Final week I wrote in regards to the sizzling and dry circumstances that now have an effect on a lot of the Iberian Peninsula. My very own resolution in the case of birding presently of the yr is to focus on the coast. At Gibraltar, the place I reside, I spend many hours at its southernmost tip, Europa Level. If the winds are blowing from the west, the afternoons could be spectacular. Because the land heats up, a contemporary south-westerly sea breeze units in. Many birds heading in direction of the Atlantic, whether or not migrating or performing feeding actions, are pushed inshore. Sea-watching has at all times been thrilling for me as a result of there may be at all times the prospect of one thing sudden turning up. It’s a bonus however merely standing on high of a cliff feeling the cool sea breeze in your face is ample reward.
I coated the principle species in my twenty third June article “When the ocean turns into a desert”. Actually, the migration of Audouin’s Gulls (Ichthyaetus audouinii) out of the Mediterranean is now gathering tempo and it’s a nice time to watch these birds of their array of plumages, in keeping with age. Europa Level, Gibraltar, needs to be the perfect place to watch and {photograph} these gulls at shut quarters.
One other gull that has turn into common and whose numbers have elevated in recent times, is the Mediterranean Gull (Ichthyaetus melanocephalus). These additionally present up, usually in household teams, from the east and steadily method the purpose earlier than turning south-west in direction of the Atlantic.
Much less frequent, but additionally exhibiting is the Slender-billed Gull (Chroicocephalus genei). If I actually wish to see these elegant gulls, then I can at all times drive as much as the Atlantic coast and the estuary of the Guadalquivir River the place they breed.
Not all birds exhibiting up now are gulls. Two waders cross by in cheap numbers. These are Oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus) and Whimbrels (Numenius phaeopus), birds coming from the Excessive Arctic within the latter case or from extra southerly latitudes within the case of the previous. Each are heading for wealthy wintering grounds off the West African coast.
Final week I wrote in regards to the Black Kites (Milvus migrans) that are actually heading south. With contemporary south-westerlies good numbers of those kites are drifted out to sea, east of the Rock. They then make an exhausting flight again in a north-westerly route to seek out land. Many evenings I’m watching seabirds and flocks of kites arrive from the south-east and fly north again in direction of the hinterland. These fortunate ones have lived to combat one other day, maybe when circumstances enhance. I’m certain that many others should not so fortunate and drown away from sight of land.
I at all times exit within the hope of seeing one other very particular hen that reveals up presently. That is Eleonora’s Falcon (Falco eleonorae). These are scarce however they do present up constantly in July and early August. They’re birds that enterprise inland in quest of concentrations of bugs which they feed on previous to transferring to their island colonies to breed. Others are non-breeding people wandering in quest of meals. The birds that I see, nearly invariably, are available in from the south, very in all probability the Moroccan coast simply 21 kilometres away.
Sea-watching from the coast is nice enjoyable proper now and it retains me cool. Subsequent week I’ll take a step additional. Lately pelagic journeys have turn into more and more common and so they supply a unique window, one among seabirds which have at all times been on the market presently however that we’ve got by no means been capable of see from the coast.
