Andalucian Guides

Hoopoe cottage, our small guest house has been occupied most of the year. True to say we attract many birders and lovers of nature from all over the globe, but of course friends and family like to visit as well, especially if there hasn't been too much of a summer to rave about in northern Europe. Our year's weather has been pretty good although rains do come in winter and wind can come at any time during warmer periods, but all in all we have a wonderful climate with fresh air coming off the Atlantic Ocean and lots and lots of warm sun!

A few years ago I met Brian and Anne who were with a group that came on a week's tour to Extremadura and the Coto Doñana in spring. This autumn they booked a week with us at Hoopoe cottage and I have been showing them some great birds and other wildlife during the continuing migration on The Strait of Gibraltar.

We visited most of the 50 km coastline of SW Cadiz province from Cape Trafalgar to Gibraltar and saw much of the visible migration of Short-toed and Booted Eagles crossing or attempting to cross the narrow stretch of water to Africa. Huge numbers of Griffon Vultures and a couple or rarer Rüppell's Vultures were seen and we even came across a large party of 'Griffs' feeding at a carcass of a goat near Pelayo. Bonelli's Eagles both adult and the rusty tinged juveniles were watched at a few locations, Black-winged Kites too impressed us just as the dashing Sparrowhawks that are in plentiful supply.

The rice-fields of La Janda showed us the hunting techniques of Marsh Harriers as thousands of White Storks, Grey Herons, Great, Little and Cattle Egrets as well as black clouds of Glossy Ibis followed the rice harvest. Stonechats, Zitting-Cisticolas, Corn Buntings, Spanish Sparrows, Reed Buntings, Kingfishers, Green Sandpipers, Ruff, Common Snipe, Northern Lapwings, Yellow Wagtails and White Wagtails. Lesser and Common Kestrels caught crickets and grasshoppers while Common Buzzards flew around in search of a meal or sat on top of an electric pylon.

A day to the huge river area called the Guadalquivir basin gave us a huge insight into the diversity of both habitat as well as the bird and insect species. Our drive cross-county started after a quick coffee stop at Trebujena, one of the inland agricultural towns specializing in growing the Palimino grape that is used for sherry production.
This huge grey-clay area from Jerez to Sanlucar de Barrameda specializes in sherry production and the undulating hillsides are covered in vines. Most of the larger Bodegas are in the bigger towns but there are still private ones out in the countryside as well as many co-operatives in towns like Trebujena, where you can bring your own bottle and buy the local sherry at a very reasonable price.

We descended over the back of the town of Trebujena where the mighty Guadalquivir River meets the Atlantic Ocean at Sanlucar de Barrameda. Set out like a historical map before us we could see the towns of Algaida and Bonanza down river and Sanlucar on the river mouth. Columbus set off from Bonanza on one of his voyages of discovery and today the river is still navigable by ship to Seville, some 80 kms up river. On the west bank lies the Coto Doñana with it's many Parque Naturales including one large section on the east (Cadiz) side and other protected areas on both sides, but the National Park or Parque National is over on the Huelva side.

Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers were the first smaller passerines we saw, flitting through the now dried stems of fennel, searching for and feeding on aphids and other insects as the pressed south. Little and Black-necked Grebes were next, seen on the fish ponds as were some Greylag Geese, Black-winged Stilts, Redshanks and Common Sandpipers. A few Yellow-legged and Lesser Black-backed Gulls sat on posts at the river.

Black-headed Gulls fed nearby on the water allowing themselves to be taken downstream by the current only to fly back to where they started. Some late migrant Whiskered Terns passed us by and the commoner Crested Larks were overshadowed by small flocks of Lesser Short-toed Larks that flew past and landed to drink.

We had some great views of Greenshanks with many young birds allowing us to take some good photos. Such a lovely bird! Calandra Larks flew in the distance detected by their liquid burbling song. Great Egrets, Eurasian Spoonbills, Greater Flamingoes (too many to count) filled the many lagoons as thousands of waders that included Little Stints, Dunlins, Curlew Sandpipers, Marsh Sandpipers, Green Sandpipers, Common Snipe, masses of Black-tailed Godwits and Pied Avocets, Ringed and Kentish Plovers all searched for food.

A few Red Kites and distant Ospreys were watched but one of the highlights was a group of twenty-four Black Storks feeding out on the tidal mudfalts close to the river's edge.

Brian spotted a Mediterranean Chameleon climbing along a fence shortly after we had lunch and with White-headed Ducks and Marbled Teals as well as Black-crowned Night Herons seen we felt quite satisfied with our day by the big river.

It's a long drive from Barbate to the the limestone peaks to Grazelema then on to Montejaque. But Bonelli's Eagles en route near Grazalema and a group of seven Spanish Ibex (Capra pyrenaica) were well worth the time and effort. We also had a flight of three Ring Ouzels heading in a southerly direction and during October and November many of these lovely birds spend time eating berries in valley from Montejaque to Llanos de Libar. It's also a place where you can easily watch Black Wheatear, Rock Bunting and a bit later in the season the Alpine Accentors arrive.

There are three races of Ring Ouzel, varying in the extent of white fringes to the (black/dark brown) body feathers. Britain and Fennoscandia have the nominate race torquatus which has the least white. The race alpestris of continental Europe have more extensive white fringes on the body and flight feathers that look like fish scales, whilst race amicorum of southern Turkey, Turkmenia and northern Iran, has a thicker white crescent and even more extensive white fringes to the feathers than the latter.

Incidentally, an old Scots name for the bird is Aiten Chackart chat of the juniper, aitionn, Gaelic for juniper and chackart, 'chacking' bird. 

We often see Ring Ouzel migrating north in early spring after feeding mainly on the berries of Dog Rose, Hawthorn and Junipers and insects during the winter months in the Atlas mountains of Morocco. When they head back north and they land on the Spanish side of The Strait they are often exhausted after this flapping flight. To refuel they needing to feed after using up all that valuable energy and as luck would have it there are many ground junipers bearing fruit, growing wild on this side germinated from seeds in 'poop' brought across unwittingly by previous generations of Ring Ouzels and other thrushes!

On any long periods of migration, feeding on insects would be a quicker source of protein than berries or other fruits, thus re-charging their energy quicker and more effectively to enable them to continue their demanding journey and you can often see them doing just this.

There has been a huge fall of migrating Black Redstarts with hundreds of birds around in the mountains at the weekend. As the nights get cooler, particularly at higher altitude these birds will start dispersing and we already have our wintering birds at our house. A few years ago I put up a roost pole under our outside staircase to encourage Black Redstarts to roost with us and they found the perch straight away.

Other birds in the sierras included lots of Griffon Vulture, Bonelli's Eagle, Sparrowhawk, Meadow Pipit, Water Pipit, Grey Wagtail. Goldfinches Common Blackbirds, Linnets, Northern Wheatears, Mistle Thrush, Common Stonechats, Blue Rock Thrush, Crag Martins, House Martins, Barn Swallow and Red-rumped Swallow. A few distant Booted and Short-toed Eagles were also present in the areas albeit at some distance.

Crag Martin. Essentially a mountain bird although we do have them breeding close to sea-level. Each winter hundreds of these lovely birds roost on the bridge and on the surrounding buildings at Zahara de Los Atunes.

Why not come and see these and other birds during winter with us!