Tuesday 26 January 2016, Gaucin, partly cloudy, light-fresh W-NW wind, 16C

On Monday, a quick mid-morning look at the west slope of El Hacho produced nothing exceptional, a few Griffon Vulture, Common Kestrel, 6 Red-legged Partridge, 4 Song Thrush, Black Redstart, 5+ Stonechat, Sardinian Warbler, 6 Corn Bunting and Rock Bunting. No sign of the Southern Grey Shrike and, so far this winter, no Ring Ouzel. Maybe the birds were keeping their heads down after the 6.3 magnitude earthquake centred in the Alboran sea east of Gibraltar early this morning!

This morning a stroll along the Camino de Gibraltar was rewarded with the wonderful sight of a pale morph Booted Eagle tangling with a Common Buzzard whilst a Peregrine looked on - all three birds in one 'frame' of the binoculars! Add to them 30+ Griffon Vulture, Eurasian Sparrowhawk and Common Kestrel to give six raptors within 30min - not bad going. Also seen were Common Raven, Spotless Starling, Song Thrush, Meadow Pipit, 10+ Black Redstart, Stonechat, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Common Chiffchaff (2 singing), Blackcap, Sardinian Warbler, Cetti's Warbler (heard), Linnet, Chaffinch, Hawfinch and Serin. This afternoon a male Common Crossbill flew over Calle del Pino/Calle Convento; House Martin numbers in this area now in excess of 20.

Black Kite have been spotted crossing the straits at Gibraltar so we should expect to see some here in the not too distant future.....

Booted Eagle