My apologies for the overdue posting this week. I believed I will have to press on with this text and catch up, particularly because it’s related to what’s taking place within the chook international within the Iberian Peninsula this present day. Closing Saturday we had some early rains down right here within the south, the primary in over 3 months, however no longer sufficient to start out the fairway flush. Loads of birds are heading south now and they have got to deal with extraordinarily dry prerequisites.
Wetlands are dry and water restricted to a couple of small swimming pools right here and there. The Avocets (Recurvirostra avosetta) and Black-winged Stilts (Himantopus himantopus) have now completed breeding and are amassing in flocks. Bearded Reedlings (Panurus biarmicus), Penduline Knockers (Remiz pendulinus) and Moustached Warblers (Acrocephalus melanopogon) at the moment are readjusting to the place there may be status water.
Usually, those are post-breeding dispersals however some might carry out restricted migrations. That is the case of the Zitting Cisticola (Cisticola juncidis) which carry out day by day flights top into the sky, noisily pronouncing their place to others and making the bounce around the Strait of Gibraltar into Morocco. It’s rather superb that any such tiny chook is in a position to doing this. It’s no longer dispersal however precise migration. A few years in the past, I studied this phenomenon and located that the southward passage used to be then matched through a spring go back of the similar people.
Different species, regarded as to be basically resident, additionally carry out restricted migrations. That is the case of Dartford Warbler (Curruca undata). The Sardinian Warbler (Curruca melanocephala) if truth be told crosses the Sahara Barren region in small numbers. How a chook with such brief, rounded, wings manages this can be a thriller to me.
The Moustached Warblers would possibly not move a ways however two different congeners are at the transfer against tropical Africa. Many Reed Warblers (Acrocephalus scirpaceus) drop in to relaxation and feed, even within the dry olive maquis which might no longer differently be occupied through those birds. Sedge Warblers (Acrocephalus schoebaenus) are a lot scarcer, showing to have a prevent over additional north after which overflying us in an immediate flight around the desolate tract. Those are actually marvelous feats.
A number of the biggest is that of the Greenland Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe leucorhoa) that makes a trans-Atlantic crossing ahead of making landfall alongside the western coasts of Iberia. Now could be the time to peer those maginficent birds at the transfer.
Different birds apply this western direction, probably to catch the little bit of inexperienced alongside the coasts of north-western Spain to then migrate south alongside the western edge of the Sahara, heading off the worst portions of the desolate tract. That is in particular the case with Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca), which acquire in massive numbers down the Atlantic coast, but in addition different species, comparable to Not unusual Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus).
Many migrants are opportunists and exploit in the community plentiful sources. The migration of Lawn Warblers (Sylvia borin) and Golden Orioles (Oriolus oriolus) coincides with the September manufacturing of figs. Discover a fig tree presently of 12 months and you’ll quickly to find one or the opposite of those birds gorging at the figs. So, there are lots of answers to the issue of the dry season, because the examples I’ve selected obviously display. Even inside intently similar species – Moustached, Reed, Sedge Warblers – the answers to the similar downside of loss of water, have adopted very other trajectories.
