Busy as usual with different groups and had the pleasure of meeting some lovely people from Portugal with João Jara who runs Birds & Nature Tours from his base in Lisbon.
We had some wonderful experiences with the autumn migration spending part of the time in the Alcornocales forest, watching the Short-toed and Booted Eagles being blown about by the continuing Levante. We also spent time down the coast watching the Northern Bald Ibis and then drove across the province to the Guadalquivir basin and explored the delights of the wetlands, lagoons and salt-pans.
One of the most impressive sights I've seen for a long time was a massive flock of over 300 Black Storks that was making progress towards the coast near Tarifa. They literally filled the sky and swirled and spiralled across the cork-oak hillside, drifting and being buffeted by the strong easterlies. Eventually they turned and headed back along the ridge to Facinas and the La Janda rice-fields. I'm sure that everyone who saw this incredible sight of so many rare birds together in a massive flock were in awe of such an impressive natural sight.
As the birds didn't cross The Strait or pass any observers on the coast, their presence wasn't recorded on the Migres statistics for the 2nd of October. The wind was gale force for the whole day (week!) and most of the observers had left the watchpoints by early evening.
I took these shots of part of this flock as they moved about looking at the sea, feeling and seeing for themselves the strong forces of nature that were preventing their southerly migration to Africa.
A larger view of the huge Black Stork group
This was a juvenile we came across the other day
Unfortunately a young Booted Eage was struck by a car on the main N340 road near Cazalla as it tried to progress down The Strait. The wind caught the bird and pushed it into an oncoming vehicle whereby it suffered a broken neck. We had been passing at the time and I recovered the bird from the roadway. We later handed it over to Migres for study purposes.
This shot shows the 'boots' of the Booted Eagle. The feathers continue down to the feet hence the name booted
This lovely rufous coloured or intermediate race of Booted Eagle was a very young bird with perfectly formed and uniform feather growth. The bird was in good condition and had been feeding well.
An intermediate form of the Booted Eagle in flight
A few rarities are still in the area. Alas no further sign of the White-backed Vulture (Gyps africanus) but a few Rüppell's Vultures are around and there were three Lesser Spotted Eagles (Aquila pomarina) recorded on the 5th of October. Similarly on Playa de Los Lances, the Royal Tern seems to have moved on and I haven't heard any recent reports of any Lesser Crested Terns
Some Short-toed Eagle shots
We had a bit of a scare yesterday(5th) on the edge of the Alcornocales Parque Natural above the town of Facinas. A fire started around noon and was quickly fanned into a raging inferno by the strong winds. A fire control point was set up on the main N340 below Facinas directing fire-fighting helicopters that scooped water from the sea down at Bolonia to the blaze. As I came past Facinas later that night, I saw that the blaze was under control and a large section of the upper forest on the mountain had been lost to the blaze.
Unperturbled by the commotion on the ground, an adult Egyptian Vulture makes its way southwards
The Strawberry Tree Arbutus unedo (Ericaceae) attracts the Two Tailed Pasha butterfly
This rather weatherbeaten specimen was sheltering in a quiet valley yesterday afternoon as we watched the Eagles...
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