Day 1 - Tuesday 12th August 2014
Arriving at Malaga airport
extremely late on the evening of the 11th August, Chris Alex and
myself headed straight for our hotel for a good night’s sleep ready to depart
bright and early the next morning. With the hire car picked up we were soon
well on our way to begin tracking down our first major target of the trip – the
rare and localised White-rumped Swift. Our main target for the week, Southern
Spain is the only breeding location in Europe for these enigmatic aerial
acrobats.
A large flock of swifts
circling at the side of the road provided our first Pallid Swifts of
the trip, artfully weaving through the air in pursuit of the abundance of
insects enjoying the warm weather. Taking in my first ever views of Pallids,
the cry soon went up of “Alpine Swift!” A huge swift with a bright white belly was
hurtling through the flock, darting over our heads and away over the trees and
we had excellent but all too brief views of this super-sized swift. Alpine
swift was actually one of my most wanted birds for the trip, and I was
especially pleased to have connected so soon on our journey – hopefully our
first day would prove to be a “three swift day”!
Carrying on in to the small
village of Jimena de la Frontera, Alex thought he spotted a Spanish Sparrow on
one of the railings lining the terracotta coloured houses, catching a brief
glimpse as we drove by. There was was no time to stop however (even though this
would be a lifer for me!) and I was told that we’d see plenty of Spanish
Sparrows on the trip (we didn’t!!) so we carried on our way and in to the scenic Spanish countryside.
Stopping at a small river, the
extreme heat of the Southern Spanish summer was apparent (the water had practically dried up) and we regularly
reached temperatures nearing 40 degrees throughout the trip – it was impossible
to stay out in the harsh sun for too long. Several Crag Martins zoomed by at
eye level, nesting in the shade underneath the bridge, whilst a group of Terrapins
sunbathed in the shallow water below, evidently loving the sun’s rays!
There was disappointingly no sign of any White-rumped Swifts in the area,
although a female Golden Oriole picked up by Chris and Alex was a nice
consolation.
Terrapin sunbathing! |
Getting lost and disorientated down an extremely narrow track (that soon turned in to a surface so potholed and boulder strewn it was like driving on an actual mountain) we had flashbacks of our first hire car’s destruction on our previous trip to Spain, so carefully manoeuvred down the track ensuring the tyres didn’t come off worse for wares. After such careful driving by Alex, it was a bit of a slap in the face to subsequently realise the track was in fact a dead end and that we would somehow have to do a 3 point turn and do it all again to get back to the main road!!
Our second site of Castellar
de la Frontera also proved fruitless, with more Pallid and Common Swifts
darting around the top of the mountainside, so we headed over to Alcaidesa near
San Roque, where our apartment for the next few days was based and conveniently
where White-rumped Swifts using the pond opposite to drink were reported just a
few days earlier.
Sadly there were no White-rumped Swifts at Castellar de la Frontera |
A large flock of migrating
Black Kites were visible in the distance taking advantage of a thermal, while a
small Gecko scurried in and out of the bark in one of the ornamental palm trees
lining the road. A showy male Sardinian Warbler serenaded us from a nearby
bush, hopping between the branches, his scratchy song carrying on the sunny
breeze, whilst cicadas chirruped noisily from the vegetation.
Turning our attention to the
swifts, the previously distant flock moved ever closer, and after around half
an hour eagle-eyed Chris shouted out that he’d got one! In a flock of hundreds
of fast moving swifts, getting us all on the White-rumped Swift may have proved a challenge
in itself, but despite the trees and the swift being quite distant, both me and
Alex managed to pick up the bird in question, the white rump clearly visible
and its sheer size and wing length making it stand out from the accompanying
House Martins.
Alcaidesa Golf Resort where the swifts were flying over |
With the flock heading closer
still, we waited, and miraculously just a few metres above us and directly in
front, me and Chris picked up the White-rumped, showing fantastically well and
providing exceptional views! Calling Alex over, all 3 of us watched the bird
zooming around until it became lost amongst the many hundreds of hirundines in
the flock.
Ecstatic that it was mission success on the swift front, we headed back to the apartment happy, where a Night Heron quietly searching for its evening supper on the pool opposite was a nice end to the day before bed.
Ecstatic that it was mission success on the swift front, we headed back to the apartment happy, where a Night Heron quietly searching for its evening supper on the pool opposite was a nice end to the day before bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment