Andalucian Guides

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.

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 this shot 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.

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.

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

We had a bit of a scare on the 5th of October, 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.

It's not just the smaller passerines that seem incredibly elusive during the autumn raptor migration, but other mammals are just as wary of Man and of course the continual passage of large birds of prey in the area. This young (Iberian) Hare makes a dash for cover as we came around a corner at La Janda.

With only one day of calmer winds a lot of the Short-toed and Booted Eagles managed to cross The Strait. I led a Swiss group for three days last week, organised through Peter Wipraechtiger who runs www.naturus.ch and we took time on two days to visit different locations to observe the raptor roosts and on our day with calmer winds, travelled along The Strait to watch some of the migrants visibly crossing to Africa.

At the forest roosts, activity amongst Short-toed Eagles impressed us all with their agility, speed and sheer grace as hundreds of birds flew around us in the more sheltered valleys.

I keep on saying this to people and have written lots about the impressions that I have, after witnessing this annual spectacle for many years, but I am always completely and utterly blown away by the sheer numbers of Booted and Short-toed Eagle activity and never get tired of watching this spectacle myself and of course sharing the knowledge and experience I have gained over many years living and working on The Strait of Gibraltar...and (here we go again...), if you haven't witnessed this stunning spectacle at least once in your lifetime, then do consider a trip down this way in September-October and let a huge grin break out across your face as the acrobats dispaly right before your eyes!

Hunting Corn Buntings, this young Sparrowhawk flies in at speed, skimming the tops of the cut rice-fields at La Janda. The Sparrowhawk missed getting a kill this time, as the strong wind buffeted us and the bird!

The bird landed and a few seconds later then took off again in pursuit of more Corn Buntings.

One of my day tours group organised by Niki Renshaw from Vejer. What a great day out we had discovering new places, new birds and just enjoying being out with nature. Thanks for being so appreciative and allowing me to tell some dreadful jokes! What lovely people...

The Banded Groundling can be found in southern Europe and there are quite a few sites around The Strait where it breeds.

Big and beautiful, the Lesser Emperor is an extremely agile hunter, coping well in strong winds.

Epaulet Skimmers can be found close to woodland with mountain streams in SW Spain.

One of the projects for the foresters in the Alcornocales Parque Natural was the eradication of the Ecalyptus trees (as you see in front of the group), but they do offer height over the shorter cork-oaks and wild olives which is a great attraction for larger raptors and I think that control, rather than eradication would be a better policy.Always a lovely bird to watch, the incredible Wryneck stops off at La Janda to feed. Often during winter birds like Wryneck, Great Bittern, Long-eared Owl, Bluethroat and Reed Bunting can be seen at various birding locations.

Last year there were a few sightings of Pallid and I expect lots to be seen from now on through the winter all over western Europe. The expansion westwards in Europe, of this essentially eastern species has taken most ornithologists by surprise and looks like set to continue with new breeding pairs reported in Finland, Denmark and Germany.