LOS LANCES BEACH – CAZALLA RAPTOR WATCH-POINT - TARIFA WHALE WATCHING TRIP – EL ESTRECHO CAFÉ – EL BUJEO RECREATION PARK
WEATHER: all day sunshine, top temp. 30C
We had another great day on this Tarifa migration tour even though the number of migrants, especially raptors are extremely low! I have come to the conclusion that the main Honey Buzzard passage is now a week earlier, the last week of August!
We found some migrants in the vicinity of Los Lances during our first birding session after breakfast. It seemed like déjà vu because as previously the Roller was still in place, a lone Audouin’s Gull sat on the beach and the Kingfisher was sat on the same post, all as last time we visited. The wader numbers were down but the species count was more or less the same, we saw a lot more Corn Buntings, more Yellow Wagtails but still no Short-toed Larks. Many swifts were dashing along the fields behind the beach and we saw Red-rumped Swallows with the House Martins and Barn Swallows.
We left Los Lances after a short visit because we wanted to look for migrating raptors before we drove into Tarifa to catch our two-hour whale-watching cruise from the port. As it happened the raptor migration was pretty poor, with few birds in the sky. We saw Short-toed and Booted Eagles, about 5 Egyptian Vultures, 2 Black Storks, Common Kestrel and a dozen or so of Griffon Vultures.
We parked in the main car park near the ‘wall’ of the old town and before we set off walking to the port we searched the bushes and trees for Common Bulbuls, this African species has been breeding in Tarifa for several years. One appeared not long after, we took our photographs and set off for the port.
Common Bulbul
Our boat trip was really good if it was whales and dolphins you were after, we ad excellent sightings of many Common Dolphins and even better views of Pilot Whales. Bird wise, it was pretty poor, we saw a dozen Cory’s Shearwaters on the way out of the harbour, some came very close. Later we had sightings of individual Black Terns, sometimes two or three of them and we had more Cory’s on the return trip and one sighting of a Balearic Shearwater as we came back into the port.
Tarifa Castle at the port
There was no passage of raptors overhead whatsoever. The only other excitement was a shoal of Mediterranean Flying Fish which only half of the group saw.
Pilot Whale
Once we were back on terra firma we walked to the bus and then drove to the view-point at the café El Estrecho in the hills along the coast, we were about 1,000ft above the sea with spectacular views of the surrounding hills and the ‘Strait’. As we ate our late lunch saw Common Buzzard, Booted and Short-toed Eagles overhead and Sardinian Warblers in the scrub, nothing else.
It was gone 4pm when we had our last birding session, we drove to the recreation area at El Bujeo near the village of Pelayo. A natural spring provides drinking pools for the local passerines, we spent about 1 ½ hours there enjoying the activity. We listed quite a few species with one or two additions to the trip list.
Crested Tit
Long-tailed Blue
We saw Goldfinches, Chaffinches, Blue, Great and Crested Tits, Sardinian Warbler, Iberian Chiffchaff, Spotted Flycatcher, Common Redstart, Firecrest, Wren, our first Blackcaps and lots of Monarch Butterflies, a few Long-tailed Blues and Holly Blue. We left at 5:30pm and arrived back at the hotel just before 6pm.