Birdwatch Gaucin: Saturday 06 September 2014, Gaucin, sunny, light W-NW wind, 29C

From Wednesday to Friday, three successive days of westerly winds brought very little in the way of migrating raptors over the village with just a few Honey Buzzard to note. Temperatures of 32-34C also meant less inclination to be outside observing, too!

Today it was a little cooler and there was a flurry of activity mid-afternoon, as follows:

1600hrs: 50+ European Bee-eater
1615hrs: 15 Honey Buzzard, 1 Black Kite
1630hrs: 3 Honey Buzzard
1700hrs: 11 Honey Buzzard, 15 Black Kite, 1 pale morph Booted Eagle
1800hrs: 43 Honey Buzzard, 1 pale morph Booted Eagle, 1 adult Egyptian Vulture

There are still are still a few Swift sp. feeding at height during the day, again including one Alpine Swift today, but the last (Common) Swift in Calle Convento was seen on Thursday evening; there are a dozen or so House Martin around and a couple of Barn Swallow. There was an autumnal feel on a walk along Camino de Avedin at 0900hrs this morning as the carob or algarroba harvest was in full swing - though at a reward of just 30 centimos a kilo there wasn't much enthusiasm amongst those doing the harvesting - there were some autumnal birds, too with both Pied Flycatcher and a lovely male Common Redstart both putting in an appearance; also seen were 6 Common Raven, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Spotless Starling, several Firecrest, Short-toed Treecreeper, Eurasian Nuthatch, Crested Tit, Long-tailed Tit, European Robin (numbers increasing as wintering birds move in/through), Blackcap, Sardinian Warbler, Chiffchaff sp., and Bonelli's Warbler; Green Woodpecker was heard.