For a pdf version of this report click here
For this trip we chose again to return to Spain, birding the Cadiz region of Andalucia, located on the western edge of The Strait of Gibraltar, close to Cape Trafalgar and the towns of Vejer de la Frontera and Barbate. This is close to Europe's most southerly point and one of the busiest avian migration spots in the world. We chose to base ourselves just outside Barbate for 4 nights at Hoopoe Cottage which belongs to Stephen & Pattie Daly & family of Andalucian Guides. We also arranged for Stephen to guide us for 2 of the days (11th and 12th).
Day 1 - Tues 10th May 2011
The trip began at Cardiff for the 1210 BMI Baby flight to Malaga, landing 1535 Spanish time. We picked up the hire car. During the 2 and a half hours drive to La Oliva we encountered numerous White Stork, Turtle Dove, Bee-eater and Spotless Starling. We were given a nice welcome by Stephen & Patty and dropped a few things off at the cottage where we noted the resident Nightingale, Serin and Corn Buntings. We then went out for a meal at a nearby restaurant where there was a roost of 50 Cattle Egret.
Day 2 – Weds 11th May 2011 (Mainly Guadalquivir Basin - hot and sunny, some cloud)
The theme of the trip began with a very sociable 0900 start at the cottage following a good dawn chorus including Cetti’s Warbler. Visible migration was evident with the first of many Honey Buzzards. We headed North-west to the Guadalquivir Basin, our first stop outside Barbate produced Lesser Kestrel, Greater Flamingo, Hoopoe and Pallid Swift. Stephen then took us to a nest site for one of our target birds Northern Bald Ibis, 2 pairs plus 3 chicks. These re-introduced species seem to be doing well in the region. We moved off to drive the off-road tracks around Mesas De Asta. There was much activity here including Spoonbill (left leg ring C611, right leg metal ring), Gadwall, Common Pochard, Greater Flamingo, hunting Collared Pratincole, Avocet, Black-winged Stilt, Kentish Plover, Ringed Plover, Lapwing, Dunlin, Slender-billed Gull and Red-rumped Swallow which were nesting in drainage pipes. We stopped for morning coffee and delicious toast covered in olive oil and tomato sauce. Stephen took us to a local shop rammed with all sorts of goods including wines, sherries and olive oil. I opted to buy some olive oil to take home. We moved on to the Bonanza saltpans and Algaida wetlands via some nice well-flowered areas. Butterflies included Painted Lady, Clouded Yellow, Swallow-tail, Small and Large White plus a Lesser Emperor dragonfly. We encountered Great Cormorant, Night Heron and Glossy Ibis together with overhead Booted Eagle, Little Tern, Short-toed Lark and the first of many Zitting Cisticola, Yellow Wagtail and Linnet. The salt pans at Bonanza were full of waders including 1 Golden Plover, 50+ Grey plover, 100+ Ringed Plover, many Curlew Sandpipers, Redshank, Bar-tailed Godwit, Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Common Sandpiper, 500+ Dunlin, a Whimbrel and 2 Little Stint. A little later we encountered 25 Greater Flamingo, 2 Red crested Pochard, 50+ Slender-billed Gull and then excellent views of the first of our target birds 5 Marbled Teal.
We took lunch (3 course menu del journo at Venta el Raspa for about 10 Euros) near Bonanza. This was most pleasant, fish with large mixed salad and a nice glass of wine followed by coffee. Soon after at 1515h we stopped by a small pool to see 3 drake White-headed Ducks who performed admirably for us! A detour to the Algaida forest produced nesting Booted Eagles, seven birds in all seen, plus 2 Red Kite, Spectacled Warbler, Sardinian Warbler, Short-toed Treecreeper (heard) 2 Raven and nesting Tree Sparrow. We travelled back towards Barbate via Las Noveros where we encountered the fascinating large Oscillated Lizard; unfortunately one had been run over so we re-named it ‘Squasholated Lizard’! The grassland areas we stopped at produced 10+ Stonechat, 6+ Linnet and numerous Griffon Vulture, Woodpigeon, Common Kestrel and Spectacled Warbler. To round the day off nicely a superb Black-winged Kite flew through. (92 species were encountered today, including several Tawny Owls that night back at Hoopoe Cottage)
Day 3 Thu 12th May 2011 (Mainly SE to Facinas, Sierra de la Plata & Tarifa - Warm, very breezy in some places)
We enjoyed a repeat of the previous day’s dawn chorus plus 2 Bee-eaters over the garden and set off at 0900 towards a campsite amongst some woodland outside Barbate. As we entered the woods Stephen briefly spotted an Eagle Owl disappearing into thicker woods. We spent a few hours here as there was a much visible raptor migration - hundreds of Honey Buzzard again plus Northern Bald Ibis, 3 Griffon Vulture, dozens of Black Kite, Booted Eagle and some Short-toed Eagle. Also noted in the woodland were Green-ringed Dragonfly, Iberian Green Woodpecker (heard), Pallid Swift, 2 male Cuckoo, Western Orphean Warbler, Sardinian Warbler, Spotted Flycatcher, Blue Tit and Woodchat Shrike. We also spent some time carefully looking to see if we could see any ground-roosting Red-necked Nightjar. We moved off towards Facinas and Tarifa, but stopped at Mazanete on our way down to the coastal grasslands. A superb Little Owl sat still for us! As we descended to the coast we saw 2 Spoonbill, a Short-toed Eagle, several Calandra Larks, Tawny Pipit, again numerous Zitting Cisticola, 2 Woodchat Shrike, Greenfinch and Serin. A Red Admiral was also noted as strong winds were encountered. The military were busy, so we backtracked and headed off to the Sierra de la Plata. As we climbed up the Sierra , the African continent could be seen in the distance across the Strait of Gibraltar, Morocco was tantalisingly close, but it was hazy and we were a bit disappointed that the views weren’t as good as we’d hoped for. Still we were able to pick out several raptors miles out into the strait on their way north, Griffon Vultures, Honey Buzzard and 3 Egyptian Vulture (dark 3rd year birds). On dry land were Blue Rock Thrush, a Chaffinch and Common Swift, but no sign of any rarer Swifts at the former traditional cave site above Bolonia. Apparently White-rumped & Little Swift do not nest there any more. At Betis we found a Thekla Lark, Wren, Nightingale, Stonechat and Blackbird all in among a flock of goats and herds of school children out on a trip. We beat a retreat and stopped for lunch near the coast. It was a similar menu to yesterday, delicious and good value. After lunch we moved on to Tarifa where it had become very windy. We saw Spanish Sparrow as we climbed up to Alcornales. A cracking pair of Black-eared Wheatear performed very well for us, especially the male of the pale-throated variety. Butterflies encountered were Wall and Red Admiral. A little later we stopped at a slightly more sheltered lightly wooded slope and enjoyed at least 5 Western Bonelli’s Warbler, another pair of Black-eared Wheatear (dark-throated this time), a Short-toed Eagle, 2 Woodchat Shrike and a Spotted Flycatcher. On the way back to our base around 1800h we finished a great day in style with a superb male Montagu’s Harrier at Tahivilla.
After freshening up and making sure we were well covered up, Nev and I returned to the woodland at 2030h following Stephen’s tip-off, to try and catch up with nocturnal species. Initially we had good views of Iberian Green Woodpecker (‘sharpei’ race), Small Copper, and Lesser Kestrel. Suddenly an Eagle Owl flew up from the woods and landed on a cliff face and just sat there for over half an hour calling – amazing luck! A lifer for Mike (at last!). This was the beginning of a purple patch as not long after what was probably the female Eagle Owl flew up and landed on top of a tree for a few minutes. We moved back into the woods and soon heard the “clip-clop” sound of Red-necked Nightjar. Pretty much by 2130h we had amazingly close views of at least 3 flying around us and landing on the path. Later on in the night when we left, they landed on the path down to 20 feet in front of the car, giving truly awesome views in the headlights. These two species were lifers for both of us.
Day 4 – Fri 13th May 2011 (still very windy, cold in the wind, but warm out of it)
We had a day to ourselves today and chose to retrace some of the sites we had visited previously towards Sierra de la Plata and Tarifa. We hoped for a chance of encountering some of the Ruppell’s Griffon Vultures that had been passing through recently as we had not encountered any yet, probably as conditions had not been ideal with the wind. We stopped in among the wind turbines near La Zarzuela and encountered mainly commoner species including some Calandra Larks and White Storks. We then moved to Bolonia by the coast for morning coffee and noted Sanderling, Kentish Plover, Red-rumped Swallow, Crested Lark, Dunlin and Ringed Plover on the beach and around the lagoon there. A Tern sp flew east. Again the wind caused us to add a layer of clothing and we encountered 50+ Griffon Vultures, so we moved back up on to the Sierra de la Plata to try our luck there for some more raptors and scored with a Hobby, 2 Short-toed Eagle, 2 more Griffons, 4+ Crag Martins at the ‘swift’ caves, Sardinian Warbler and a Woodchat Shrike by the N340.
We decided to move back east and try out another suggested site for some Swifts near La Zarzuela, so we found a nice spot near a small farm with good views of some distant rocky hills and set up our scopes. This was a productive area. Although we only definitely saw ‘Common’ Swifts, we also enjoyed good views of 2 Booted Eagle, 2 Short-toed Eagle, 3 Turtle Doves and a Melodious Warbler. We took lunch at 1330h at Rest El Valenciao outside Barbate and paid a little bit more than the previous days because we fancied a nice Veal steak. We noted Brimstone and Swallow-tail butterflies in the woodland nearby. After lunch we decided to spend the afternoon north of Vejer de la Frontera in some different habitat to try our luck for some different species. We took some tracks north off the A2225 between Benalup and Los Badalejos - 3 Black Kite, a Common Buzzard, a Bee-eater and 3 Melodious Warblers were the highlight. We re-joined the A2228 and continued north to drive the causeways of the Embalse de Barbate, pretty quiet, lots of Corn Bunting and Serin, plus 20+ Mallard, 2 White Stork and 2 Common Kestrel noted. We finished the afternoon off in Barbate back at the cottage and joined Stephen on his roof for a late evening raptor movement.
The wind had dropped and we enjoyed a magnificent show as several hundred Honey Buzzards flew low north together with a Griffon and several Pallid Swift. A nice finish to the trip.
Day 5 – Sat 14th May 2011
It was an early start to drive the 2 hours east to Malaga to catch our late morning flight back. Pretty uneventful with mainly the commoner species encountered earlier in our trip noted. We arrived safely in Cardiff by midafternoon. We finished with a trip total of 117 bird species (Mike had 5 lifers, Neville 2. These are highlighted in the Species List below.
The whole trip cost us about £600 each including flights, hire car, petrol, airport parking, cottage hire, 2 days guiding, meals and miscellaneous spending. We express our sincere thanks to Stephen and Patty for the welcome and hospitality and would gladly recommend Hoopoe cottage as a great base for a birding break. I’d say it is an ideal base to accommodate birding widows and children too due to the nice swimming pool and generally relaxed and quiet surroundings.
Whilst we have planned many bird trips abroad together, it was a good plan to sit back and get someone else to do all the work for a change and lead us to the birds! We may not have cleaned up in tick-crazed style, that was not what we wanted to do, rather bag a few lifers and enjoy the region and we certainly did that!
More information on Andalucian Guides can be found on http://www.andalucianguides.com/main.htm
Neville’s website can be found at http://ecologycymru.com
Mike Cram
Species List (117):
Gadwall
Mallard
Marbled Teal
White-headed Duck
Red-crested Pochard
Common Pochard
Red-legged Partridge
Little Grebe
Greater Flamingo
Great Cormorant
Night Heron
Cattle Egret
Little Egret
Grey Heron
White Stork
Glossy Ibis
Northern Bald Ibis
Spoonbill
Honey Buzzard
Black Kite
Red Kite
Egyptian Vulture
Black-winged Kite
Griffon Vulture
Booted Eagle
Short-toed Eagle
Marsh Harrier
Montagu’s Harrier
Common Buzzard
Lesser Kestrel
Common Kestrel
Hobby
Water Rail (hd)
Moorhen
Common Coot
Oystercatcher
Black-winged Stilt
Avocet
Collared Pratincole
Ringed Plover
Kentish Plover
Golden Plover
Grey Plover
Lapwing
Sanderling
Little Stint
Curlew Sandpiper
Dunlin
Black-tailed Godwit
Bar-tailed Godwit
Whimbrel
Redshank
Green Sandpiper (hd)
Common Sandpiper
Black-headed Gull
Slender-billed Gull
Yellow-legged Gull
Little Tern
Whiskered Tern
Rock Dove
Woodpigeon
Collared Dove
Turtle Dove
Common Cuckoo
Little Owl
Tawny Owl (hd)
Eagle Owl
Red-necked Nightjar
Common Swift
Pallid Swift
Bee-eater
Hoopoe
Ib. Green Woodpecker
Calandra Lark G.
Short-toed Lark
Crested Lark
Thekla Lark
Crag Martin
Sand Martin
Barn Swallow
House Martin
Red-rumped Swallow
Tawny Pipit
Yellow Wagtail
Wren
Nightingale
Stonechat
Black-eared Wheatear
Blue Rock Thrush
Blackbird
Cetti’s Warbler (hd)
Zitting Cisticola
Reed Warbler (hd)
Great Reed Warbler (hd)
Melodious Warbler
Blackcap (hd)
Western Orphean Warbler
Spectacled Warbler
Sardinian Warbler
Western Bonelli’s Warbler
Spotted Flycatcher
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Short-toed Treecreeper (hd)
Woodchat Shrike
Spotless Starling
Jackdaw
Common Raven
House Sparrow
Spanish Sparrow
Tree Sparrow
Chaffinch
Serin
Greenfinch
Goldfinch
Common Linnet
Corn Bunting
Butterflies:
Painted Lady, Clouded Yellow, Large White, Small White, Swallow-tail, Red Admiral, Brimstone, Small Copper, Wall
Dragonflies:
Lesser Emperor, Green-ringed Dragonfly