Today I joined a Wingspan day tour to Tarifa and La Janda (thanks Bob) during which we saw some great birds and I got to try out my new camera (nothing special, just something to replace the hit and miss of 'digiscoping')! It was a lovely day after a couple of cold damp ones and the temperature at Barbate reached the low 20s.
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| Tarifa from the Cazalla migration watchpoint |
We arrived at Los Lances beach near Tarifa at about 0930hrs and it was pretty quiet (there were quite a few walkers and joggers around) but we did see Common, Pallid and
Alpine Swift, Sand Martin, House Martin, Barn Swallow,
Short-toed Lark, Crested Lark, Meadow Pipit,
Northern Wheatear, Yellow Wagtail, White Wagtail and Corn Bunting. On the beach there were a few gulls, mainly Yellow-legged Gull and a couple of Lesser black-backed Gull, Little Egret; waders were represented by Kentish Plover, Ringed Plover, Grey Plover, Sanderling and Dunlin.
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| Purple Swamphen |
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| A blockade of Cattle Egret! |
We then moved on to La Janda where we soon spotted
Calandra Lark and a flock of 30+
Collared Pratincole; other species seen around the fields and ditches included Griffon Vulture, Short-toed Eagle, Booted Eagle, Marsh Harrier, Common Buzzard, Common Kestrel, White Stork, Grey Heron,
Great White Egret, Cattle Egret,
Purple Swamphen,
Eurasian Spoonbill, Black-winged Stilt, Common Sandpiper, Little-ringed Plover, European Bee-eater,
Hoopoe, Water Pipit, more Yellow Wagtail, including one totally yellow one (Siberian-like but presumably not),
Spanish Sparrow, Zitting Cisticola, Reed Warbler, Willow Warbler and
Common Whitethroat. Further along the track
in the direction of Benalup we saw
Little Owl, Common Raven, Jackdaw, Red-legged
Partridge, Common Pheasant and many Woodchat Shrike.
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| Little Owl |
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| Bald Ibis at nest |
On the way to Barbate marsh nature reserve we stopped to check out the
Bald Ibis colony just below Vejer de la Frontera; it was good to see the reintroduction project working well with ten or more occupied nests.
At the marshes we logged a distant 70+
Greater Flamingo, Audouin's Gull, Eurasian
Spoonbill,
Pied Avocet, 2x
Stone Curlew, Greenshank,
Redshank, Black-winged Stilt, Dunlin,
Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper,
Sanderling, several more Collared Pratincole, Calandra Lark and Short-toed Lark.
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| Bald Ibis - not the prettiest bird! |
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| Collared Pratincole - now that's pretty! |
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| Collared Pratincole |
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