Tawny Pipits, Wrynecks, Turtle Doves and Cuckoos

Whiskered Terns have been coming through with more Collared Pratincoles, Bee-eaters, Turtle Doves, Common Cuckoo's and a few Wrynecks. The weather was quite chilly at the weekend and on Monday and Tuesday with cool winds coming from the North, then North-West. The forecast tells that wind direction will swing around in different directions all week in the South-West. If wind strength isn't too strong then it shouldn't hold up migrants heading North.
A Collared Pratincole takes a rest near Barbate

Whiskered and Gull-billed Terns have been coming through with more Collared Pratincoles, Bee-eaters, Turtle Doves, Common Cuckoo's and a few Wrynecks. Only a few new Raptor arrivals could visibly be seen on The Strait compared to the last few weeks although more Black Kites, a few Booted and some Short-toed Eagles were coming in yesterday near Tarifa. White Storks on the other hand just keep on coming! A few Alpine Swifts have been seen arriving with Pallid and Common Swifts and the Pallids are already nesting nearby.

A Wryneck takes in the warm sun

On Sunday evening my pal John Muddeman called in with two clients, birders from the US and UK, who were on a Spanish tour. John lives and works near Madrid. Sitting in the garden we caught up with all the local birding news, talked about tours we were leading when a Common Cuckoo flew right over our heads. Lovely! John and I will be leading a tour together next month at Lake Neusiedl in the SE of Austria - should be fun!


Stone Curlew take-off

I had a Black-crowned Night Heron and a Tawny Owl have a set to the other day. Both of them wanted to roost in a neighbour's Cork-oak tree and a fight ensued. What a strange mix of calls and furious flapping came from the other side of the garden wall. The Owl flew in one direction and the Night Heron, an adult, flew just over my head. Like most Night Herons, once they have found a comfortable place to roost they will usually fly right back there, and this it did! I didn't hear any more from the Tawny Owl.


Tawny Pipits have been arriving this week


Turtle Dove - It is now law in Malta making it illegal to hunt Turtle Doves. Me thinks mmm...Malteesers!


Cuckoo's have been very vocal around our house


Three-toed Skinks like this one above, Limbless Lizards and Iberian Wall Lizards have all been seen sunning themselves bu the pool!

We took a family tour through part of the Alcornocales Cork-oak forest on Sunday and ended up at the museum at Bolonia. Here Black-eared Wheaters were plentiful with four birds seen in the Roman city ruins. Blue Rock Thrush was also singing and overhead a Short-toed Eagle hunted. Entry to the Museum and ruins are free for EU citizens and are closed on a Monday. I must say I like to visit there every so often and a lot of work has been done to improve the site. Many of the ruins have snakes, geckos or lizards basking on the walls, so keep your bins handy!
The beach at Bolonia on Sunday afternoon. Morocco is in the distance. The beach will be a little bit busier than this in August.


A Whiskered Tern snaps up insects

I have been doing my chores around the house, Hoopoe Cottage, pool and garden at the weekend. On Monday I had to travel to San Fernando (towards Cadiz) and collect some timber and other bits and bobs from Leroy Merlin, the Spanish B&Q equivalent. En route, I was laughing about a joke I received as a text message on my mobile from a friend in Scotland. I have to have to share it...

I went to a B&Q store the other day and was met at the door by some bloke wearing a black polo-shirt and an orange apron. He asked me if I wanted decking - luckily I got the first punch in and it was all over in a matter of seconds!



I had a great day out with Bruce and Yvonne from Melbourne, Australia on Tuesday. We saw lots of birds although there was a fair bit of wind which stopped us seeing loads of raptors like last week. Still, we notched up most of the local species including a fair number of migrants. Bee-eaters were coming in all day and we caught up with some that had just arrived and were taking a bath in a freshwater canal at La Janda. The main collector canal at La Janda has a large sleuce located along the central stretch. The sleuce gates hold back water from what was once the Almodovar River that at one time flowed freely into the ancient freshwater lake and marshland of La Janda oxygenating the large expanse of water.In the 1950's and 60's all of La Janda's lake and marshes were lost and the river was transformed into a main canal that feeds the now drained, and very rich agricultural basin. All of the water collected behind the sleuce comes from the Alcornocales forest in the sierras. On the other side of the sleuce freshwater Carp are left to suffocate in the shallows. Quite a dreadful sight to see so may large fish like this dying.

A stranded Carp at La Janda

We came across Eurasian Spoonbills at two different locations and managed to watch Short-toed Eagles, Montagu's Harrier, Marsh Harrier, Little Owl, Tawny Pipits, Calandra Larks, Greater Short-toed Larks, Yellow Wagtails to name but a few. We had a leisurely lunch outside on the terrace of a typical Andalucian country restaurant as Griffon Vultures passed overhead with Bee-eaters providing the music!