Tarifa/Gibraltar 10/6-10/8

The Rock of Gibraltar 

EURASIAN GRIFFONS (digiscope)

We moved south to Tarifa near the Mediterranean Sea where we did a lot of what I like least--seawatching and hawkwatching. At home, in good conditions, where I more or less know the birds, I get antsy standing still looking at specks in scopes & bins. In Spain, the conditions at sea were foggy and at the hawk watches the winds were apparently against us, and I don't know the birds, so, aside from an impressive show of EURASIAN GRIFFONS (vultures) and a few eagles and kestrels we'd already seen, I didn't take much away from all the standing around we did.

Some land birds compensated for my eyestrain. At one of the hawk watches, with a scope, we could see a BLUE ROCK THRUSH, and walking to the beach we came across flocks of SPANISH SPARROWS, which look very much like the House Sparrows there at first glance, but upon closer examination are pretty easy to separate

SPANISH SPARROWS
(Photo Shari Zirlin)

One day we spent a couple of hours on a cliff in Tarifa, seawatching. That was the least productive day for Shari & me, as we had only one lifer--a EUROPEAN SHAG. The group did do one amusing thing that day--birding the municipal parking lot of Tarifa, where Common Bulbuls have taken up residence. This is an African species that has crept up into the Iberian Peninsula. The workers at the lot know about the bird and seemed happy to break the rules about only vehicle owners being allowed on the lot. We found the bird screeching in a pine tree. Lifer for a lot of the group, but Shari & I had seen the species many times in South Africa. 

At our hotel one late afternoon we stood by the pool and watched as dozens of Alpine Swifts flew overhead, some very low giving good looks of their white bellies. The one all black swift was a
and against the perfectly blue sky it was easy to pick out. 

Our first two stops in Spain were in Andalucia. Now it was time to move north to the Extremadura (sounds scary).