3 September. Gibraltar, Tarifa & La Janda.
Having lucked out with Two-tailed Pasha the day before, thought I would try again this day by crossing the border into Gibraltar to visit the botanical gardens, another site supposedly good for them. With the border between this British territory and Spain infamous for endless delays, magically getting worse when political tensions rise, I had considered leaving the car in Spain and walking across, but in the event opted for a sunrise crossing, hoping no normal folk would have the same ideas on a Sunday morning ...and indeed they didn't, the entire birder crossing took all of two minutes!
The botanical gardens, on the western flanks of the rock, are shaded till about 10 a.m., so went down to Europa Point for a while (nothing seen), then parked near the gardens and strolled around to get my bearings. As the sun edged over the rock, some butterfly activity – Small Whites here and there, a bunch of Lang's Short-tailed Blues on small flowers near the entrance. And then amongst them, something rather better, two very nice Geranium Bronzes, cracking little butterflies, even if they shouldn't really be in Europe – accidentally introduced onto the Balearic Islands in the late 1980's from South Africa, they have since spread across Spain, southern France and even to the Canary Islands. Little crackers however.
As the sun finally broke over the rock, I positioned myself in a central area of the park, stuck out a few rotting apples as potential bait and waited. For not very many minutes … suddenly a couple of very impressive Two-tailed Pashas were gliding back and fro, settling on trunks to take in the sun. And then there were four! Highly mobile and generally landing at height, they were stunners nonetheless. Totally ignored my apple baits, but then I noticed they were attracted by a few rotting apples still hanging in a nearby tree. Bit high for photographs, but I did get a few shots. Nearby, a number of Monarchs gathered around a Milkweed bush, while a couple of Speckled Woods found my apples. Had thoughts of lingering a while till they dropped down to my positioned apples, but a cap of cloud had stubbornly fixed itself to the top of Gibraltar Rock, cutting much of the sun to the garden and lowering activity. but the Two-tailed Pashas generally became fairly inactive, bar one doing a short flight to land on my face!
A few flocks of Booted Eagles drifting over, Barbary Apes visible high on the rock, but with blue skies stretching for kilometres in all directions, I decided it was time to move on, crossing the border back into Spain and thereafter to the Tarifa area.
With light easterlies, high temperature, clear skies and views across to Morocco, conditions were perfect for mass raptor movements across the Strait of Gibraltar, all the more so as weather fronts in northern Spain had cleared that had been blocking significant filtering down of species in preceding days. Joining 20 or 30 observers at the Cazalla migration point, the skies above were a picture indeed – swirling kettles of Black Kites to either side, a mass stream of Honey Buzzards streaming south and a healthy dose of Booted Eagles and Short-tailed Eagles too, one Osprey low overhead. And that is exactly how it remained the entire day, an absolute non-stop treat of at least 2000 Honey Buzzards and similar numbers of Black Kites, along with hundreds of Booted Eagles and Short-toed Eagles and many dozens of Egyptian Vultures. Equally remarkable, truly a sight for sore eyes, thousands of White Storks – appearing in mass flocks from early afternoon, each would thermal over the beachline, a glittering show of blacks and whites, continually gradually edging east before streaming out over the sea to make the crossing to Africa. Perhaps 3500 during the afternoon, all but the last few flocks heading out to sea, the last 500 or so bottling out and heading off west to presumably try on a later day. A few Black Storks too, about 18 in all, and hugging the ridges, a steady procession of Montagu's and Marsh Harriers, a dozen or so of the first, including a rather spectacular melanistic individual, and perhaps 20 of the latter. With quite a number of Sparrowhawks and Lesser Kestrels, and frequent Bee-eaters, it really was quite a remarkable day! And for the crowning glory, a juvenile Spanish Imperial Eagle had the good grace to put in an appearance, certainly adding spice as it plummeted landward into the valley beneath us, presumably an eye on a hapless rabbit or something. A Swallowtail drifting by certainly played second fiddle!
About 6.30 pm, with no real let up in the stream of Honey Buzzards passing over, I decided to call it a day and head over to the legendary La Janda, a site famous for wetland birds and raptors. Wasn't here for birds though – my target was Zeller's Skipper, a very localised butterfly that is easiest to find in its final generation of the year, September to October. Only rediscovered in Spain in 2001 after decades of being lost, or overlooked, it is now known to occur in several pockets in the extreme south of Spain.
I didn't have any exact spots, but given the extremely dry and parched landscape, almost totally devoid of greenery beyond the rice paddies, let alone flowers, it seemed all I had to do was find some suitable nectar plants and then hopefully the butterflies. Stacks of White Storks here, plus a single Marbled Teal and a freshly crashed aeroplane (!), but precious little in the way of flowers. After a bit, however, I did find a line of small flowering shrubs along a main drainage ditch ...and there, as hoped, a small colony of Zeller's Skippers! Exceptionally mobile and flitty, getting a photograph was challenging to say the least, almost always they zipped off as soon as I got anywhere near. Still, I got a few shots and also found a Long-tailed Blue to finish things off nicely. With three of my main butterflies seen this day (Geranium Bronze, Two-tailed Pasha and Zeller's Skipper), I was really celebrating the end of an excellent day.