popped out to look at the Strait. Good news. Not only was Jebel Musa on the Moroccan coast visible, but the Rif mountains inland were also clear. The cloud base was well above the height of the mountains both in Morocco and Spain, so despite the clouds, migration was on the cards.

Given that the winds were much lighter than the past couple of days I thought Punta Comorro was worth a try. The wind was a good bit stronger there, but still comfortable. After 20 minutes the only birds to come in were swifts and turtle doves. No raptors.

I noticed that although there were no whitecaps where I was, the strait from Tarifa Island westward was a mass of foam, so the weather must have been worse on the water, with stronger winds. With that in mind I headed back to Sierra de la Plata.

Good move. As I was arriving at the access road below the cliff at ten o'clock the sky had a crowd of low honey buzzards, 15 or 20 struggling in east from the sea in a wind that was about force 6. Trees tossing and the birds at times appearing to fly backwards as their forward speed was exceeded by the wind speed. What followed was a morning of intense migration activity. A constant stream of honey buzzards made their way in with only occasional spells of more than a couple of minutes when none were visible. I parked up beside one of the viewpoints next to the road and that was me for the next six hours.

Anybody who has been on a club trip to a brewery will have been shown round the bottling plant, where a conveyor of bottle after bottle passes under the filling nozzle. It would be an exaggeration to say that today's movement was just like that, but not much of one. I didn't count the birds this morning, there were too many of them and I was too busy, but it was at least the high hundreds, probably more.

Honey buzzards are unlike other raptors in several ways. One of them is that instead of waiting until mid morning when there are thermals to get going, they like to get out of bed and get going early. They are birds of the morning. I've stood by the side of a road in cork oak forest in September before dawn and had them flying out from their roosts, rising on the heat of the road and heading off before the sun was above the horizon. They were in Africa while the other raptors were still having their morning coffee.

About 1.15 it was as if a switch had been flipped and the steady movement was over. By coincidence I'd just started counting at one o'clock, so the midday lull is recorded. As so often this was follewed by a bit of a pick up in mid afternoon.

Figures for the afternoon were;

1300 - 1400..... 32, a sudden and marked reduction from the period immediately before that. 31 of the 32 were in the first 15 minutes. Between 12 and half past I was trying to eat my sandwiches and after every bite I had to stop to pick up the camera as another group arrived. The contrast was marked.

1400 - 1500..... 45, Steady throughout the hour, small groups of two to four or five.

1500 - 1600..... 70, more than half of them (44) between 1500 & 1530

At 1600 the wind suddenly dropped. The first sign was the sudden absence of whitecaps on the sea. All day it had been a mass of them, then the trees and even the bushes stopped blowing about. After 10 minutes there were no more birds. I looked east and saw the reason why. A steady stream was coming in off the sea over the Roman ruins at the bottom of the hill. There were over 60 in that flock alone, so over 200 birds in the 'quiet period' between 13.15 and 16.10. I left then as the cloud was thickening, but as I was driving past Tarifa bay I saw a couple of other honeys flying in from Los Lances.

It's finally kicking off with the honeys.

Other birds in off the sea today were two Egyptian vultures (one immature, one adult), one griffon vulture, a sparrowhawk and two marsh harriers, the latter being a species that has been singularly absent on this trip.

Nice one Alan we holidayed to early methinks, sorted for next year though Hostal already booked. Sierra del Plata certainly a good VP in a strong Levante with a very wide field of view.

Airport was chaotic even by Spanish standards this morning, Easy Jet would not allow check in earlier than 2 hours before departure and then only 3 desks open we queued for 30 minutes after being turned away for arriving early (sat in waiting area for 90 minutes) So much so by time we cleared security hardly time for a coffee and the quickest of shops. On the plus side Newcastle was sunny and warm at 16 deg C with only a light breeze. The weekend looks good as well forecast for 18 degrees

Appreciate the updates Alan

There was a good movement again this morning before wet weather moved in from the south east and choked the flow of birds from Morocco. It was the bottling plant conveyor again this morning at Punta Paloma, where I was on top of the big dune, but this was choked off at about half past eleven by the weather over the strait deteriorating.

More showery rain forecast for tomorrow, with sunny spells. Let's hope there is enough clear weather for the birds to see their way.

A strange day today. The forecast had been for light easterly, swinging west later, with heavy cloud, showers and sunny spells.

As it was I woke up to a light southerly with heavy, but clearing cloud. Any rain overnight had gone. I checked out Punta Comorro first, but there was nothing to see. That's when I noticed that what wind there was was backing west, but it was negligible. The sea was calm and it was so quiet I could here the throb of the engines of the ships that were passing westwards a mile or two out.

Given the lack of action and the westerly breeze I went to Punta Carnero, where I was rewarded shortly after ten by four or five single honey buzzards, a few black kites and three booted eagles coming in. And that was it. The sun got out and stayed out all day on the Spanish coast, but heavy cloud and showers hung about the Moroccan side until early afternoon. This, combined with a line of squally showers that streamed through the centre line of the strait apparently dissuaded the birds on the Moroccan side from setting off.

I met a couple of Spanish birders who had come down from Cadiz and they told me of their good fortune this morning on the open scrubby ground between the Los Barrios north junction and the turn-off to the waste tip. They had a roller there and to add to the enjoyment there was a rufous bush robin at the same location. I went looking for them around two o'clock but there was no sign of either.

Back at Punta Carnera at 3pm both sides of the strait were bathed in sunlight, the wind was still relatively light and a handful of honey buzzards and a couple of booted eagles were all that came in before I called it a day at 4.45.

There was vulture action on the curve by the bridge over the small stream at the south end of Getares where a group of about 30 griffons were feeding on a carcass just out of sight behind some bushes.

Well that's it. All done. Jetting off to good old Blighty in the morning. Time to pack.

There was vulture action on the curve by the bridge over the small stream at the south end of Getares where a group of about 30 griffons were feeding on a carcass just out of sight behind some bushes.


If anyone is interested this is presumably a large bovine carcass on the south side of the Arroyo del Lobo.
Park near the block of flats and walk south across the bridge. Go through the hole in the fence on the right and turn left to follow an ill-defined track which goes up the very steep slope immediately opposite the bridge. After about 70 metres you reach a flat grassy area and the carcass can be seen from the west edge of his area.
Good views of the carcass from about 100 metres. Unfortunately the weather forecast is not good.

A question regarding Rollers.
I have a property in Almeria Spain. 4 years ago within a few miles I would see dozens of rollers holding territory and breeding. Last year I saw one and this year in 3 weeks in late May and June I have seen none. I have checked all the usual breeding sites and many other suitable sites without success.
Does anyone know if there is a measurable decline in numbers crossing over at Gibraltar and if there are reduced numbers nesting elsewhere in Spain.

Thanks Karl