Highlights: a pair of Little Swifts in a nearby town (may provide the first confirmed breeding in Spain this year?) and a Pterodroma, presumed Fea’s Petrel on a seawatch off Cape Trafalgar (unrecorded from mainland Spain?).
Introduction
This was a two week family holiday with my wife, Gerda to the Costa de la Luz where we booked a house on the outskirts of La Palmar near Conil de la Frontera for a fortnight. We were joined for the second week by Gerda’s sister, Betti from Germany so my birding activities were restricted to the period dawn-dusk only, although some days even this was tricky and entailed visits to towns and villages, shops even. However, even shopping at a nearby supermarket came up trumps with a Little Swift around the square during the first week; only to be joined by a second bird in the second week…I never did get to step inside the supermarket!
Getting there
We flew Bournemouth- Malaga on a Thomson’s flight for £50 each (plus £46 taxes) and collected a Ford Fiesta hire car through Europa Goldcar rental for £180 for the two weeks. We paid an extra £49 for extra car insurance, full tank etc but this was still good value - as the long queue to the desk upon our arrival testified. It was an hour and a half before we collected the keys, the other car hire desks all quiet by comparison. We then faced a 2.5hr drive to our destination at midnight but on the toll motorway it was easy and worth the extra £9 at that time of night. Nightingales and Little Owls greeted us on arrival at our house, ‘Casa Pepa’.
Books
I took the Collins Bird Guide, Gosney’s Finding Birds in Southern Spain, John Butler’s Birdwatching on Spain’s Southern Coast and Garcia & Paterson’s Where to Watch Birds: Southern & Western Spain as well as some others on butterflies, reptiles etc. Normally I like to find my own places and discover my own birds when I’m abroad and tend to avoid the better known really busy birding locations (we only visited the Coto Donana once) but the above guides were still very useful and certainly help you locate a local hotspot quickly – invaluable if you’re short of time.
Weather & bird migration
Hot most of the time with temperatures 22-30 degrees C. This is known as a windy coast and we only had a few calm days. The winds were easterly throughout (1-2 days otherwise) and up to force 6 one day. This was good for migrants (although we could have done with some overnight rain) and on our second day, a SE4-6 brought us 7000 Swifts coming in off the sea in two hours. These were joined by 2 Alpines, 8 Pallids, 5 Marsh & 13 Montagu’s Harriers, 30 Black Kites, 14 Collared Pratincoles, 1 Caspian, 90 Black, 18 Little, 16 Common & 3 Gull-billed terns and a steady northerly passage of Bee-eaters totalling 413 by dusk.
Places visited
We fell in love with the quiet coastal belt between Conil de la Frontera and Cape Trafalgar. Only our village El Palmar stands in the way along this beautiful stretch of undeveloped sand dunes, fields and lagoons. If you only know the (dreadful) hotel city stretch from Tarifa to Malaga don’t let that put you off - it’s not like that! With heavy rain for weeks prior to our arrival the wild flowers were magnificent and worth the trip for these alone. We spent most of our time here therefore with only occasional excursions away, although the pull of Tarifa only 50km south east as the Kite flies with its promises of storks and raptor migration tempted me on a few occasions…but this was a family holiday after all and even I admitted the noise from those blasted wind turbines everywhere don’t exactly make for a pleasant day out.
We went to the Cadiz side of the Coto Donana (to the Bonanza Salinas & Algaida stone pine woods) one day, the Laguna de Medina (for Purple Swamphen & Crested Coot), Cabo Roche (for seabirds), the villages of Vejer de la Frontera & Medina Sidonia (for breeding Lesser Kestrels), Barbate pine wood, La Janda, Sierra de la Plata (dipped on White-rumped Swift there – too early?), and near Tarifa, the beach of Playa de los Lances, the inland Sanctuary de Na.Sa.de la Luz and Facinas. Cabo Trafalgar with its coastal lagoon was visited most days for sea watching and to reminisce over my last visit here sleeping rough in the sand dunes in a gale in 1975 on my way to the Coto!
The Ornithological Station of Tarifa
After discovering the Little Swift on our second day at Conil de la Frontera I was keen to tell somebody but in spite of two weeks in the field I never met another birder! However, we made the effort to report it to three volunteers manning the OST on the northern outskirts of the town along the E5 after the turning to the Sanctuary de Na.Sa.de la Luz. Two of the volunteers there, Teo and Salva were extremely helpful and informative. They told me for example of a Rufous Bush Robin location (sadly I was unable to check it out) but the building they are in (an old converted stable) desperately needs restoring. The local council, however have recently decided to start charging the OST for using the facility, which as a charity they cannot afford. If this valuable (free) service to birders and the wider public is to continue, please help by contacting the website here, http://cocn.tarifainfo.com/forms/use/eot/form1.html and voice your support by sending the text (reproduced in English in italics below) with your name etc and hitting the Enviar (send) button.
Mr. Alcade de Tarifa:
With the following electronic mail I wish to give my support to the Ornithological Group Black Stork in its requests to this City Council concerning the Ornithological Station of Tariff (OST) and to add my name to the petition in respect of the following:
I hereby support the request that the Building of the Ornithological Station of Tariff is to be declared by this City Council a building of special interest and municipal utility as well as of public interest.
Since the City Council is the proprietor, in addition to its participation and as beneficiary of the OST, the City Council with a greater economic capacity than the OST would have to be the one who assumed the operating expenses as well as the municipal rates derived from the maintenance or rehabilitation of the building. The building and the important activities including projects of the OST will be held accountable and included in the municipal budget as appropriate.
Yours faithfully,
The birds
We had 154 species in total. I didn’t count a passing flock of 13 sparrows on the last day which looked suspiciously like Spanish Sparrows, otherwise our tally would have matched the 155 species recorded during a fortnight holiday near Malaga in Sept 2005. I always write up a log in the evening and pencil in an estimate of new individuals for each species to give an idea how many I see during the holiday (see how understanding my long-suffering wife is?) so in the list below these are shown in parenthesis against each species.
Little Grebe (2). Only seen at Laguna de Tardo, Coto Donana.
Great Crested Grebe (46). 26 Coto and 20 Laguna de Medina
Black-necked Grebe (7). 6 Bonanza Salinas, 1 Laguna de Medina
Pterodroma petrel, presumed Fea’s Petrel! One watched flying north off Cabo Trafalgar on 27th @ 0815 hours during a passage of Cory’s & Balearics Shearwaters, Gannets & Bonxies banked away west after c45 seconds and was lost to view. Details will be submitted to Spanish Rarities Committee in due course.
Cory’s Shearwater (144). Small numbers most days but east winds not great for seawatching.
Balearic Shearwater (40). Max of only 30/day.
Gannet (550). Daily.
Cormorant (24). 20 @ Cadiz on 25th was max.
Little Egret (70). Max of 63 around the Coto on 17th; only 1-3 in Conil area.
Cattle Egret (1000). Widespread.
Grey Heron (13).
Purple Heron (1). Single bird at La Palmar 18th.
Night Heron (13). 12 nesting on island at Laguna de Tardo. I past our house at El Palmar 27th.
Squacco Heron (1). Single at Laguna de Tardo.
White Stork (375). Already with young in the nest when we arrived. Widespread breeding bird. A migrant flock of 259 north over Vejer de la Frontera on 19th was the highlight.
Spoonbill (11). 5 Bonanza & 6 La Janda pools.
Greater Flamingo (430). 424 Bonanza area, 6 La Janda pools.
Gadwall (5).
Marbled Teal (7). Bonanza-Algaida area.
Mallard (430). 300 at the La Janda pools was the highest count.
Pintail (2). Singles Laguna de Tardo and Laguna de Medina.
Red Crested Pochard (19). 13 Laguna de Tardo & area and 6 Laguna de Medina.
Pochard (61). 36 Laguna de Tardo & area, 20 Rio Guadalhorce, Malaga and 5 Laguna de Medina.
White-headed Duck (52). 47 Laguna de Tardo & area and 5 Rio Guadalhorce, Malaga.
Common Scoter (1). Drake off Rio Guadalhorce, Malaga on 21st.
Osprey (1). One at Rio Guadalhorce, Malaga on 21st.
Short-toed Eagle (18). Seen on 9 dates.
Booted Eagle (17). Seen on 6 dates.
Egyptian Vulture (6). Seen 4 dates only.
Griffon Vulture (200). Seen most days.
Black Kite (296). Seen most days but a flock of 76 over our house at El Palmar on our first day (in strong east winds) wasn’t repeated.
Red Kite (1). Coto Donana 17th.
Marsh Harrier (19). Regular at El Palmar/Conil with migrants arriving in off the sea.
Montagu’s Harrier (48). Seen every day – wonderful! As above species, regularly seen coming in off the sea at El Palmar but difficult to be sure if hunting birds there were the same every day (I have assumed thus in the tally).
Common Buzzard (6). Only seen 4 dates.
Honey Buzzard (13). Not quite the 100,000 I was hoping for….
Sparrowhawk (4).
Hobby (1). Cape Trafalgar 21st.
Kestrel (100). Common & widespread.
Lesser Kestrel (21). Minimum of 15 in Vejer de la Frontera and 6 Medina Sidonia.
Pheasant (5). La Janda area.
Red-legged Partridge (7). At least two pairs La Palmar-Conil.
Quail (1). Flushed at La Palmar 23rd.
Moorhen (20).
Purple Swamphen (1). Single bird at Laguna de Medina.
Coot (188). 11 Laguna de Tardo, 177 Laguna de Medina.
Crested Coot (1). Laguna de Medina.
Oystercatcher (12). Flock of 12 at Barbate coast on 16th.
Black-winged Stilt (104). Various wetlands.
Avocet (146). Ditto
Stone Curlew (5). El Palmar-Conil.
Ringed Plover (52).
Little Ringed Plover (6).
Kentish Plover (53).
Grey Plover (6).
Lapwing (1). Algaida Salinas.
Sanderling (200). Widespread along coast.
Little Stint (1). Conil rivermouth 22nd.
Dunlin (144). Mostly Bonanza area.
Curlew Sandpiper. 172 Bonanza 17th.
Bar-tailed Godwit (1). Barbate coast 16th.
Whimbrel (16).
Redshank (129). 118 Bonanza area 17th.
Greenshank (9). 6 Bonanza area was max.
Common Sandpiper (29). 11 @ Cape Trafalgar on 28th was max.
Turnstone (17).
Collared Pratincole (250). Daily. Widespread.
Bonxie (10). On seawatches off Cape Trafalgar.
Yellow-legged Gull (500).
Lesser Black-backed Gull (150).
Audouin’s Gull (122). Daily El Palmar – Conil de la Frontera (up to 104 birds) with others at Cabo Roche, Cabo Trafalgar and Barbate.
Black-headed Gull (66).
Mediterranean Gull (2). Tarifa beach and Rio Guadalhorce beach, Malaga.
Slender-billed Gull (220). Bonanza Salinas.
Caspian Tern (13). El Palmar & Cape Trafalgar on 4 dates.
Gull-billed Tern (16). 3 El Palmar 16th, 12 Bonanza 17th and 1 Playa de Los Lances, Tarifa 18th.
Sandwich Tern (252).
Common Tern (71).
Little Tern (68).
Whiskered Tern (2). Only seen at La Janda pools 24th.
Black Tern (375). Max 145 up the coast off El Palmar on 17th.
Razorbill (8). At sea off Rio Guadalhorce, Malaga.
Feral Pigeon (?). Daily.
Woodpigeon (13).
Collared Dove (220). Widespread Cadiz-Tarifa-Malaga.
Turtle Dove (67).
Little Owl (5). A pair at our house Casa Pepa, El Palmar.
Cuckoo (6).
Common Swift (12000). 7000 in off the sea at El Palmar in two hours on 16th.
Pallid Swift (15). Only seen on 4 dates, all El Palmar-Conil area.
Alpine Swift (3). 2 El Palmar 16th and 1 there next day.
Little Swift (2). Single bird discovered in a nearby town on 16th, 17th, 20th, 23rd & 24th was joined by a second bird on 25th. Present with Common Swifts and House Martins it was often difficult to locate but usually found within 10 minutes of scanning over the rooftops. Reported to the Ornithological Station at Tarifa, who knew nothing of these birds. Although this species has been reported regularly in recent years in the small colony of White-rumped Swifts north of Tarifa, it has yet to be proved to breed on mainland Spain and is still a very rare bird there. A town would provide an easier opportunity to prove breeding perhaps than the sites in the hills.
Bee-eater (935). Common migrant in flocks up to 50.
Hoopoe (17).
Crested Lark (240). Common & widespread.
Thekla Lark (2). Singles at Embalse de Almodovar reservoir, Facinas 23rd and Sierra de la Plata 24th but doubtless overlooked.
Skylark (1). Single at El Palmar 17th & 19th presumably a migrant.
Calandra Lark (40). Daily.
Short-toed Lark (11).
Sand Martin (23).
Crag Martin (5).
Swallow (230). Already with young recently fledged at our house the day we arrived, 15th April.
Red-rumped Swallow (17). No more than 6/day.
House Martin (370).
Tawny Pipit (3). El Palmar-Conil and Playa de Los Lances.
Tree Pipit (4). All Cape Trafalgar 15th.
Blue-headed Wagtail (1). Probably overlooked.
Yellow Wagtail (10). Ditto
Spanish Wagtail (30).
Flava Wagtail sp? (74). Flocks in flight not sub-specifically identified.
White Wagtail (3).
Redstart (1). El Palmar 19th.
Whinchat (1). El Palmar 18th.
Stonechat (60).
Northern Wheatear (28).
Black-eared Wheatear (2). Near Vejer de la Frontera 23rd and in the Sierra de la Plata 24th.
Blue Rock Thrush (2). Zahara de los Atunes and Sierra de la Plata only.
Blackbird (80).
Song Thrush (1). Conil de la Frontera 24th.
Wren (7).
Nightingale (85). Singing everywhere.
Cetti’s Warbler (19).
Melodious Warbler (3). Single Bonanza and a pair displaying at Laguna de Medina.
Zitting Cisticola (55).
Western Olivaceous Warbler (4).
Great Reed Warbler (12).
Reed Warbler (7).
Sedge Warbler (2).
Sardinian Warbler (170).
Subalpine Warbler (9).
Common Whitethroat (5).
Garden Warbler (1).
Blackcap (2).
Orphean Warbler (1). Single at Conil de la Frontera lagoon on 20th.
Dartford Warbler (1). Single at Sierra de la Plata 24th.
Common Chiffchaff (1).
Willow Warbler (8).
Spotted Flycatcher (2).
Pied Flycatcher (4).
Blue Tit (6).
Great Tit (23).
Short-toed Treecreeper (3).
Woodchat (18).
Raven (15).
Azure-winged Magpie (?). Heard only at Algaida stone pine forest on 17th.
Jackdaw (50).
Spotless Starling (1000). Flock of 300 at El Palmar was our biggest flock.
Golden Oriole (1). Male past our balcony 18th.
House Sparrow (?). Common and widespread.
Chaffinch (40). Stone pine forests.
Greenfinch (190).
Goldfinch (200).
Linnet (132).
Serin (43).
Cirl Bunting (3)
Corn Bunting (220). Common and widespread.
Other:
Butterflies & moths – Meadow Brown, Wall Brown, Large White, Bath White, Clouded Yellow, Red Admiral, Moroccan Orange-tip, Spanish Festoon, Small Copper, Hummingbird Hawkmoth & Striped Hawkmoth.
Lizards – Spiny-footed Lizard, Iberian Wall Lizard, and Moorish Gecko.