The Arrival Of Wintering Cranes

The Arrival Of Wintering Cranes



The last week has been pretty good bird-wise. The weather, as predicted let loose an enormous amount of water in Cadiz province just as I was returning from Eastern Germany & Poland.

My flight from Berlin to Barcelona was delayed while they found a slot around more autumnal storms that were creeping up from the southern Atlantic and Mediterranean areas.

When I finally got on the flight from Barcelona to Seville the storm down our way was pretty bad.

Around 2am I was passing La Barca de Vejer and was slowly driving through the flooding and damage which was pretty extensive.

Mandrake (Mandragora autumnalis) 4727
Mandrake coming into flower (Mandragora officinarium)

Autumn Snowflake Leucojum autumnale 8601
Autumn Snowflake (Leucojum autumnale)

I had been away for less than a week and in the next morning you could see that the rainwater and had changed the colour of the landscape and that Andalucía was once again rich green. During the following daylight hours we found some lovely flowering plants and migrating birds.

Autumn Crocus Colchicum lusitanum 8598
Autumn Crocus (Colchicum lusitanum)

During two days I showed Joanna, from Washington DC and Carmen from Sevilla some of the delights of the coastline of The and the Alcornocales. A few Monarch butterflies were around some of the Milkweed plants and close by we were attracted by Griffon Vultures flying in to feed on a dead cow carcass. It’s always a wonderful sight to see, even although it looks, sounds and smells a bit chaotic.

20121031 101209
A great day out with a lovely family from New Zealand

The Common Cranes had arrived in Cadiz province and by the 28th of November hundreds of birds were here with more and more flying in to join the others already feeding on the remnants of the harvested rice, maize and sunflower fields.

20121031 100911
Jess has a look through my telescope at a Black-winged Kite

I had a lovely half-day tour with the Riddell-Pitt’s-Brown’s family from New Zealand and travelling through Barbate, La Janda and Benalup we managed to see lots of close views of rare and commoner birds, plants and flowers and other wildlife including Egyptian Mongoose. They have their own blog about their travels and posted an article about their time with me here.

20121031 101223
Ben’s Binoculars

Great Egret Grey Heron 8671

Common Cranes 31st Oct 8914
Common Cranes arriving for winter

Common Crane 6934

Common Crane 9662
Common Cranes in flight

Short toed Eagle w5263
Short-toed Eagle

Spanish Imperial Eagle juv 0964

I had a great day out with Paco and Pilar from Madrid. They were showing Nito Paniagua, a guide from Costa Rica who has his own company there, the delights of Spanish birding and had booked Andalucian Guides for a few days. All three were great company and we saw a lot of birds including the , Purple Herons and Spanish Imperial Eagle. Other birds included Sparrowhawk, Black-winged Kite , , Booted and Short-toed Eagles, Hen, Marsh and one distant . Black Stork was also picked up by sharp-eyed Nito and Pilar spotted four Short-eared Owls. Thanks for your appreciative good company and sharp eyes!

La Janda rains P1160782
Flooding at La Janda

Venta Pinto flood P1160786
Floods at La Barca de Vejer

Hoopoe 1201

Northern Bald Ibis worm 4918
Catching worms

Northern Bald Ibis 4904
Northern Bald Ibis at Barbate

Marsh Harrier juv top 8075
Marsh Harrier, one of hundreds at La Janda

Glossy Ibis 3214
Glossy Ibis

Marocco bann6
All this rain turns everything lush and green…

Purple Herons Oct 31st 8910
Three Purple Herons (juveniles) at La Janda this week

Purple Heron juv 9078

Purple Heron juv Nov12 w9095

Purple Heron juv w9068

White Wagtail reflection 9475
White Wagtail

Purple Swamphen flight 2869

Ploughing rice field 2478
Ploughing in the harvested rice stubble

Circus Macrorous 6 12 11 w2849
Pallid Harrier, juvenile at La Janda

Pallid Harrier diving 3760

image
Pallid Harrier hunting near Benalup

Here’s another chance to see the ID points of juvenile Pallid Harriers. These photos were taken of a Pallid that Andy Paterson and myself found earlier this year at La Janda.

There was also a goodcomparative photo ID and article on Juvenile Harriers by Andy Stoddart in the October issue of Birdwatch Magazine. I contributed with some of my Montagu’s Harrier photos on this six page article.

Short eared Owl 6192
at La Janda

It’s always great to see Short-eared Owls and the sight of these lovely creatures hunting in La Janda is fascinating to witness. I just hope that many will stop here for winter but as always these nomads depend on vole populations which are often themselves dominated by weather conditions. Last winter was dry and so far we’ve had a really wet autumn. Let’s wait and see what happens this winter.

Rice 8670

Rice harvest. I put the speed of this shot to 1/8000th of a second to see if I could freeze the rice grains coming out of the combine harvester.

Combine Rice 8833

Alpine Swift 8784
Late Alpine Swifts in still passing over in November

Audouin%2527s Gulls 4909
Audouin’s Gulls at Barbate

Barbate Cliffs October 4985

Barbate cliffs, the start of The Strait. Patty and I did a lovely walk from Barbate to Los Caños de Meca with with Liz and Keith from the UK. They had been with mebefore some years back for a day’s birding and for the walk weorganized a vehicle at the other end of this fabulous stretch of coastline.

If you haven’t done this walk before then we canthoroughly recommend it. Start in the morning from Barbate and you’ll have the sun on your back as you walk. If you need aguidedtour then Patty will show you this and many other routes filled with birds, plants and stunning scenery. Morning walksdetails can be found here.

Griffons Feeding 5194
Griffon Vultures feeding at a cow carcass

Barbate Beach Sunset 5027
Sunset at Barbate

Booted Eagle GreenSand 8845
in November

Common Buzzard 8748
Lots of Common Buzzards around. Some even look like the ‘Gibraltar’ buzzards orLong-legged Buzzards

Gibraltar view El Bujeo 8605
Distant Gibraltar

BwKite CKestrel Roost 9222
Black-winged Kite roosting with Common Kestrel

Common Cranes arriving 9100
Common Cranes arriving this week at La Janda

Great Egret ringed 8A1 9098
Great Egret

Dive in!

Discover hidden wildlife with our FREE newsletters

We promise we’ll never spam! Read our Privacy Policy for more info

Stephen Daly

Stephen Daly

Stephen Daly, has been birding since he was eight years old in his native Scotland. After living in Germany and France he established Andalucian Guides the successful birding and wildlife tour company on The Strait of Gibraltar in Spain and has been living here since 2001. Photographing birds in flight is one passion and his photos can be found in many books, magazines and journals. Studying bird behaviour and bird migration are two other positive aspects of being based on one of the busiest migration routes on Earth.

Share this post with your friends




Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments