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Here Rice Paddies and Well-Vegetated Ditches Provide Habitat for Waterbirds

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Here Rice Paddies and Well-Vegetated Ditches Provide Habitat for Waterbirds Strait Birding and Doñana Delights 9 – 19 March 2018 Day 1 Friday 9 March We were greeted with fresh Straits air and bright sunshine this morning, and we made the most of it, doing a spot of pre-breakfast birding with Pete and Adrienne who we had collected from Màlaga airport the previous evening. Pretty much the first bird of the trip was a Hawfinch, perched up in a Poplar with several Spotless Starlings! As well as many Blackcaps and a handful of Iberian Chiffchaffs, we had lovely views of Serins in songflight. Several Short-toed Eagles soared low overhead, boding well for the migration events to come. Then it was time to assemble some more of the team! Leaving Pete and Adrienne to their breakfast tostadas and coffee, we collected Margaret from her nearby accommodation and Caz from Gibraltar airport, noting many White Storks and Black Kites on the way back. Making the most of the wind conditions, we headed down to a valley just below Huerta Grande, to an area that has become known as ´Niki´s Watchpoint´! Affording spectacular views across the Straits of Gibraltar, this area is also amazing for seeing newly arrived raptors when the wind is in the right direction. As we travelled through the landscape, making frequent stops to admire migrating birds, we enjoyed views of dozens of Black Kites, Short-toed Eagles and Griffon Vultures drifting through the valley, as well as eight Black Storks, two Eurasian Sparrowhawks and an Egyptian Vulture, also newly arrived in Europe. Other migrants were in evidence too - a Great Spotted Cuckoo flashed before us and we could see the first of the Pallid Swifts arriving amongst Barn Swallows and House Martins. Ken and Margaret arrived into Gibraltar that evening, and after settling them into their lovely accommodation the team were finally united for our first delicious dinner together! Day 2 Saturday 10 March A blustery day with strong westerly winds and scattered, but heavy showers did nothing to dampen our enthusiasm, and we togged up and headed to La Janda, a large area of low intensity agricultural land where rice paddies and well-vegetated ditches provide habitat for waterbirds. Echoes of its former glory as a vast wetland were immediately apparent, as we could see Little and Cattle Egrets, White Storks and Eurasian Spoonbills dotted across the landscape. Corn Buntings and Calandra and Crested Larks sang from every field, and we enjoyed views of an Iberian Grey Shrike, perched up on a telegraph wire, as well as hunting Western Marsh Harrier. A single Audouin´s Gull – once the world´s rarest gull – was hunkered down in a field, seemingly enjoying the weather even less than we were! Waterbirds didn´t disappoint, with two very showy Purple Swamphens on view! We also saw Little Ringed Plover, Ruff, Green Sandpiper and a lone Sanderling taking refuge. Numerous newly arrived ibericae Yellow Wagtails were showing beautifully, as were White and a single Grey Wagtail. We were impressed by the veritable swarms of hirundines, pushed low by the weather, with Sand and House Martins and Barn Swallows hunting in their thousands! When a shower came that forced even these intrepid airborne foragers to land, we decided to head for lunch! Simon and Niki hosted the group at their ´mansion´ in the pueblo blanco of Facinas, where we enjoyed fresh salads and olives, fresh local breads wines and cheeses, all washed down with a warming glass of vino tinto or two! The shower soon passed, and we explored the local Cork Oak forest and scrub of Monte Facinas, in Los Alcornacales Parque Natural. We could hear Firecrests and Short-toed Treecreepers calling, and we enjoyed watching the last of the area´s wintering Black Redstarts, soon to head north to breed. A Eurasian Hoopoe put on a show for us, and after a little searching, we got great views of a Cirl Bunting which had been tormenting us with its song from a hidden perch! Using local knowledge to make a decision based on wind direction, Simon took us back through our ´Secret Valley´ west of Tarifa. It was definitely a good choice! Trapped by the weather, many raptors were holed up in this area, hunting and searching for a place to roost. We parked up and watched as over eighty Short-toed Eagles, 100+ Griffon Vultures, a Eurasian Hobby, Peregrine Falcon, Common Buzzard, Eurasian Sparrowhawks and the first Booted Eagle of the trip drifted in and out of the cloud over our heads – magical! We also had views of a Gibraltar Buzzard – a Common Buzzard who somewhere in its lineage clearly has some Long-legged Buzzard genes, being longer winged and more rufous than average, with white flashes on the upperwing and completely lacking a sub-terminal band on the tail. We started to head back, thinking we had maxed out on some amazing raptor watching, but we were wrong! A single male Montagu´s drifted silently past the vehicles, leaving us spellbound. Day 3 Sunday 11 March Heading out west into another blustery, but much sunnier day, we made our first stop at the coast of Punta Paloma, to see what interesting seabirds the westerly wind - or poniente - had brought in off the Atlantic. We spent an enjoyable time letting the breezy day blow away the morning cobwebs while we watched Cory´s Shearwaters, Northern Gannets, Sandwich Terns and a Great Skua hunting just off the coast. A stroll to examine an intertidal pool yielded Sanderling, Ruddy Turnstone and Common Ringed Plover, and on our return to the vehicle a rather tired-looking Western Osprey was waiting for us, perched up on a post! Our next stop was at Barca de Vejer, where the group was to meet with the rarest bird of the trip! The grotesque but fabulous Northern Bald Ibis has chosen to make the cliffs outside this town its home, after a dozen or so pairs spilled out from a nearby reintroduction project and started recolonising the countryside! The colony were in full breeding activity, and we enjoyed their fascinating antics, wooing each other with the gift of nest material and indulging in mutual preening. Simon and Niki were particularly overjoyed to see the colony so active. Over coffee we explained to the group that, last year, all but one of the chicks were lost to a marauding Eagle Owl and we had concerns they wouldn´t return. With only around 1000 individuals left in the wild, to lose this busy colony would have been tragic indeed. Next, we headed on to the disused saltpans at Barbate, a real haven for gulls, terns, waders and waterbirds. Here we were able to view roosting Glossy Ibises and Eurasian Spoonbills, Oystercatchers, Black-winged Stilts and Pied Avocets, without even needing to leave the vehicle! Common Ringed, Kentish and Grey Plovers were numerous, as were Sanderling, Little Stints, Dunlin, Common Snipe, Redshank, Greenshank, Green Sandpiper and Ruddy Turnstone – a very attractive assemblage! A large group of Audouin´s Gulls afforded great views and we also saw Gull-billed and Caspian Terns. The sun broke through once more just in time for our picnic lunch! As we enjoyed it we also enjoyed views of three goofy-looking Eurasian Stone Curlews, alternating between standing proud and looking like rocks on one of the saltpan´s gravel islands. There were also many Iberian Yellow Wagtails gleaming in the sunshine. On the way back to base we stopped off in Tarifa, next to the seafront fort of Guzman el Bueno. Here, we enjoyed watching the antics of the colony of Lesser Kestrels, which have occupied the many nooks and crannies on the fort´s walls and formed a nesting colony. As with the ibises earlier today, bonding and mating activity was at a high, as the handsome males with their rufous backs and powder-blue heads called mid-flight to the beautifully patterned females in their nesting holes. Then time to head back and relax before dinner, tonight a hearty local speciality known as pisto, a flavoursome peasant´s dish of tomatoes and courgettes mixed in with a poached egg and plenty of robust local bread and wine! Day 4 Monday 12 March Today the wind had died down and switched to north-westerly, so it was ´game on´ for migration- chasing! Thousands of raptors had been trapped in North Africa for days now. We knew they would be desperate to get moving, and so were we! We headed up to a nearby viewpoint to get a feel for where the most movement was happening and immediately we could see many Black Kites were already arriving around that area of the coast. We went to a coastal watchpoint at Guadalamesi, where an old Napoleonic military outpost gives stunning views out over the ocean. Spending an uplifting morning watching from here and other areas around the coast, we enjoyed our first real experience of migration happening all around us as throngs of Black Kites and Short-toed Snake Eagles arrived in Europe, accompanied by Egyptian Vultures, Montagu's Harriers, Western Marsh Harriers and Eurasian Sparrowhawks! As we headed to Tarifa for a comfort break and to pick up some picnic supplies, we were astonished to spot two Northern Bald Ibis on the edge of an industrial estate! These birds were a good 50 km from their main breeding colony – what were they doing here..? We picnicked at El Trafico, looking out over the deep blue waters of the Straits of Gibraltar to the North coast of Morocco, with stunning views of the Rif Mountains and the Jebel Mousa – Morocco ´s impressive rocky monolith that is the African twin of the Rock of Gibraltar.
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