The Strait of Gibraltar and The Guadalquivir - Two Great Areas

A Calandra Lark flies around us displaying while all around these lovely birds, a steady movement of raptors cross the skies above, and skirt the fields where these beautiful birds breed, quartering the lands en route to their breeding areas, where many Calandra Larks must make up part of the diet of some birds of prey. So precarious is life in the bird worlds that you would always have to be on guard against swift and fatal predation!

This is just another fascinating way of looking at the busy Spring season as the breeding clocks tick, the weather changes and feeding for that essential strength is all important once they arrive

back where the days are longer and hopefully it will be a successful season

A young male Montagu's Harrier taken a few years ago near Barbate

Andy and Kate who live near Bath in the UK have been spending some time with us at Hoopoe Cottage. I took them out for two days to give them an overview of the immediate area and to catch some of the 'visible' bird migration as well as enjoying the wild flowers and other natural history of the area. The weather has been pretty changeable over the last few days with strong easterlies (again!) , then the wind swung completely around from the WNW, bringing cold air some light showers and a drop in nightime temperature. Birds were still crossing, of course, but during the day things were visibly quieter than previous weeks. I decided to cover as much ground as possible and leaving the Citroen mini-bus at home I opted for the Land Rover Discovery and the choice to be as flexible as possible with the terain.
Leaving Barbate we quickly picked up three Bald Ibis flying along the coast - What a great start to the morning!

Griffon Vultures were very much in evidence and we watched an adult on her nest through the telescope, tending its single chick. Crag Martins swept past the cliff face and chased off any incoming Sparrowhaws in their breeding area. In the photo below, Crag Martins actually struck the Sparrowhawk on the back of the body! I just wasn't quick enough to capture that one...

We took time to watch Short-toed Eagles coming in off the sea, arriving in Europe for the first time this year. There was a small party of six Short-toed and two Booted Eagles. The Booted Eagles were one of each, the light form and a dark bird and this is something that really helps when you see what at first appears to be a unknown bird coming in off the sea. You then have the other eagle to compare and very quickly you realise that this is the dark form.
Sparrowhawks were also coming in and in the distance we picked up two Marsh Harriers and a pair of adult Egyptian Vultures - one with a radio transmitter and antenna mounted on its back!

Looking down on one of the Short-toed Eagles

There were plenty of other birds around for us to see and one of the 'star' birds was the essentially African Little Swift. The nesting birds are accompanied in the air quite often by the resident Crag Martins and their equally early breeding friends the Hose Martins.
Little Swifts
Quite often the presence of Little Swifts causes interest from other Swifts such as Alpine, Common and the more abundant southern species, the Pallid Swift. They can all be in the air one minute, flying around checking each other out - and of course feeding at the same time, then as quickly as they came, they are gone again. There is no set time to see them. If they are breeding, just have patience and they will appear soon enough with food.
Bee-eaters came across in small groups all day, their constant flight calls alerting us of their presence. Black-eared Wheatears and Northern Wheatears were seen

A dark form of the small Booted Eagle photographed on Thursday

Bee-eaters have been constant passage migrants now for weeks

Our second day together was to the other side of the province. It's about an hour and fifteen minutes to the Guadalquivir River depending on how long you spend searching for birds en route. Quite often you can come across some unexpected species in the most unlikely places during migration.
Pintailed Sandgrouse

Our birding began with Red-rumped Swallows and Calandra Larks - yes I know we saw lots the day before but they are just too good to ignore. Cruising the fields were Gull-billed Terns and the smaller Whiskered Terns. Out a little bit further we watched Monty's, Hen and Marsh harriers all within close proximity to one another.
Northern Lapwings are always lovely to spot and we have a few breeding pairs on the edge of the river. Yellow Wagtails, Woodchat Shrikes seemed to be very common and the recent influx of these two handsome birds was really appreciated.
A few waders came onto the brackish pools and these included, Ringed and Little Ringed Plovers and Little Stints. Little and Cattle Egrets seemed to be fairl easy to see and Great Egrets were in double figures again. I didn't see any Glossy Ibis though - they must have been having the day off!
We managed to scope Pintailed Sandgrouse on the ground and although we had a good search we didn't see any more. The photo above is in the same area but on another visit.


A Whimbrel passes by but comes quite close to us for a good look!


Many of the breeding colony of Slender-billed Gulls

An elegant Whiskered Tern

The more purposeful and business like Gull-billed tern

A migrating Purple Heron

Our day was interrupted by fillet of Dorada (Sea Bream) and chips with a great mixed salad and bread, washed down with the local white wine. Just great value for 10 Euros a head!

We went cross-country after our meal and saw Greater Flamingoes, Eurasian Spoonbills, more Great Egrets, hundreds of Dunlins, Redshanks, some greenshanks and Little Stints and a few Curlew Sandpipers. A couple of Black-tailed Godwits were also seen and a Whimbrel flew right overhead.
Using the the Land Rover, as it turned out was a good idea, as the track was pretty abysmal with huge ruts and craters that would hae been pretty difficult in a normal road car.

Common and Green Sandpipers were extremely 'common' as we followed the river North.

Greater Short-toed Larks and Lesser Short Toed Larks were seen and I think that over the two days we saw all the breeding lark species down this way - all five of them.

Lovely memories and great birding!

Stephen