Our visit to Gibraltar was one of the highlights of this week-long tour and eagerly anticipated by the group. We arrived at our pre-arranged time of 9am and met Jill, one of the resident ringers. She had just done the rounds, checking the nets and ad a small collection of trapped birds to process. We saw her ring a couple of Blue Tits, Sardinian Warblers, a Willow Warbler and the star bird was a Common Nightingale.

The view across the Strait of Gibraltar with Morocco in view

Her second round produced more Sardinian Warblers and a re-trap, the Nightingale. We made a short walk in search of the Barbary Partridge, we never had a sniff of one, but we did see one of the local Peregrine Falcons, a Short-toed Eagle and a Honey Buzzard drifted over at a great height.

Jill Yeoman, the local ringer at Jew's gate Ringing staion

a Nightingale just being released

Driving down the ‘rock’ we visited Europa Point and found it impossible to park the bus so I dropped off the group and parked ½ mile along the road and waited for them, I saw a few Black Kites and some more Honey Buzzards during my wait. The group saw some Cory’s Shearwaters, a Mediterranean Shag ‘desmarrestii’ and after meeting up again we stood by the roadside and scanned the cliffs where we had excellent views of a couple of Blue Rock Thrushes and we saw a juvenile Peregrine take a small bird (possibly a Yellow Wagtail), we saw it eating this tiny snack high up on a cliff ledge.

 a juvenile Blue Rock Thrush performed well for us near Europa Point

After that excitement we drove round to a supermarket where we bought lunch and I topped the minibus with very cheap fuel, diesel was just £1.09/litre (those were the days!).

We ate our lunch back in Spain at the pine woodlands near San Roque called Pinar del Rey, within 30 seconds of getting out of the bus Sue found a Crested Tit!! Our walk a little later produced lots of sightings of Crested Tits as well as Jay, Short-toed Treecreeper, Blue Tit, Great Tit, our first Robin, also Chaffinches and Firecrests. A few Sardinian Warblers were also noted and we saw Booted Eagles and Griffon Vultures overhead.

Pinar del Rey where we ate our picnic lunch and saw some good birds

The track than runs along the perimeter of the huge reservoir near Castellar, called the Embalse de Guadarranque, was our next destination, but first we stopped on the bridge over the Rio Guadarranque. There we saw very little, not even a Monarch Butterfly which are usually quite common there. We noted Sardinian Warblers, Blue Tit and I got onto a female Orphean Warbler which showed briefly. At the viewing point which overlooks the reservoir we watched my favourite butterfly, the Two-tailed Pasha, what a magnificent beast. It was very windy up there and we didn’t stay too long and during the drive back down to the main road a female Common Redstart flew across the road in front of the bus.

a poor record shot of the Two=tailed Pasha

Finally we drove up to the Castillo de Castellar, this fortified village has a colourful history, it sits on a pinnacle of rock commanding views for miles in all directions, a very important strategic position. The main gatehouse provides a nesting site for Lesser Kestrels and leter we saw a single male flying high over the castle. We spent a good hour watching the sky, hoping for a sighting of White-rumped Swift, we sat in the shade where we sheltered from the wind.

a view of Gibratar from the Castillo de Castellar

Alpine Swifts and a Pallid Swift were noted, we watched House Martins, Crag Martins and Barn Swallows but we never saw a White-rumped Swift. Raptors we always in view, both Griffon and Egyptian Vultures, Short-toed and Booted Eagles were also seen with a couple of Honey Buzzards thrown in. A huge flock of White Storks drifted over at a very great height giving us a little reminder that the migration south was still very much in progress.

We left the area around 5:30pm and before we drove back to Tarifa we stopped for the, now obligatory, ice-cream. We arrived at the hotel at 6:30pm, some of the group watched Zitting Cisticolas in the field adjacent to the hotel before retiring for the day.