As I flew out one mid-spring morning

As we flew into Gibraltar one mid-spring morning I was reminded of our holiday on the Rock a few years ago when we stayed in the observatory for a few nights.

In my bag was a much-loved copy of Laurie Lee's book As I Walked Out One Mid-Summer Morning, telling of his walk across Spain in earlier, tougher times. He described  the Rock, "trailing a perpetual plume of cloud, looking like a stricken battleship on fire".

Our plan was to tour around the Costa de la Luz, and as usual we didn't get very far - not to Cadiz,  and certainly not to Donana or Seville. There's always too much to see on the doorstep. Including Africa which looks incredibly close.

 Migration here depends greatly on the wind-direction, as the birds crossing the Straits are gently blown towards Gibraltar by westerlies or towards the Costa de la Luz in easterlies. The Levanter was blowing on the day of our arrival, and we were pleased to watch black kites and short-toed eagles flying in low over the pines and sand dunes.

 The birds have to run the gauntlet of wind farms along this notoriously windy coast, and whether these pose a serious risk to them can only be answered by scientific recording - unfortunately the owners of wind farms and surrounding land have a vested interest in this, so information is scarce but estimates of kills are high.

One project involved researchers warning turbine operators of arriving migrants, and the blades were turned off, which is intriguing but not a long-term solution and of no help at night of course.

We stayed at the excellent Montecote, across the valley from Vejer and were centrally placed for a wide variety of habitats, all filled with birds.... hills, farmland, marshes, pine woods, rice paddies, lagoons and beaches - even in the towns you kept your eyes to the skies, watching overflying swallows and martins, vultures, eagles and storks.

Vejer has its own colony of lesser kestrels, and a group of about 30 bald ibises that have been reintroduced to the area but which have independently chosen their own nesting place -

 

   - on a cliff by a busy road, 

... conveniently placed for birders....

...and for litter-picking / nesting-material-gathering in a car park.

Is that really a used nappy?  You're the rarest breeding bird in Europe - have some self-respect!

Winter thrushes

'Tis a joy to find birds unexpectedly - in this case in a field next to the main road near Ash, where about 1,000 fieldfares and a sprinkling of redwings, pulling worms from the sodden ground. And in the background in another field.... lapwings and gulls aplenty. Must be good pickings.

The fieldfares were very smart with well-streaked chests, and it's not long till it's time to return to the north to breed.

Not to be eclipsed(!) the flanks of the few redwings shone,



....and their chests were proudly streaky too.

Talking of chests.....

 

The previous week we had a pleasant sunny stroll around Pluckley and Little Chart, to see where HE Bates wrote his books (and we're not necessarily talking about Pop Larkin here - check out his marvellous prose in Through the Woods).
It's a pleasant area and surrounded by orchards, where unpicked apples had fallen unwanted from the trees, to be scavenged by ....

 

.... yes, fieldfares and redwings. The noise was tremendous as they wheeled in flocks when disturbed.

 

Too much like hard work for some.



Costa nature

Just for the record, here's a few pics of wildlife encountered in a warm October trip to the Costa Brava, not going far but just chilling.  

Terabinth.

Calamint

I was pleased to nail a Bath white, after much leaping around after the flighty things.

Swallowtails wafted along the well-marked trials - supreme butterflies that had a good year in southern England this year.

Below is a swallowtail caterpillar crossing the road. It gets upset if disturbed, rearing up and displaying two aggressive prongs (or in scientific terminology, they "evert their osmeterii") and pong.

This, by contrast, is a tree grayling - quiet and camouflaged.

Think this is Iberian lizard. Far fewer lizards here than in Italy, where they are everywhere.

Clouded yellows were common flying over fields of crops.

Also remarkably common were long-tailed blues that frequented low grassland and verges, as well as over fields, not noticeably using pea plants.

The star of the week was, however, the two-tailed pasha that was seen flying around the Jardi Botanic de Cap Roig, clearly attracted to the fruits of palm trees and strawberry trees but maddeningly impossible to photograph.

Above is a narcissus that flowers in autumn, and is common, unlike the unidentified poached egg plant below, found in the marsh under the flightpath of Barcelona airport.

And finally, a death's head hawk moth, sadly deceased, that was found in the street of Calella de Palafruguel.

Costa Brava in October

In October, we took a hoopoe south to the Costa Brava, where we hoped it would be warm, sunny and relaxing. We had plans to visit nature reserves, wetlands, mountains, cliffs and volcanoes to see many species of birds in Catalonia.

As it turned out, we didn't go far.

It was far from being a beach holiday, but as it was sunny, warm and out of season, the empty beaches and warm sea proved more inviting than getting into the car and driving long distances.

The area around Palafruguell doesn't appear on Naturetrek itineries, but it is not one of the high-rise horrors of the Costa Brava. It's smart and in October you have the place to yourself. There are plenty of interesting and well-signed paths, leading to secluded rocky bays, perfect for snorkeling.

And instead of seeing lots of birds, we were surprised to see plenty of.......... but that will have to wait for the next blog. The habitats above and below may, however give a clue.

Falconry

I have difficulty in deciding on a position to take on the ethics of falconry, just as I have on some other relationships imposed by humans over animals (I'm very clear on many others, though, such as the relationship between Maltese hunters and migrating birds).

However, a  visit to Dover Castle by Rafael Historic Falconry provided both a spectacular display of the falconer's skill and of the birds' mastery of the air, especially when one of the peregrine falcons was set free to soar over the battlements and swoop across the jousting lawn.

Peregrines can be seen frequently along the White Cliffs but seeing them up close gives a new perspective.

I'd not previously seen a gyrfalcon and this one was a beauty, statuesque in line with its image as a Viking's hawk.

 

One of my favourite authors when I was younger was TH White, who wrote The Goshawk describing his difficult and less than successful attempt to master a recalcitrant Gos. A new book called H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald has used this as a base for her own more successful story, and usefully points out where White went wrong (driving himself and Gos half-mad with sleep deprivation didn't help).
MacDonald uses more tenderness in place of White's control, but I was reminded of this by the falconer's comment that the bird is not a pet and not a friend; it just uses the human as a source of food.