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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Barred Wobbler" data-source="post: 1497197" data-attributes="member: 69394">On the subject of raptors in Andalucia, I thought you might be interested in some events from my recent trip to Almeria, probably the worst area in Spain for raptors, but one with other attractions which make it a great place.It's my second visit to the area, the earlier one being in the summer of 2006, when I seem to recall my total raptor count came to something like some kestrels and one, maybe two short-toed eagles.This time I had more raptors; a couple of young golden eagles in two locations in Sierra de Maria, a pair of Bonelli's eagles in the western Sierra Amhamilla, more kestrels, lesser kestrel at Sierra de Cabo de Gata, more short-toed eagles and a couple of surprises, which are the reason for this posting.On 12th May we were driving on the E15 motorway eastbound near Almeria city when a pair of black kites passed low overhead. I realised that they were uncommon in the area. This was confirmed by reading Andy Paterson's blog "Birding the Costas" when I got back to the UK and seeing that contibutors to the blog reported one the following day on their visit to Cabo de Gata (when they also saw a great bustard at Salinas de Cabo de Gata - maddeningly because I was there the same day as they saw it, possibly at the same time as they were there!).  This wasn't all though. A few days later on 18th May I was driving up to Tabernas at about 8am when I saw another black kite perched on a roadside fence near the 500km marker on the N344 near Sorbas. Amazingly there was a gateway just over the road from it that I could pull the car into and I snatched a few shots from the car. (photo below).The biggest surprise of the trip occurred a couple of days later on 20th May. I went up the road from Retamar to Cuevas de los Ubedas when I saw three large birds rising together low over the ridge before the village. A quick check with the bins confirmed my initial feeling that the front bird was another short-toed eagle. The middle bird I dismissed straight away as a raven because of the head and tail which projected well in front and behind the wings, giving a cross-shaped outline. I hardly gave it a glance, because it was the third bird I was interested in, the only booted eagle of the trip. I reached for the camera and fired off a few record shots, unfortunately of the wrong bird, because while I was getting the camera the second and third birds changed places, so I got some awful, crap distant shots of my "raven".The birds separated and after a few moments all I saw was the STE as the other two drifted off below the ridge-line.I went further on and parked by the ruins before Ubedas and walked a mile or so up the track on the right that follows a ridge overlooking the village - spectacular views, but not much to be seen in the way of birds so after about half an hour I turned back.This decision was inspired. As I turned round I saw a largish raptor flying directly towards me at eye level. My first thought was booted eagle, but a glimpse though the bins showed how wrong I was. No landing lights on honey buzzards!Fortunately this time I had my camera ready and I could fire off a shot as it passed by at close range and a few more as it gained height just feet overhead.Apart from the rufous bushchat (I know they are supposed to be bush robins, but bushchat sounds better) that I'd found a few days earlier at Rambla de Morales, this was the bird of the trip. According to the stuff I've seen, they don't exist here because their migration route through Gib takes them west and north of the Sierra Nevada, bypassing the treeless deserts of Almeria. (I've seen them at this time of year before on my spring trips to Catalonia as they pass through).This got me wondering about my "raven" so I checked the shots I'd taken half an hour earlier and sure enough, my "raven" was another honey buzzard (seperate ID confirmed at home, comparing underwing pattern). The moral of this - don't be too quick to dismiss a badly-seen bird!I was delighted, paricularly with the "close encounter" and my delight hadn't worn off a few hours later when I was on the east coast at Las Escullos north of San Jose.I had been gazing fruitlessly through binoculars at an empty ocean and glanced northwards along the shore to see if there was anything coming along the water's edge. My eye was taken by a flock of about a dozen darkish birds rising on a thermal over the shoreline and drifting inland. Black kites? No. Dark backs, but paler undersides, carpal patches, barring under the wings - this was unbelievable - more honey buzzards. Unfortunately by the time I'd run back to the car to get my scope, they'd drifted inland, out of sight behind a ridge, so I had to make do with bad views and no photos.Thinking back, both of my HBs in the morning (about 9.00 to 9.30 local time) had been flying north, away from the sea which was in sight only a few miles away to the south, and the group that I saw in the afternoon at about 2pm were coming ashore on what by then was a strengthening easterly breeze. Could these birds have been not strays from the Gibraltar route, but strays from the opposite direction? Could they be birds that had been migrating on the central path through Italy and been blown westwards? I guess I'll never know, but they were certainly the surprise of the trip.</blockquote>

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