Alicante Province, december-january, 2019-2020

Visit to our familiy home on Costa Blanca, with day trips to birding sites in the Alicante Province.

We have had our family home on Costa Blanca for about 35 years, but I have not done so much birding in this area as I have in Andalucia. It is a pity, as the Alicante Province has some excellent locations like El Hondo, Salinas de Santa Pola and also some of the mountain areas. 

I visited El Hondo a couple of times, including walking the Ruta Roja, which is open on saturday morning only. Further, I was at the Salinas de Santa Pola

both driving along the main road, however also visiting the Salinas de Pinet area on the southern part of the salinas. I also walked along the Rioa Algar in Altea a couple of times, walked in the Bernia mountains and a couple of visits at the Albir lighthouse. 

Some of the highlights of the trip:

• Red-knobbed Coots, Purple Gallinules/Western Swamphens and Greater Spotted Eagle at El Hondo
• Marbled Teals and loads of Red-crested Pochards and good numbers of wintering Bluethroats at El Hondo
• Alpine Accentor and Black Wheatears at Albir Lighthouse
• Little Bittern and Common Waxbills at Rio Algar
• Large numbers of Red-billed Choughs in the Berni mountains

Some of observations can be found on Ebird; 

Sierra Gelada/Faro del Albir:https://ebird.org/checklist/S63086494

Rio del Algar: https://ebird.org/checklist/S63048048

El Hondo: https://ebird.org/spain/checklist/S63001234

El Hondo,Ruta Roja: https://ebird.org/spain/checklist/S63000684

Sierra Bernia: https://ebird.org/checklist/S62960045

Salinas del Pinet: https://ebird.org/checklist/S62915543

El Hondo, Visitor center, first visit: https://ebird.org/checklist/S62369336

https://photos.app.goo.gl/RU8CNPMDPwPCsYw78

Strait of Gibraltar, september 2019

Raptor and stork migration at Tarifa, 14th.-18th. of September 2019

We had the annual september tour to watch the migration from Europe to Africa, at the most narrow stretch around Tarifa, Spain.

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

Videoclips from birdwatching in Andalucia

Tarifa 17th to 22nd of February 2019

Meeting spring in Southern Spain February 2019

We had five days in Tarifa, with day trips around in the Cadiz province. We rented the apartment of David Jensen for the second time. Being one of the southern most situated flats on the European mainland, it gives you perfect views of the Atlantic, Los Lances beach, Morocco and even the Mediterreanean. An obvious choice.

The weather was nice and warm, with however a prevailing, strong easterly wind; the Levante. First day, we had a day trip up to Medina Sidonia, then via Laguna Medina up to Jerez de la Frontera. We have never stopped in the sherry town before, so we decided to do that now. However, I would not say it gets on our top-10 list. It has rather few must-sees and looks a bit "worn". It is however the sherry-capital of Spain, so it could be visited just due to that.

The next day trip we had was about trekking in the Alcornocales; the large cork-oak area lying just inland from Tarifa. A natural park and in fact the biggest cork oak forest in Spain. We had studied the possible paths in advance and chose to drive through Alcala de los Gazules and up to the parking area which is the start if you would like to walk up to the El Picacho. We took the route up there, taking about 1,5 hours up and about 1 hour down again. Not very challenging but somewhat steep at the end. When up there, you have a fantastic view of the Alcornocales and the white villages- the pueblos blancos dotted around. 

As for the many pueblos blancos we have visited, I would not say that Alcala is among the top three. Vejer de la Frontera is in my mind the most interesting, followed by Arcos de la Frontera and Grazalema. 

As for birding this time, it was a bit hampered by the heavy easterly winds. It was still, however, migration going on with small numbers of swallows, Black Kites and some seabirds going north. The most spectacular was the constant stream of Cory's Shearwaters coming in from the Atlantic and flying into the Strait. At least over a thousand on one of the days.

What was very nice to experience was the comeabck at Laguna Medina. Formerly one of the absolute most intersting lakes in Spain, but for a decade or more, it has suffered from the introduced carp fish. Now, it was teaming with coots, ducks, grebes and gulls. We had lots of Shovelers, Coots, Gadwalls, White-headed Ducks, Red-crested Pochards and Pochards.

Finally, on th birding side, I had a pair of the local resident Bonelli's

Eagle, just along the track going from Punta Camorro and along the strait. It is really worth to walk here, also due to the rather unspoilt nature due to the fact that it was formerly a military area. Mentioned should also be the fact that the Bald Ibises are back on their breeding cliff at Barce de Vejer. I counted 20 birds there one of the days.

So this was the fourth trip in a 12 month periode. We will be back, but perhaps not before september for the autumn migration!

More photos here:

Cadiz Province december 2018

Tarifa and other parts of Cadiz Province 14th- 18th. of December 2018

I had my "annual" december trip to the Tarifa area to do some birding and avoid the x-mas planning at home. The weather was nice with temperatures from about 10C in the morning up to 18C during day time. I arrived late evening of the 14th and stayed at the Arte Vida hotel just outside Tarifa. It is located close to the Los Lances beach at low cost. So this is a good choice if cost matters. The next three nights I stayed at the Dos Mares hotel close to Arte Vida. Dos Mares is my favorite, but I really recommend the

View from my room at Dos Mares

bungalows at the first row with sea view. I have stayed many times there.

On the 15th I started at Los Lances beach, then drove up to La Janda, continued via Benalup up to Laguna Medina. From there i drove via Jerez to the lagunas along the Camino Colorado, up to the saltspans of Bonanza and last stop at Laguna Tarelo, before driving all the way back to tarifa.

Los Lances had the normal species on this time of the year, with Sanderlings, Dunlins, Common Ringed Plovers, Sandwich Terns and some

Audouins Gulls

Audouin's Gulls. At La Janda, the water levels had gone down lately, so birds were not so close to the main channel and gravel road as they can be. But again, you get impressed by the huge numbers of wintering Cranes and White Storks. A Bluethroat landed just in front of my car. In stead of driving through La Janda I returned back and headed to Benalup and the rice fields below the town. Many White Storks, Cranes and Glossy Ibises here also, and a big surprise for me was a wintering Gull-billed Tern. And a flock of 8 Purple Gallinules.

Eared Grebe, laguna Medina

Laguna Medina was a nice surprise with good numbers of ducks, grebes and coots. The laguna has suffered from introduced carps over the years, but now it seems to be restored. I had more than 50 Eared Grebes, the same amount of Little Grebes and over 100 White-headed Ducks! I then headed up to the Bonanza Salt-Pans, but as previous years I found it rather bird empty. Next stop was Laguna Tarelo. Also here about 10 White-headed Ducks, and also an unusual species; Tufted Duck. There were also several herons and egrets at the far side, at least 5 Black-Crowned Night Herons and 2-3 Squacco Herons. Next and last stop was the small lagoons in the small Camino Colorado. This is supposed to be a safe place for Marbled Duck, but I did not find them, so also here the White-headed Ducks were the stars. 

Barbate Marshes and Saltpans

On the 16th I stayed in the Tarifa area with some short trips up to La Janda and Barbate. At La Janda I had a couple of Black-winged Kites and up to 40 Griffon Vultures. The Barbate marshes were not full of birds, but at least a flock of 20 Audouins Gulls and I also counted 35 Eurasian Thick-knees. I also got a new Spain tick, as I had a Red-breasted Merganser there.

Laguna Grande, Guadalhorce

On the 17th I did much of the same route as the day before, wich made me add species like Lesser Short-toed Lark at Los Lances, Scopolis Shearwaters in the Strait and 2 Caspian Terns at Barbate. on The 18th it was time to start the drive back to Malaga and departure for Norway. However, I also planned for a couple of hours at the Desembocadura del Guadalhorce, which is the estuary just south of the airport. In fact, according to Ebird, this is the place in Andalucia with most species seen; 291 in total. I had 75 Shovelers, Pochards, 20 Shelducks, 15 Eared Grebes, a Booted Eagle, and several Monk Parakeets. To name some of them.

Booted Eagle

To sum it up. I had 112 species during these 4 days. I can really recommend to visit the Cadiz province for birding during winter. There are so many good sites hosting both resident and wintering birds and these sites are close so you do not need to waste time on to much driving. It is also off season so except for the kiters at Tarifa, you can have places for yourself.

Full species list here.

Tarifa and the Strait of Gibraltar September 2018

Short trip to Tarifa 19th-22nd of September 2018

Short-toed Eagle

We had the annual autumn trip to Tarifa for raptor and stork migration. The weather was unusual hot, with prevailing Levante, meaning warm easterly winds. At times the wind was very strong, which prevented migration for many raptors. In addition the typical haze that comes with the Levante made it impossible to see the Moroccan shore at times. 

The result is that you get a lot of raptors, especially Short-toed Eagles, congregating in the Tarifa area. At one time, I had almost a hundred Short-toeds soaring together without migrating. At times they get very low when coming in from the sea after having failed to cross the strait.

Short-toed Eagles can go very low over the terrain when coming in from
 the sea after an attempt to cross

The other raptor dominating the third week of September is the Booted Eagle. They can be seen everywhere. I counted hundreds every day, however many failed the crossing and came in again so double-counts is a real problem here.

In addition to the two dominating species, there were still numbers of Black Kites and Honey Buzzards, where the juveniles were most numerous among the latter. As for harriers, there were some Marsh Harriers and very few Montague's. Of them, I had one black morph. As for storks, there were only Black Storks migrating, where one flock of about 200 was impressive.

Juvenile Honey Buzzard

So where to locate yourself under the Levante? Well, the Cazalla watch point is where you get best overview, but birds tend to go high. So my advise is to drive down to the CIMA center (Fundacion Migres Center) close to the sea. Here you can have close encounters with the raptors both in autumn and in the spring. If you have westerlies, however, the Algarrobo watch point close to Algeciras is to prefer (horrible "road").

Birdwatching in Tarifa can be really hard...

We usually stay at a hotel when in Tarifa. This time we in stead rented an apartment close to the beach and the city center. This proved to be excellent. I could watch raptors in the air from the terrace and out on the sea shearwaters, gulls and terns could be watched at the same time. Given this, you can also enjoy the convenience in having refreshments nearby!

More pictures 

Huelva and Cadiz Provinces Easter 2018

Faro-Coto Donana-Tarifa round trip

As Faro is close to Coto Donana, we chose that airport rather than Malaga, which we always use when going to Andalucia. You will use about one hour to the Spanish border, and then you can start birding in the Huelva province straight away.

Our first stop was in El Rocio, the heart of Coto Donana. As I have been there several times before, it was quite easy to compare to previous trips. And the first impression was a rather full lagoon, with little birds. Of course, the usual stuff with flamingoes, White Storks, Glossy Ibises and Spoonbills. Of ducks, I noted Shovelers, Gadwalls and Teals.  But, it was few african migrants, meaning no warblers, pratincoles, marsh terns or Bee-eaters and few swallows and swifts. During the trip I spoke with a lot of people and all said the same thing. It is an extraordinary late spring. Some talk about a month late.

Anyway, after a night in El Rocio, we went up to Dehesa de Abajo. This is a really nice area. Perhaps a bit zoo-like, for some people, as the large populations of White Storks and Black kites breed so close and everywhere. But, that is the charm of this site. Further, the lagoon was full with water, and thus promising a good season for water birds. As it was rather windy, most of the water birds gathered on the opposite side, so identification was a bit difficult. We noted Red-crested Pochards rather close.

We then went down to Tarifa and spent three days there. As the whether had been rather poor for several weeks, I was expecting a massive migration over the Strait, since the whether now was improving. But that was not the case. Most probably, the constant north-western winds over a long periode would have halted the migration also well into Africa. Anyway, the raptor migration was going on all days. Staring a bit late, and continuing well into the evening. As the winds were mostly westerly, Punta Carnero was by far the best. Hundreds of Black Kites and Booted Eagles came in there. However also around Tarifa there was visible migration with White Storks, the occasional Black Stork, Booted Eagles, still some Short-toed and some 2-3 Montague's Harriers per days. One day up to 5 Egyptian Vultures also appeared. However, where were the hirundines, swifts and Bee-eaters?

Along Los Lances, I noted the first Northern Wheatear, Yellow Wagtails and Short-toed Larks. Also the usual masses of gulls including Audouins and Caspian Tern.

For the first time we also took a short trip to the rubbish dump at Los Barrios to look at the Black Kites and White Storks. Some say up to 2000 Black Kites have been spotted there at the same time. We had lots, but not that number...

On the detour we went back to Donana and stayed at a four star in Matalascanas. In Laguna Madre, I finally had about 15 Pratincoles, so at least some migrants were on the move. And as always, the Azure-winged Magpies in El Acebuche is worth a visit there.

At the last day, we visited an area I havent seen before, Isla Christina between Huelva and the border. The salt-pans there held the same birds as such areas everywhere; Avocets, Black-winged Stilts, Flamingoes and Slender-billed Gulls. In addition, there were some good flocks of waders, dominated by Dunlins and Common Ringed Plovers.

Some final words: Due to the whether conditions over Europe in March, a lot of rain has fallen in Southern Spain. This is very welcomed. Lagoons and marshes are quite full, and the same goes with the Embalsas. So even though the spring is late, the state of the wetlands of Andalucia gives hope for a good breeding season.

Birding Tarifa and the Cadiz Province, December 2017

Winter break in Southern Spain, 9th to 13th of December, 2018

I had a short break before Christmas, and what better to do than go to the Tarifa area, as so many times before. I stayed at the Hotel Dos Mares, also as many times before. The view from the front line bungalows there are simply stunning.

On Sunday the 10th, I had agreed with Yeray Seminario at Birding the strait to have a half day at La Janda to look for Spanish Imperial Eagle. And it was a success. We had at least three individuals, 2 adults and 1 immature. At the site for one of the adults, we also constantly had an immature Bonneli's Eagle in view. We also had three Black Storks, four Spoonbills, three Black-winged Kites, two Hen Harriers and some Red Kites. In La Janda, also about 500 Cranes, 300 Golden Plovers and quite a lot of other waders were wintering. In the evening, I walked along Los Lances, and had a nice flock of 17 Audouins Gulls.

On Monday, it was quite stormy with rain, so I did some property search in stead. I managed a short visit to Palmones estuary, though. 1 Mediterranean Gull was the most interesting. On Tuesday, it had cleared up and I went up along the Costa de la Luz. First, I visited Barbate. There I had about 20 Stone Curlews and about 10 Bald Ibises. It is not far from the breeding 
site at Barca de la Vejer, so this is natural.I then drove up to Chipiona to look for Little Swifts, which in fact winter there. I had none, but a Caspian Tern and a Booted Eagle was ok. Next stop was the Bonanza Saltpans. Due to the rain the day before, I did not drive far into the area, but I drove enough to have Slender-billed Gulls and Flamingoes. Next stop was Laguna Tarelo. This is a very accessible and rewarding small lake, good in spring, autumn and winter. This time I saw Black-necked Grebe, 10 Shovelers, 15 White-headed Ducks, 40 Black-crowned Night Herons and one Little Swift.

By the way, when driving up to Chipona, I chose to go through El Puerto de Santa Maria. And there, in the middle of the round-about, with Burger King as the nearest neighbour- a replica of La Nina... what a place for this historic and world-famous Columbus ship!

On the way back, I encountered a circling flock of about 150 White Storks between Tarifa and La Janda. It might in fact have been the first arriving flock on "spring migration" as many leave Spain already in July and will start to return already in January- so why not December...?

Last day was a real mess, as I found out that I had a return ticket for 13th of February and not December..., so the best thing to do was to go to Malaga to sort things out.

More photos here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/QX4NkaXn0jJHaOTi2

Raptor watch Strait of Gibraltar September 2017

Raptor and stork migration

Short-toed Eagle.

We had a 5 days holiday from september 21st to sept 26th. Weather was unusually hot, with temperatures close to 30 C, a bit inland. We stayed some nights in La Alcaidesa, some 40 mins drive from Tarifa. The last nights we, as usual, stayed at Dos Mares Hotel, just outside Tarifa.

Due to easterly winds, most of the migration seemed to go at the western end of the strait, thus the watch point at Cazalla was an optimal place. However, in periods, the wind was very strong which meant that many raptors and storks did not migrate, or they returned from the sea. This given, you could have very close encounters as they returned very low over the sea. The new observation center built close to the sea, CIMA,just north of Tarifa was then a strategic place. 

Black Storks

As expected late september, there were four species dominating the air; Short-toed Eagle, Booted Eagle, Black- and White Stork. We had thousands of all these species during these days. Additionally, we had Bonelli's Eagle, Sparrow Hawks and some late Black Kites, Montague's Harriers and Honey Buzzards. I was also lucky enough to get my first sigthing of Rüppels Vulture. 

You can get weekly numbers on the  Programa Migres site here: https://www.facebook.com/FundacionMigres/

There were at times also large numbers of swallows and swifts migrating. We had a couple of really dense flocks of Alpine Swifts and Red-rumped- and Barn Swallows were constantly moving south from early morning.

We usually do some travelling around when we have our annual trips to the Strait in spring and autumn. This time we did not, but mainly stayed close to Tarifa. Of course including mandatory trips to La Janda. Tarifa is reaally and optimal place to combine holiday and birdwatching. Where else can you relax at the seaside and see thousands of raptors and storks overhead? We will be back.

More photos here: 

Video here

Castilla y Leon birding

Castilla y Leon: Spains biggest region with historic cities, "tierra del pan", spectacular landscapes and good birding.

Having visited most of Spains region, it was time to see more of the biggest region of Spain, Castilla y Leon, in the Easter of 2017. This is a highly agricultural intensive area, called "Tierra del Pan", meaning the bread land of Spain.

We started in Madrid, drove to Avila and spent the night there. Next day we went via Salamanca up to the border areas to Portugal, following the river Duero. We stayed overnight in Villalpando, which was a very good starting point for visiting the Villafafila area the next day. Villafafila is known for having the biggest population of Great Bustards in the world. Then, we went up to the scenic village of Sepulveda, which was a good point of departure for going to the Hoces del Duraton the next day. Last, but not least, we went down to Segovia and enjoyed the lovely parador there and did sightseeing in the historic city.

As for birding, I (who is the birdwatcher of us...) focused especially on two sites; Villafafila and Hoces del Duraton. Villafafila has the biggest population of the emblemic Great Bustard anywhere. I started in Vilalpando an hour before sunrise and drove out in the area. Even before sunrise, I could see the first great white "dots" out in the fields, and just a 1 km outside the village. As the light came, I could see single males and groups of females in most of the fields, just looking out of the car window. I guess I had at least 50 in just a couple of hours. As for the lagoons, the most important in this area of Spain, some of them were already dry. So the best was to go on the southern side of Laguna Grande. This was well worth a visit. The abandoned farm has a big Lesser Kestrel colony, Rock Sparrow was abundant, several Little owls were occuping the bird tower and in the fields several Short-eared Owls were hunting. In the lagoon, there were good numbers of Shovelers, Gadwalls, Teals, Wigeons, Black-winged stilts, Avocets, a flock of Spoonbills amongst others. To summarize my visit here: Well worth it!

The other area I wanted to see was the Parque Natural Hoces del Rio Duraton, the Grand Canyon of Castilla y Leon. This canyon has up to 100 meter cliffs and is a breeding site for numerous raptors. First and foremost up to 500 pairs of Griffon Vultures! We stayed in Sepulveda and drove to the small village of Villaseca, and walked the about 6km from there in to the Ermita de San Fruto, the monastery at the cliffs. All the spaniards going there were driving, but as we went early we had the dirt track for ourselves. And what a nice steppe area before approaching the canyon: I had Duponts Lark, Calandra Larks, Wood Larks, Thekla Larks, Tawny pipits, Black-eared Wheatears, Spectacled warbler etc etc. I can really recommend to walk this track in stead of driving which most birders would do. At the cliffs where the Ermita is situated, there were of course a lot of Griffons, a pair of Egyptian Vultures and a Peregrine. I would recommend to stay half-a-day in this area, focusin on the dry steppe at sunrise and stay at the cliffs to look fo raptors and Black Storks when the thermal is rising.

As mentioned earlier, the region of Castilla y Leon has several historic cities. We visited Avila with its famous city wall, Salamanca with is huge cathedral and famous Plaza Mayor and Segovia with it's huge aquaduct. These cities are also at a size which means you quickly can see the most interesting sites. These cities alo have their distinct bird community with Lesser Kestrels, White Storks, Blue Rock Trush and Alpine Choughs.

To summarize the visit to the huge region of Castilla y Leon: Very well worth a visit and also with a very good infrastructure for tourists: Good hotels (like the Paradores), very good food, good roads, abundance of both well known and hidden gems and do not forget the wine district of the Duero valley.

See more pictures here: 

Coto Donana december 2016

Coto Donana december 2016

Laguna de las Madres, the mother of marshes, at El Rocio.

I have been to Coto Donana several times, but never in december. Donana has always been famous as a wintering quarter for Northern European birds, so it was about time to see the importance with my own eyes. And I was lucky. The area was teeming with birds. (except for, in fact, Laguna Madre seen on the photo above...).

Little owl

The main reason for seing birds everywhere, was the heavy rain that has been pouring down for the past week. The marshes has not been so wet for 6-7 years. It also meant, however, that several of the roads in the area were not driveable or even completly blocked by masses of water. It was no problem for me. The first day I drove on the dykes of the northern marshes, from Vilmanrique de la Condesa towards Isla Mayor. The second day I was together with José Antonio Sánchez from Discovering Donana, and we were able to go into the closed area between El Rocio and the Jose Antonio Valverde center, through Coto del Rey, Hijonos, La Vera and Lucio del Lobo.

On day one, in the northern marshes, I was struck by the total number of birds, including thousands of gulls, hundreds of white storks and glossy ibises, egrets and herons and large distant flocks of ducks. I was driving along the Brazo de la Torre/Entremuros on the western dyke. However, it was not possible to get over to the rice fields on the other side; the road to Isla Mayor was blocked by water. Due to the high water level, it meant that a lot of birds were sitting along or on the dyke. I had 4-5 Black-winged kites, sitting or flying next to my car as an example.

Floaded track in the Coto del Rey pine forest

Day two- with calm, sunny and warm weather, we drove from El Rocio and east towards the Valverde visitor center. On the way we had Iberian grey shrike, Little bustards, Pin-tailed sandgrouses, Stone curlews and lots of Greylag geese, cranes and white storks. The Valverde center gave little, except for some flamingoes. However, after the coffe break going further east, It got exciting again with five Short-eared owls, a Barn owl and totally 4 Little owls. On the raptor side, there were 20 or more Lesser kestrels, two Hen harriers, a lot of Marsh harriers and a wintering Short-toed Eagle. 

Little egret

To summarize, I can really recommend going to the Donana in december. I have been there three times earlier in the spring, and one in the autumn. But to enjoy it in winter is something special. Remember that the Coto Donana partly was protected after pressure from organisations like WWF, for its importance for wintering birds from Northern Europe. Let us hope it can stay that way. One little contribution can be to be a visitor in the "low season" of december and january. It is worth it!

More photos here

Birding in the Cadiz province march-april 2016

Birdwatching from Dos Mares

We had the annual "spring tour" to Southern Andalucia, both too enjoy some migration over El Estrecho, but also to travel to new places in the Cadiz Province. However, we stayed in the Tarifa area, testing out several overnight possibilities, But as always, we concluded with: Hotel Dos Mares, with a sea view, is the real thing.

Coastal area of Tarifa, along the Colado de la Costa

I would not say it was an impressive migration these days. One day, while walking the newly opened route from Tarifa and west towards Algeciras, we had about 80 Booted Eagles coming in quite low over the sea. In addition, the call from Beeaters could be heard all along the route. 

There were also a good variety of breeders or stranded migrants here, like Iberian Chifchaff, Woodchat Shrike and Black-eared Wheatear.

We had several day trips out of Tarifa. One up to the Chipiona-Sanlucar-La Algaida area. Algaida forest is a very nice area. You can drive through, but I would say a walk along the paths is a good alternative, 

Bald Ibis at breeding site

Another trip we had was up to the Ojen Valley. I drove through here some 20 years ago, and it is still doable, but you need to take care. The road can be challenging, so also here a walk along the road could be an alternative. Last, but not least, we drove up to Arcos de la Frontera, one of the Pueblas Blancas, A nice place, but still, I would recommend Vejer de la Frontera. Another reason for going to Vejer, is of course the nearby colony of Bald Ibis. The only breeding place in Europe!

A couple of other things from the trip should also be mentioned. For the first time, we visited the roman ruins at Bolonia. A nice place, worth a visit. From here we also drove up to the Sierra de la Plata, and stayed under the Cueva del Moro for a while to see whether there were any swifts. Both White-rumped and Little Swift have bred here, but it was anyway to early for the first mentioned. Last, but not least, we enjoyed some good Black Kite migration the last day near Punta Carnero, where flocks came in low over the sea, in western gale and drizzle!

Black Kite at Punta Carnero, 4th of April, 2016

More pictures from the trip here: https://goo.gl/photos/8pcuZpvAuYjd6kfD6