Tarifa '24

Tarifa was visited for a week in late September, mainly for raptors watching but also for beach holiday. Tarifa is the southern point of mainland Europe and forms an important migratory bottleneck on the east Atlantic flyway. Birds passing through this area origin from Britain but also from many other areas of Europe.

We mostly travelled around by public transport and foot, which suited us quite well as we like hiking.  A couple of decent sites were within walking distance from Tarifa. Namely the CIMA raptor viewpoint to the east and the Playa de Los Lances to the west. Further along the track to the east is the El Trafico Watchpoint which looks across to Cazalla to the north. 

CIMA viewpoint

The most common raptor observed was the booted eagle with a peak count of c. 300 on 25 September. This was complemented by up to c. 70 short-tailed snake eagles. Up to eight black kite, seven honey buzzard and a single Egyptian vulture were observed. An adult female osprey flew out to sea directly overhead on 25th September and the honey buzzards were also seen flying straight out at height. Bee eaters were heard flying past on several occasions but not seen, and maximum of c. 60 red-rumped swallow flew past on 27 September. Local lesser kestrels, kestrels and cirl bunting were observed, as were migrating sparrowhawks.

Pale morph booted eagle

Short-toed snake eagle

Black kite

Red-rumped swallow

Pied flycatcher

At Los Lances we saw three lesser crested tern amongst sandwich terns and Audouin's gull, as well as eight Kentish plover, and three greater flamingo. Also red-rumped swallow, 15 zitting cisticola, crested and thekla larks, and a tawny pipit.

Zitting cisticola

Crested lark

Two Audouin's gull roosting with sandwich tern 

Willow warbler

La Janda was visited on Saturday. This site was previously a wetland that was drained around the 1960s and is now intensively farmed. It remains important for some species such as Montagu's harrier thereby being a Birdlife Important Bird Area. A black-winged kite and large aggregations of Spanish sparrow (c. 1000 flocking like starling) were observed here. The heat haze was strong, but three marsh harrier were seen. Three pied flycatcher and a spotted flycatcher were present in a poplar grove. We also saw an Egyptian mongoose here crossing the path.

At a griffon vulture colony, high in the mountains, alpine swifts, crag martins, and blue rock thrush were seen as well as honey buzzard, pallid swift and red-rumped swallow overhead.

Griffon vulture

Griffon vultures

Sunday was windy with winds gusting 43mph. Very little was moving apart from three short-toed snake eagle and four yellow wagtail flying offshore from CIMA.

On the final day the wind had dropped slightly and more birds were visible. At Los Lances three flocks of black stocks circled overhead amounting to around 55 birds. A spectacular flock of ca. 200 white storks followed. Managed to pick out three marsh harriers moving through to the north of Los lances and with it a narrow- and long-winged harrier with four 'fingers' was seen near the marsh harriers. Finally a Montagu's harrier! Another 40 or so red-rumped swallow flew through east with a mixed hirundine flock.

Black storks

Part of the white stork flock

Red-rumped swallows forming part of mixed flock

We also completed a whale watching boat trip with firmm on Wednesday and saw at least eight pilot whales, as well as c. 600 dolphins comprising white-striped, common and bottlenose dolphin.

Pilot whale with fishing boats in background

Lots of birds here, so well worth a visit. The joy of birding on the continent is that rare birds in the UK can be seen with relative ease, often within walking distance. Earlier in September would have seen more Montagu's harrier and honey buzzard. Apparently orcas can be seen on boat trips in late August to early September.