PLAYA DE LOS LANCES, TARIFA – EL TRAFICO WATCH-POINT – CALZALLA WATCH-POINT – OJEN VALLEY – OBSERVATORIO DEL VALLE SANTUARIO
WEATHER: cloudy to start, all afternoon sunshine. Top temp 28C.
We had a great, bird-filled day, with an emphasis on migrating raptors rather than passerines. We started out after our 7am breakfast with a short drive to the entrance to the paraje natural (natural park) of Playa de Los Lances. We parked the bus and watched the antics of a large flock of Corn Buntings, also both, Spotless and Common Starlings, Stonechats, mixed flocks of House and Spanish Sparrows with plenty of Common Swifts going over.
The boardwalk had been mostly destroyed by a storm earlier in the year but we moved easily along the track next to it. Lots of Zitting Cisticolas, Goldfinches and Stonecats dashed about and both Pallid and Common Swifts scythed through the air above us.
There was no sign of Short-toed Lark, Tawny Pipit or Hoopoes, but we did see a few fly-over Yellow Wagtails and many Cattle Egrets. Sue then spotted a very distant Roller, which went straight to the top of our list, we also saw a distant Kestrel and we could hear Bee-eaters also in the distance.
a record shot of the distant European Roller
From the hide we could see that the beach and dune system landscape had changed with the storm, very little brackish lay on the beach just one main pool. We saw a few waders but not many, Sanderling, Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Kentish Plover was all we got. An adult Audouin’s Gull dropped in and we saw Common Kingfisher, Little Egret, Grey Heron and two immature Red-crested Pochard, the latter being an unusual sighting in brackish water.
Audouin's Gull with a couple of Sanderling and the back end of a Kentish Plover
Further walking along the boardwalk produced very little else, two of us saw a Hoopoe in flight, we had great close views of Pallid Swifts and flyover Yellow Wagtails, the Roller was still present.
Crimson Speckled Moth
After visiting a supermarket to buy our lunch supplies, we took the track to a raptor watch-point on the cliffs just east of Tarifa called El Trafico. But before we got there we pulled over to get out and watch a ‘kettle’ of raptors over the surrounding hills. For the next 309 minutes we saw dozens of raptors, mainlky Black Kites but also Short-toed and Booted Eagles, a couple of Honey Buzzards and plenty of Griffon Vultures.
A walk through a wooded area along a track produced very few sightings. We had brief glimpses of Sardinian Warblers and Common Chiffchaff and a few Bee-eaters flew over us. All the time during our walk we could see all groups of raptors rising on the thermals but not in large numbers and no Honey Buzzards!
White Storks on the move
It was the same story at El Trafico, the raptors were quite distant and high up, we added Egyptian Vulture and Common Buzzard to the list and had good views at last of Bee-eaters. A few Ruddy Turnstones went onto the list.
We drove to Cazalla Raptor watch-point to eat our lunch whilst scanning the sky, the best sighting there was that of a couple of flocks of White Storks, 40 in one flock and over 100 and in another. The usual raptors drifted over, we saw a couple of adult Egyptian Vultures and Varsha found a Pied Flycatcher in the bushes.
For the rest of the afternoon we made a couple walks in the Ojen Valley. It was very hot down there out of the wind, saw very little during our first walk, however, we did add a few butterflies to the list including the Monarch.
Monarch Butterfly feeding on Purple Loosestrife
At the Raptor watch-point in the Valle de Santuario we found Black-eared Wheatear, Woodchat Shrike and both Crested and Thekla’s Lark. The raptor passage had finished for the day and at 5pm so had we!
Back at the hotel we spent some time scanning the adjacent field where we found Zitting Cisticola, a couple of Serins and a Stonechat. That ended our bird watching for the day.