We have released a new clip to the series of Bird Migration Videos in our Youtube channel. We filmed it exactly one year ago. On this third episode we present the onset of the White Stork migration. We also talk about other migrants in the Strait of Gibraltar this time of the year, like black kites and swifts.

Bird migration videos for all

The large concentration of White Storks and Black Kites in the Tarifa area offers a magnificent spectacle. This show does not only draw the attention of keen birders, but regular tourists visiting Cadiz in summer are also stunned by it. Indeed, July and August is an excellent period for family birding in the Strait of Gibraltar.

The big show of the smaller birds

The migration of smaller birds is equally astonishing for the trained eye. It is currently known that the Strait of Gibraltar funnels the migration of European birds to Africa in a much bigger proportion than traditionally assumed. For instance, thousands of Common and Pallid Swifts can be seen heading south in a few hours. In addition, continuous flocks of migrant European bee-eaters can be heard by night as well.

The big days of “autumn” migration have only started. One more year, Birding The Strait will be offering birding wildlife excursions during this exciting time.

Check out our YouTube channel for more videos and sign up to our newsletter to stay tuned! Contact us if you are interested in joining to one of our day trips from Tarifa or our tours in Spain and Morocco.

Lesser Kestrels in Tarifa

The ancient ramparts of Guzman el Bueno Castle in Tarifa, hold the southernmost colony of Lesser Kestrels in the continent. In addition, this is one of the few sites where this typically migrant species overwinters in Europe. Unfortunatelly, the Lesser Kestrel population has suffered a dramatic decline throughout its range. This is due to multiple factors. This way, make people aware about the presence and fascinating lifestyle of this charming raptor is a key factor towards its conservation.

Tarifa #MigBird

Next Saturday 20th, Birding The Strait will be offering a free excursion around the Castle. The breeding colony of Lesser Kestrel will be the central subject of the activity. However, we will certainly have the chance to observe many other species as well.

This activity is part of Birding The Strait corporate responsibility . Come join us!

Aftermath

We want to thank the 17 participants for their friendliness and enthusiasm. The morning just flew by observing Lesser Kestrels around their nests. Moreover, we have seen numerous Black Kites in active migration from Africa. It has been very rewarding to discuss with this varied group of nature enthusiasts from Tarifa, other regions of Spain, Holland and Switzerland.

The most rewarding surprise has been to realize the remarkable knowledge for birds and nature by the youngest participants. No doubt, local initiatives such as MigBird are significantly contributing to increase the awareness for wildlife conservation in Tarifa. This is really encouraging! In Birding The Strait we will keep working in this direction as much as we can.

Finally, we want to thank Diego and Lucia, from the Tarifa Town Hall, for their support.

If you are interested in visiting this colony and learn more about the Lesser Kestrel and the other resident and migratory raptors, contact us!

Yes friends, the time has come!

One more year, since time immemorial, the raptor migration has started in Tarifa and the Strait of Gibraltar.

Black Kites on the move

Black Kites are always the first to be noticed. They are on the move in growing numbers. Adults are now in a race from their African wintering quarters to their breeding grounds in Europe. They are in a hurry to occupy the best possible nest site. The Sahara, the ocean, weather constrains and human infrastructure will be the main threats they will have to face. The Black Kite is, by far, the most abundant of all the raptors using this flyway. They often kettle in enormous flocks and gather in communal roosts providing a world class spectacle.

Bird Migration Series Part I & II

To celebrate this, we release in our youtube channel the second video of the Birding The Strait migration series. Follow this link to see the Part I.

The new video shows the spring migration back from Africa of the Black Kite  in the Strait of Gibraltar. It contains a selection of the best footage we have filmed over the last springs in Tarifa, the Strait of Gibraltar and Los Alcornocales Natural Park.

The show has only started. Birding The Strait will be offering guided birding day trips and tailor-made tours in Tarifa and the Strait of Gibraltar throughout the season. Feel free to contact us anytime for further information!

We have just returned from a thrilling wildlife expedition into one of the most remote regions of the Western Palearctic: the Western Sahara. More precisely, we have spent 8 days exploring the wildlife and landscapes within the Dakhla, Aousserd and Bir Anzarane triangle. This has led us to ridges of dunes, extensive mudflats, forested wadis, endless steppes, rock massifs, unexpected waterholes and even off into the Atlantic Ocean. On this post we summarize some impressions and highlights of this Birding Trip to the Western Sahara.

Our second Birding Trip to the Western Sahara

Back in February 2016 we were invited by the Dakhla Attitude Hotel to a fam trip in the region. This was a memorable experience and we have been eagerly looking forward to returning since then. On this link you can read the trip report of our previous trip to the Western Sahara, including a large selection of pictures.

During our 2019 expedition we wanted to relocate key sites and target species, explore new trails getting deeper into the desert, reinforce our collaboration with local experts and logistics, and conduct nocturnal surveys for mammals. On this last (but not least) matter, our primary target was to observe the Sand Cat Felis margarita. This is probably the most elusive and least known feline in the Palearctic.

In doing so we have camped in the desert and slept in jaimas (nomad tents) belonging to Saharawi camel herders, but also in cozy hotels in Dakhla. As for the transportation, we have used hired passengers cars and 4×4 with local expert drivers to safely get off the beaten track into the desert. Moreover, we used a boat to reach the most inaccessible corners of the huge Bay of Dakhla.

Using eBird in the Western Sahara

As usual during our Birding The Strait trips, we have invested a considerable effort to systematically upload all the resulting ornithological information to eBird, including pictures and sound recordings. This is our humble contribution to citizen science. As keen eBirders we have found it very exciting to complete bird checklists in some regions which have barely, if at all, being surveyed before. This way, all our records are accessible for the public in our eBird accounts, which can be consulted here (Yeray) and here (Javi).

The Desert environment and its changing conditions

Birding in semi-desert environments always implies a high degree of uncertainty and surprise. Here, rainfall in precedent months and the resulting plant coverage is the main driving force. This way, some of the best and richer birding sites we found in 2016, such as the eastern end of the Aousserd road and Oued Jenna were very dry and quiet this time. In turn, the regions nearer the coast held a greener plant coverage and several flooded and very productive waterholes!

Accordingly, some species which we struggled to find in 2016 were amongst the most widespread this year. This was the case of the Temminck’s Lark, for instance. In turn, the Black-crowned Sparrow-Lark was more scarce, although still well represented. Besides, the local specialties, like Saharan Dunn’s Lark and Cricket Longtail seemed to be in similar numbers. During this trip we missed some important targets including Sudan Golden Sparrow and Golden Nightjar. However, we enjoyed unbeatable observations of Pale Rock Martin, African Royal Tern, Spotted and Crowned Sandgrouses, and Houbara Bustard, to name but a few!

In this trip we have recorded a total of 86 bird scpecies, and a grand total of 111  considering our two visit to the Dakhla-Aousserd region.

Birding Highlights

Aside from the birds mentioned, other birding highlights during our trip included:

1. A gang of Fulvous Chatterers breaking into our campsite in Oued Jenna to feed on our supplies and drink our water!
2. A flock of 5 Pale Rock Martins flying and contact-calling overhead.
3. A male Houbara Bustard literally in the middle of nowhere.
4. Two Pharaoh Eagle-Owls illuminated by our torches
5. A pair of Lanner Falcons landing by a waterhole as we were watching Spotted and Corwned Sangrouses drinking.
6. Several family groups of Cream-coloured Courses.
7. Up to 8 different Cricket Longtails  at Oued Jenna.
8. Large groups of Sandwich, Caspian, Common and African Royal Tern observed while navigating in the Bay of Dakhla with impressive sand dunes in the background.
9. We enjoyed observing and photographing the varied array of Larks and Wheatears in their different plumages and variations, namely: Desert, Black, Black-eared, Northern, White-crowned and Red-rumped Wheatear; and Short-toed, Desert, Bar-tailed, Dunn’s, Black Crowned, Thick-billed, Temminck’s, Greater Hoopoe and Maghreb (Crested) Lark. 

The observation of two putative Maghreb Larks North of Bir Anzarane deserves special mention. Indeed, the taxonomic rank of the so-called “long-billed” Crested Larks is nowadays unclear. Interestingly, the presence of birds belonging to the senegalensis group of the Crested Lark in the region has been proposed. On this eBird checklist we have uploaded photos of two different “long-billed” larks, including a sound recording. We have provissionally asigned the records to Maghreb Lark Galerida macrorhyncha, but see also Qninba et al. 2019.  Are we facing yet another case of a typically Sahelian taxa expanding North into the Western Palearctic? Comments welcome!

Interestingly, we found two Corn Buntings around a waterhole not far from Dakhla. Much to our surprise, we later got to know that this was among the very first reports for the species in the region!

Mammal Watching

Mammals deserve special mention here. To our pleasure, we managed to find the sought-after Sand Cat! Indeed, we got to find this precious desert creature in each of our night surveys. Amazingly one of the encounters involved a Sand Cat hidden in low bushes a couple of meters from us! Never in our wildest dreams did we expect such an amazing observation.

But that was not it! An African Golden Wolf peacefully standing by its lair in the middle of the day made another highly unlikely target accomplished. In following nights, we had two additional encounters with wolfs while using torches from the car (stay tuned for the forthcoming nocturnal footage).

The list of mammas was completed with one Fennec, two Rüppel’s Foxes, African Savanna Hare, gerbils and the skull of a Saharan Striped Polecat.

We will return!

We are fascinated by the wildlife, landscape and tranquillity of this region. As expected in such an arid region, the density and diversity of birds is comparatively low. However, the interest and uniqueness of the avian community at the Western Palearctic level is out of question. The sense of wilderness greatly enhances the experience and the possibility of “coming through something new and unexpected” brings birding to a higher level. Moreover, the high chances of connecting with mammal species hard to find in other regions of the Maghreb is, no doubt, an additional highlight.

Thanks to the experience on the wildlife and logistics gathered in our two expeditions to the region, we are already working to offer a especially dedicated tour to the Western Sahara.

Stay tuned for the upcoming information and more pictures and videos!

We thank Patrick Bergier and Go-South for the valuable source of information they provide. 

Today we release in our Youtube channel the first of a series of bird migration videos in the Strait of Gibraltar. We have filmed these videos over the last three years around Tarifa. This is part of a collaboration project with the Nature Agency at the Ministry of Environment of Denmark . These videos make part of the exhibition on bird migration at the Skagen Grey Lighthouse information center (Denmark).

The Strait: a major migration bottleneck

The Strait of Gibraltar is the most important bottleneck in the flyway of the Short-toed Eagle between Europe and Africa. This video shows striking images of eagles in active migration across the Strait. The footage stresses the vital challenge that sea-crossing represents for soaring migrants (enable subtitles).

During 2019 we will upload new videos of this series to our Youtube channel, Stay tuned!

There’s no denying, at Birding The Strait we are passionate about Eagles. We love seeking for them, photographing them and simply observing them in the wild. We are also wildlife photography and bird books enthusiasts. Indeed, this is one of our main sources of expenditure! So, we were excited to see two new books coming out last month: ‘The Empire of the Eagle’ by Mike Unwin and David Tippling, and ‘Águila de Bonelli (Bonelli’s Eagle)’ by Tony Peral.

Both have a special meaning for us. We contributed with a few pictures for the book ‘The Empire of the Eagle’ and we were looking forward to seeing them on print. On the other hand, ‘Águila de Bonelli’ has been created, edited and published by a friend of us, the photographer and naturalist, Tony Peral.

Review of ‘Águila de Bonelli’

You know you are in front of a special book the moment the package with ‘Águila de Bonelli’ is being delivered. The amazing packaging with a Bonelli’s Eagle printed on the box and the wax seal, is really unique and classy. Some would compare the experience to the one you get when purchasing a limited edition vinyl. From the moment you untie the strings and open the box, you are on a trip to the land of the Bonelli’s Eagles.

The cover shows an adult female in flight. She is missing one of her tail feathers, which does nothing but improve the visual impact of the photography. It’s truly a statement of intents. The author, Tony Peral, provides further insight on the magnitude of his work stating in the introduction that he stopped counting the hours spent in his hide after 3000!

Good and authoritative texts

The book begins with six concise and well written chapters by Jose María Gil Sánchez and consists on an updated review of the biology and conservation of the species. English-speakers, don’t get distracted by the title, this book has been translated into English. However, the photographies, which are the most important part of the book are universal.

A festival of Bonelli’s eagles’ photos

From there, as the prestigious Markus Varesvuo says in the prologue, comes a true festival of almost 100 photos, all of them of superb quality. The first, a double-page image, shows a subadult Bonelli’s Eagle right in the moment she is catching a Red-legged Partridge. Next page, an adult folds its wings to dive directing its gaze on you!

Not a single photo in the book is a filler, none is redundant, and none seems to be done in a known set or hide. Moreover, some photos in this book show scenes of Bonelli’s eagles very rarely seen before. This is one of those books that, if a child happens to find, it is very likely that he will want to be a wildlife photographer.

We believe it’s important to note that the FSC certificate guarantees that all the materials used for the production of the book come from sustainable, eco-friendly sources. You can get your copy of ‘Águila de Bonelli’ following this link.

Review of ‘The Empire of the Eagle’

‘Empire of the Eagle’ is a compilation of texts and photographs of all the species of eagles in the worldby Mike Unwin, with selected photographies, curated by a renowned photographer: David Tipling .

This is a hardcover book with a clear emphasis on the photography side. Indeed, the introduction describes the book as “a photographic celebration of all the world’s eagles”. Sixty-eight species are treated throughout its 288 pages and distributed in five main sections: ‘Hunters of the Uplands’, ‘Predators of the Plains’, ‘Assasins of the Woodlands’, ‘Raptors of the Rainforest’ and ‘Wings over the Water’. Hence, unlike most of the books that treat groups of different species, the eagles are ordered by habitat, and not in taxonomic or alphabetic order.

Great summaries of  each raptor species

First, we find a brief Introduction section that deals with the personal attachment of the author to eagles. The authors also talk about the relevance of eagles in culture and history, its biology and conservation challenges.

The texts contain information about the natural history of each species, following a similar structure in all the cases. They include references to scientific research and anecdotic information, all written on an easy-reading, colloquial way. In any case, they are well documented, and deal with some very specific information. They occasionally include recent research results, adding to the overall value of the book. We can safely define the texts as brief summary introductions on each species.

An excellent compilation of eagle images

The quality of most images on the book is excellent. Also, the printing quality is what you would expect on a high-profile photography book. We noticed how some of the rarest species lack a spectacular image to depict the bird. There are probably not many photographies of some of these rare species out there! These pictures are an important testimony to how little we know about some eagle species in the world.

You can find a link to buy ‘The Empire of the Eagle’ here.

Which one we recommend?

We eagerly recommend both “Empire of the Eagle” and “Águila de Bonelli”. They are great books for anyone keen on wildlife. Specially, for those who are passionate about one of the most majestic groups of animals: the birds of prey. With christmas just around the corner, these remarkable books are a perfect gift!

We recently finished a Birding Northern Morocco trip and just uploaded the trip report. You can find it here. It contains a full description of the itinerary, with pictures taken during the trip. It also has an annotated list of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and insects! On this post we mention some of the highlights of this trip.

Birding Northern Morocco highlights

• We found one of the targets, and in good numbers, almost right out of the plane. Seeing up to 11 African Royal Terns, a species recently split from the American Royal Tern, was certainly a highlight.
• We got phenomenal views of one of the main targets of the trip: the Lanner Falcon. We had two adult Lanner Falcons at pleasure in our scopes, and also got great views of the birds in flight. That same morning we saw 2 Great Bustards from the last surviving population in Africa.
• Seeing up to nine Marsh Owls at dusk near the Merja Zerga Lagoon was certainly one of the best moments of the tour.
• The boat trip at Merja Zerga lagoon and the visit to a Eleonora’s Falcon colony provided excellent views and photography opportunities.
• The Zaër Forest was productive after some work. We ended up seeing our three targets on site: Barbary Partridge, Double-spurred Francolin and Black-crowned Tchagra.
• The visit to the old Roman city of Volubilis was a welcome addition to the trip.
• A couple of Levaillant’s Woodpeckers provided some of the best experiences of the trip at Dayet Aoua.
• We heard and saw the recently split Maghreb Wood Owl, closely related to the Tawny Owl. You can hear a recording of this bird here.
• The Zaida Plains provided a welcome change of scenery. Here we found some desert specialties including one of our main targets: the Dupont’s Lark.

The most remarkable highlight of the Birding Northern Morocco trip was hitting all the targets while having a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. And let’s not forget the abundant and good food! This all made for a great trip to some of the most unexplored sites of Morocco.

You can find more information about birding in the region on these posts:

• Tailor-made Grand Tour in May
• Birding Trip to the Bay of Dakhla and Aousserd

Contact us if you are interested on a Birding Trip to Morocco!

A murmuration of starlings, a murder of crows, a confusion of chiffchaffs, a prayer of godwits, a committee of vultures…what about the Glossy Ibis?

Glossy Ibis Galore

Once upon a recent time a Glossy Ibis in Andalusia was a celebrated finding.

The species declined to extinction as a breeding species in Spain during the 20^th Century. Then, it was recorded sporadically during the 60s, 70s and early 80s. Thereafter observation became more frequent and 7 pairs nested in Doñana in 1996 (De Juana & Garcia 2015). Nowadays, the breeding population in Doñana does notably exceed 10.000 pairs. Moreover, the number of individuals gathering at communal roosts when the mud driving (aka fangueo) takes place is hard to believe!

Testimony to this is the following video recorded at dawn in early October 2018. Thousands of Glossy Ibises leave their night roost in the rice paddies at the margins of Guadalquivir River. Do you dare to give an estimate on the number of individuals?

Now consider that the above video shows less than 25% of the total birds seen leaving the roost! Might this be the biggest group ever recorded?

A Winner

The Glossy Ibis is a “winner species” that thrive in human altered landscapes (i.e. rice paddies; but see McKinney & Lockwood 1999). Indeed, its range expansion in the Old World and North America has few precedents in the avian world.

In the Straif of Gibraltar, the species used to breed in the former Lagoon of La Janda in the XIX Century. Following its amazing and recent expansion,  a growing number of Glossy Ibises nest again in the area since 2012.

Take a look to the  the eBird data  for the most complete information on the current world distribution of the Glossy Ibis.

Pelagic birding in Cadiz receives little attention. To a large extent this has been eclipsed by raptor migration and whalewatching. Only in recent years, local birders have started to organize especially dedicated pelagic birding trips in the Gulf of Cadiz. Remarkably, these have shown to be highly satisfactory and increasingly popular! For this reason, in Birding The Strait we feel it is the right time to include it on our list of top birding experiences and organize Pelagic Birding Cadiz Trips.

Why in the Gulf of Cádiz?

The Gulf of Cadiz is an important site for migrating and wintering seabirds. Nonetheless, a significant part of it has been included within Birdlife’s Marine Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (Marine IBA) inventory.

The number of days with calm wind and flat sea in the Gulf is significantly larger than in the Strait of Gibralar, for instance. Moreover, marine traffic and sea currents are much more reduced here. Above all, the Gulf of Cadiz is the most important feeding area for seabirds in the region. This way, we can affirm that when it comes to pelagic birding The Gulf of Cadiz is the place.

Some of the most representative species include notable concentrations of the critically endangered Balearic Shearwater, Cory’s and Scopoli’s Shearwater, Great, Arctic and Pomarine Skua, Northern Gannet, European Storm-Petrel, Common and Sandwich Tern, Audouin’s Gull, etc.

However, the most sough-after seabirds are those that rarely approach the coast: Great Shearwater, Sooty Shearwater, Wilson’s Storm-Petrel and Sabine’s Gull. Thanks to the recently increased pelagic birding efforts in Cadiz, the records of these “rare” species are rapidly growing.

Certainly, there is still a lot to learn and discover in terms of pelagic birding in Cadiz and this is always a good moment to expect the unexpected!

Chumming, the dirty work

Chumming refers to the use of discarded fish parts to attract seabird and facilitate lengthy views. Much has been wrote on the best strategy for “chumming” in pelagic birding. It should be considered a science on its own, indeed!

Back in 2012 and 2013 we guided several pelagic trips off Tarifa with SEO/Birdlife. The use of chumming proved effective to attract the otherwise highly overlooked Wilson’s Storm-Petrel. More recently, we have joined pelagic birding excursions in the Gulf of Cadiz. Here, different techniques of chumming have played the key role in attracting Shearwaters, Terns, Petrels, Gannets and Skuas.

Pelagic Birding Cadiz Trips: join us next October

October is an excellent time for pelagic birding in Cadiz. Many of the locally wintering species will have already reached the Gulf of Cadiz, while a big number of migrants will cross it on their way to their Atlantic wintering quarters.

A regular pelagic birding trip in the Gulf of Cadiz lasts approximately 5 hours for a round trip of 25 miles. We will be using a very comfortable boat with capacity for 12 people including the crew.

If you are interested in joining us in our Pelagic Birding Cadiz Trip next October, contact us and we will keep you updated with dates and further details.

… and don’t worry, we will be in charge of the chumming!

This weekend is the 30th edition of the BBF – Birdfair 2018 is here! The event will take place, as always, at Rutland Waters. This is the reference event for the international birding community and Birding The Strait will be present for the sixth consecutive year.

Find us at the Birdfair 2018

Are you looking for a birding guide in Tarifa and the Strait of Gibraltar? Come to say hello and meet Yeray at the Andalucia Wildlife Guides stand and Javi at the Andalusian Tourism Board stand. They are both at marquee 2.

We will be willing to inform you on the multiple wildlife experiences our region offers. These include: raptor migration in the Strait of Gibraltar, whalewatching for small groups off Tarifa, birding trips to northern Morocco, day visits to Doñana, the Griffon Vulture migration, etc.

Likewise, we will be pleased to show you the tailor-made birding tours we run throughout Spain and Morocco. Some of them in collaboration with the foremost international tour-operators.

Wildlife photography in Andalusia

We are keen wildlife photographers and the Birdfair will be an excellent place to share with you our experience. After years of working with DSLR cameras, we are now exploring the Micro 4/3 system for birds in flight and video. Raptors on migration, Iberian Orcas, Bald Ibises, Owls and Nightjars are some of our frequent targets.

Moreover, we will have at your disposal the new released wildlife photography book “Feathers amongst the towers”. This high quality book, in limited edition, shows the artistic work by our colleague Pako Zufiaur. He is, no doubt, the photographer who has spent longer ours capturing the bird migration in the strait of Gibraltar. He has a special dedication to a challenging subject: birds in flight!

La Janda, a birding hotspot

As active members of Laguna de La Janda Friends Association, we want to share with you the most updated information on this birding hotspot. In addition, this will be an excellent opportunity to get the latest information on the conservation efforts the association is doing towards the future recovery of the formerly largest lagoon of Spain.

We thank the Tarifa Townhall and the Tourism Boards of Cádiz and Andalucía for their continuous support to our work.

See you at the Birdfair 2018!