Birdwatch Gaucin: Tuesday 12 July 2016, Gaucin, sunny, light-fresh W-NW wind, 35C

A very hot day today that coincided with the first 'wildfire' of the summer, between La Linea and San Roque. The fire, almost certainly arson, burned for most of the day and has no doubt destroyed a swathe of scarce coastal habitat. Let's hope there are no more.
A trip to Gaucin station yesterday enabled a visit to the Alcornocales natural park on the other side of the Guadiaro river valley.....all great, apart from the fact that the temperature was 38C which made birding pretty much impossible!
Locally we've had some stunning displays from the Swift sp. with 250+ in the air south of the village from 20:00hrs most days. Occasionally a Booted Eagle gets careless and is swamped by the smaller, more agile fliers! The European Bee-eater are just starting to move around again with small groups of 10+ swirling noisily over the village early morning and late afternoon.