Saturday 03 September, 1600-1700hrs, Gaucin, partly cloudy, light W-SW wind: After yesterday's heavy rain a brighter day cooler than of late. An early afternoon walk along the top section of the Camino de Gibraltar yielded the following: 15 Honey Buzzard and two groups of 10 European Bee-eater passing N-S, one Short-toed Eagle, lots of juvenile Goldfinch, a few Chaffinch, Melodious Warbler (see photo), Cetti's Warbler, Blackcap and Stonechat. There were still a few Common Swift and House Martin around, too. A little later there was a Sparrowhawk swooping low over our terrace in Calle Convento and an Iberian Chiffchaff in the garden below.

Thursday 01 September: The new month arrived with fresh SW winds and by late afternoon, rain! No time for migrant raptor watching but did see an Osprey whilst down near San Roque golf club. The rain cleared at about 20:30hrs which was a bit late for any birding but did make for a lovely sky - see photo.

Wednesday 31 August, Gaucin: The weather remained the same with a light westerly breeze and lovely clear skies with excellent visibility down to the coast:

A 30 minute watch at 4:30pm from my top terrace produced:

97 Honey Buzzards
2 Short-toed Eagles
1 Booted Eagle

A second watch from 6pm to 7pm produced a lot more:

526 Honey Buzzards
2 Black kites
3 Egyptian Vultures
19 Griffon Vultures
3 Booted Eagles
10 Pallid Swift
19 Bee-eaters

Most of these birds passed over very high up and I needed to scope them for ID's. they all passed over the Castle and flew down the Genal Valley towards Crestellina.

Later I counted 40 Honey Buzards forming a 'kettle' on the thermals at the southern end of Crestellina but they wee probably counted earlier.

To this I can add 192 Honey Buzzard passing behind the castle to the East between 2015-2030hrs - mostly fairly high up but a few visible to the naked eye - Paul

Tuesday 30 August: The light westerly/southwesterly wind continued which produced clear skies and nice fresh air. An hour watch from my top terrace at 4;30pm produced the following:

56 Honey buzzards
63 Bee-eaters
2 Marsh Harriers
2 Egyptian Vultures
4 black kites
50+ Swift sp.
2 Booted Eagles (local pale morphs)
6 Griffon Vultures
1 Blue Rock Thrush

Most of the birds were very high up heading towards the Genal Valley over the Castle, especially the Honey Buzzards.

Tuesday 30 August, Gaucin, very warm, light SW wind: After yesterday's passage of Honey Buzzard low to the East of the village I spent 45min from 1700hrs looking over the Genal valley from the footpath at the end of Calle Arrabalete hoping for a repeat - no such luck, 'just' half-a-dozen Black Kite, 25 European Bee-eater a couple of pale morph Booted Eagle and an Alpine Swift! However, watching from our terrace from 2020-2035hrs I saw 225 Honey Buzzard passing to the East of the village and a distant Blue Rock Thrush on the large rock below the castle.

Monday 29 August, Gaucin, mostly sunny, warm, light SW wind: I didn't have much time to do a concerted 'raptor watch' today but whenever I looked up there didn't seem to be much activity over the village - perhaps due to the change in wind direction? Later in the afternoon there were quite a few Honey Buzzard passing through, mostly low to the east of Gaucin, passing just in front of Sierra Crestelina, 10 at 1700hrs, 8 at 1830hrs then more with approx. 150 between 1930 and 1950hrs. Interestingly during the heavier passage to the east there were 2 moving very low NW-SE over the village and a group of 4 moving NE-SW - presumably these originated from somewhere different than the main flock?

Sunday 28 August: reported by Wingspanner.....

Most of my sightings concur with Pauls:

Between 17:30 and 19:30 4 of us sat on my top terrace on the eastern side of the village,

we recorded the following:

1250 Honey Buzzards

22 Black kites

5 Booted Eagles (4 pale)

1 Short-toed Eagle

25 Griffon Vultures

110 Bee-eaters

2 Pallid Swifts

2 Common Swifts

1 Blue Rock Thrush