CAMINO VECINAL TRACK TO EL TRAFICO RAPTOR WATCH POINT - WHALE WATCHING CRUISE FROM TARIFA HARBOUR - A VISIT TO THE BASE OF SIERRA ENMEDIO
WEATHER; hot and sunny all day, top temp 32C with a light breeze.
Even though the weather is really warm we arn't feeling hot at any time because there is always a nice breeze to keep us cool. this was the case all day today.
We started our birding along the track that joins Tarifa and the Raptor watch-point called El Trafico, in recent years this has produced some great sightings but it wasn't to be the case this year. We did see several Spotted Flycatchers, they appear to be everywhere this year. Sardinian Warblers were also out in force, in every bush it seemed. We did see a Common Buzzard on a pole and i found our only Pied Flycatcher of the trip, the others never got onto it.
Other birds of note were Common and Pallid Swifts, dozens of them scoured the sky with House and Sand Martins and Barn Swallows. We never saw a single raptor in the sky!!
At El Trafico we stood on the cliff top and saw........not a lot. Cory's Shearwaters could be seen out at sea (but only one or two), an Oystercatcher landed on some flat rocks and a lot more swifts dashed around below us. It was nice to see an Alpine Swift from above and our only raptor appeared in the shape of a Marsh Harrier.
We made our way to the harbour in good time to catch our 12 noon Cruise into the Strait of Gibraltar, all the gulls in the harbour were species we had encountered before.
The sea was flat calm we could see anything on the surface for miles around us. We were 5 minutes into the cruise when a Cory's Shearwater crossed our bow and then two Bottlenose Dolphins did the same. In fact, this trip was littlered with cetacean sightings, I can't remember a period where we weren't watching something out there. We had excellent views of Pilot Whales, Sunfish and two Black Terns, one or two more Cory's Shearwaters flashed by then a long string of White Storks appeared above us, there must have been 60-80 birds making the crossing from Europe to Africa.
After spending an hour watching cetaceans we headed back towards Tarifa, ahead of us was a large group of Gulls sitting on the water. Scanning the gulls I picked out a Storm Petrel, and two Cory's Shearwaters were sitting on the water with the gulls.
More excitement ran through the crowd when a small pod of Common Dolphins joined us, they stayed with the boat for 20 minutes,' bow riding'. Towards the entrance to the harbour we found a Balearic Shearwater and then four Cory's Shearwaters were sitting on the water and that was our last bird sighting of the trip.
We stopped at the supermarket to buy picnic supplies and drove to the Observatory Valle del Santuario which sits below the massive ridge of Sierra Enmedio. After eating we spent an hour searching for Black-eared Wheatear and Thekla's lark. We found the later but not the wheatear, we also found Crested Larks, Sardinian Warblers, Stonechats and a huge flock of Bee-eaters came over us. Other birds of note were Eurasian Hoopoe and a single Griffon Vulture. We called it a day at 5pm and drove down to the hotel some five minutes away.