DAY 1 - ARRIVAL AT MALAGA AIRPORT TRANSFER TO TARFIA DAY 2 - LOS LANCES BEACH WALK - EL ESTRECHO VIEW POINT - ALGARROBO RAPTOR WATCH POINT - EL BUJEO PARK - CAZALLA RAPTOR WATCH POINT - OJEN VALLEY
WEATHER: clear blue sky both days and top temperature around 30-32C - nice cooling breeze on day 2.
Day ! - arrival at Malaga and a drive to tarifa, I think we saw six or eight species today!! You can blame Ryanair for that!! The flight was delayed by nearly a hour, the baggage collecting belt broke down twice at Malaga! We left the airport around 5pm and with a two hour drive ahead of us we had no time for birding today........
Day 2 - in complete contrast to yesterday we had a very productive and relaxing day. The weather was perfect, it did reach 30C but we had a nice breeze all day.
We started at 8:15 after our breakfast at the hotel, a short drive found us at Playa Los Lances, a beach nature reserve just outside of Tarifa. The walk to the beach produced several sightings of passing migrants such as Yellow Wagtails, Swallows, Swifts and House Martins. On the pylons we found a Short-toed Eagle and a Common Kestrel.
you know I am struggling for decent pictures when Ii show a Corn Bunting in my blog
In the very dry meadows and scrub we found Corn Buntings, Stonechats, Goldfinches and plenty of both Common and Spotless Starlings. Near the beach area we found Spanish Sparrows, Zitting Cisticola and dozens of Corn Buntings. Dozens of Swifts skimmed the beach, we picked out several Pallid Swifts with many more Commn Swifts.
The beach pools were fairly dry, only a small area held water, we saw a lot of birds around the pools. Many Sanderling were joined by Dunlin, Commom Ringed and Kentish Plovers, we also saw nine Greater Flamingos, four Audouin's Gulls, a single Grey Plover, Little Egrets, Grey Heron and more Yellow Wagtails.
a 'Flava' Yellow Wagtail
We continued our walk towards Tarifa, searching the meadows and scrub for larks and pipits. We found two Tawny Pipits and two fly-over Short-toed Larks, on the return journey we found Crested Larks.
Greater Flamingos on Los Lances Beach
From Los Lances we drove to Lidl's Supermarket to buy lunch supplies and then we headed for the hills and the rapotr watch-points. We stopped at El Estrecho cafe view-point and logged our first raptors in flight, a Griffon Vulture and a Booted Eagle - just two raptors in the air all morning!!
We arrived at Algarobbo View Point baround 11am, a little late in the morning but our fortunes changed there. We had raptors galore, HONEY BUZZARDS coming out of our ears!! The birds were high up by the time they were over the top of us, but we could watch them 'kettling' up from the distant woods. Groups of 50-100 birds came up sporodically and in between them came Booted and Short-toed Eagles, Griffon and Egyptian Vultures and a very large mass of White Storks.
a small part of the White Stork flock
Below the raptors we watched more swifts, a flock of European Bee-eaters, Swallows and House Martins. A wave of excitement
buzzed through the Spanish birders around us as, not one, but two Rupell's Vultures circled over us, I got my group onto to one of them. As we left we kicked up a Hoopoe near the car.
We left Algarrobo at 1pm, it was hot and sticky by then, we drove the short distance to the small park area called El Bujeo. Small araeas of cork oak, olive trees and eucalyptus surround a natural spring area, where in the past we had some good sightings. We ate our picnic lunch sitting at a picnic table whilst watching many Spotted Flycatchers. We also logged Common Redstart, Willow Warbler and Common Chiffchaff. A Bonelli's Warbler was a nice find too, an even better find was a two-tailed Pasha Butterfly, a huge beast!
we saw at least 20 Spotted Flycatchers during our day
Walking around the natural spring we found various view points and added a few more species to the growing list: Cirl Bunting, Sardinian Warbler, Stonechat, Short-toed Treecreeper, Eurasian Nuthatch (heard), Goldfinches and Blackcap. A further walk in a dry meadow added Monarch Buttertfly to the list as well as Clouded Yellow, Small Blue and a couple of Dragonflies. A pair of noisy Ravens flew over us as we walked back to the car.
my team hard at work
It was after 3pm when we stopped at Cazalla View Point, we had a great time there too! Not so many rapotrs but plenty to keep us busy. A very flock of Black Kites gathered above us, we saw many more Booted and Short-toed Eagles, as well as Egyptian Vultures, Bee-eaters and our first Lesser kestrel came right over us.
Black Kites over Cazalla
Before we called it a day we spent some time birding in the Ojen Valley, hoping for a harrier sighting in the open expanse of grassland. We found a very close Tawny pipit, lots of Stonechats, at least three Woodchat Shrikes, another Hoopoe and the dreaded Corn Bunting.
a view of the Strait of Gibraltar from Cazalla. the Rif Mountains of Morocco are easily visible
We got back to the hotel at 5:30pm it had been a very enjoyable, slow-pace birding day, we saw just under 60 species.