Raptor and stork migration at Tarifa, 14th.-18th. of September 2019
The weather was unusual hot, with temperatures up to 30 C. Mostly calm, easterly winds; the Levante.
As for numbers of raptors and storks, I would say they were pretty normal based on my experience from the past years.
Hundreds of Black - and White Storks, good numbers of Black Kites, Short-toed Eagles and Booted Eagles. Further, there were still small groups of Egyptian Vultues and singles of Montague's Harriers.
Of the more rare raptors, we had both a juvenile Spanish Imperial Eagle and also a Black-winged/shouldered Kite around Tarifa. The latter is resident at La Janda, but it is rare to see them heading towards the Strait.What was a bit dissapointing, was the low numbers of migrating passerines. Very few hirundines, swifts and few migrants in the bushes.
The only smaller bird with some visible migration was flocks of 10-50 beeaters that appeared quite frequently.I also took a short trip up to La Janda one morning, but it was very quiet, dry and just underlined the impression of low number of birds, except for the migration storks and raptors.
Evevery morning I took a walk along the Los Lances beach. There were some Short-toed- and Calandra Larks and the plentyful Corn Buntings in the fields. On the beach there were the normal wader mix of Dunlins, Sanderlings, some Whimbrels and sandpipers.
As usual, there were a lot of birders around Tarifa. People from the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Swedes, Portuguese and of course many Spaniards.In addition to the birding, we had a good time, again renting the same apartment, top floor with marvellous view of the Atlantic and Africa. As the weather was hot, we did some swimming in the sea.
In Tarifa at this time of the year, the number of tourists is declining, so the most numerous group are the kiters. They seeem, however, to be mostly resident here. Whether december, february or september, they are always there.
The East coast of Spain suffered from lots of rain and floodings recently, but the southern part of Andalucia got little. So, it was dry as usual. Rain is really needed to increase the wetlands and green up the fields. More photos here:
Video here
