20 September 2024
On the morning of 11 September our WINGS Birding Tour 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 prematurely for us to cross via the gates of the fort (proven beneath) to observe birds from the water’s edge on the Strait of Gibraltar.
Contained in the fortress we walked this path and climbed the steps forward. Yeray briefly appears to be like for birds from this vantage level.
On the wall’s crest we noticed our vacation spot, a chook conceal close to the water.
At El Estrecho PNat–Isla de Las Palomas, Cádiz, we noticed 15 species. Guidelines is on-line at https://ebird.org/guidelines/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 A minimum of 1000 previous in direction of 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 likely a faculty of fish — drew in shearwaters, gulls, a jaegar and two nice skuas.
Three harriers flew low throughout the water on their option to Africa.
However the greatest shock was 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 picture on Fb. (Photograph at high is cropped.)
All of us agreed that this was the perfect second of the journey. Thrilling!
p.s. Right here’s what they might have appeared like if we’d seen them taking off — a Wikimedia picture taken in Tunisia.
