20 September 2024
At the morning of eleven September our WINGS Birding Excursion arrived early on the southernmost level of Spain, Isla de las Palomas at Tarifa. Our native information, Yeray Seminario of Birding the Strait, had organized upfront for us to go during the gates of the castle (proven beneath) to look at birds from the water’s edge on the Strait of Gibraltar.
Throughout the citadel we walked this trail and climbed the stairs forward. Yeray in short seems to be for birds from this vantage level.
On the wall’s crest we noticed our vacation spot, a fowl cover close to the water.
At El Estrecho PNat–Isla de Las Palomas, Cádiz, we noticed 15 species. Tick list is on-line at https://ebird.org/tick list/S194711541.
Higher Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) 75
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) (Columba livia (Feral Pigeon)) 1
Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) 1
Sanderling (Calidris alba) 3
Pomarine Jaeger (Stercorarius pomarinus) 1
Nice Skua (Stercorarius skua) 2
Yellow-legged Gull (Larus michahellis) 350
Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus) 12
Sandwich Tern (Thalasseus sandvicensis) 1
Cory’s Shearwater (Calonectris diomedea) X No less than 1000 previous in opposition to Atlantic.
Balearic Shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus) 25
Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) 2
Western Marsh Harrier (Circus aeruginosus) 1
Montagu’s Harrier (Circus pygargus) 2
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 10
As we arrived a feeding frenzy — most probably a college of fish — drew in shearwaters, gulls, a jaegar and two nice skuas.
3 harriers flew low around the water on their approach to Africa.
However the greatest wonder was once a flock of 75 larger flamingos flying previous us alongside the coast with Africa within the distance. Fellow traveler Jean Bickal captured the beginning of the flock and posted this photograph on Fb. (Picture at best is cropped.)
All of us agreed that this was once the most productive second of the travel. Exciting!
p.s. Right here’s what they might have appeared like if we’d noticed them setting out — a Wikimedia photograph taken in Tunisia.
