Birding

Cooling off on the coast

July 21, 2024 by Clive Finlayson 2 Comments

Last week I wrote about the hot and dry conditions that now affect much of the Iberian Peninsula. My own solution when it comes to birding at this time of the year is to concentrate on the coast. At Gibraltar, where I live, I spend many hours at its southernmost tip, Europa Point. If the winds are blowing from the west, the afternoons can be spectacular. As the land heats up, a fresh south-westerly sea breeze sets in. Many birds heading towards the Atlantic, whether migrating or performing feeding movements, are pushed inshore. Sea-watching has always been exciting for me because there is always the chance of something unexpected turning up. It is a bonus but simply standing on top of a cliff feeling the cool sea breeze on your face is sufficient reward.

Adult Audouin’s Gulls now passing show heavily abraded plumage after breeding

I covered the main species in my 23rd June article “When the sea becomes a desert”. Certainly, the migration of Audouin’s Gulls (Ichthyaetus audouinii) out of the Mediterranean is now gathering pace and it is a great time to observe these birds in their array of plumages, according to age. Europa Point, Gibraltar, has to be the best place to observe and photograph these gulls at close quarters.

Juvenile Audouin’s Gull
First summer Audouin’s Gull
Second summer Audouin’s Gull
Third summer Audouin’s Gull
Audouin’s Gulls travel in flocks
Audouin’s Gulls resting on the sandy beaches of the Strait of Gibraltar

Another gull that has become regular and whose numbers have increased in recent years, is the Mediterranean Gull (Ichthyaetus melanocephalus). These also show up, often in family groups, from the east and steadily approach the point before turning south-west towards the Atlantic.

Mediterranean Gulls migrate past Europa Point in mixed age flocks
Adult Mediterranean Gulls passing Europa Point. Note these birds still retain the black hoods but flight and tail feathers are heavily abraded. Those passing later in the summer are losing the black hoods
Mediterranean Gulls gathering in calm waters close to the Strait of Gibraltar

Less frequent, but also showing is the Slender-billed Gull (Chroicocephalus genei). If I really want to see these elegant gulls, then I can always drive up to the Atlantic coast and the estuary of the Guadalquivir River where they breed.

Slender-billed Gulls passing Europa Point, Gibraltar
Slender-billed Gulls breed in the Guadalquivir Estuary

Not all birds showing up now are gulls. Two waders pass through in reasonable numbers. These are Oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus) and Whimbrels (Numenius phaeopus), birds coming from the High Arctic in the latter case or from more southerly latitudes in the case of the former. Both are heading for rich wintering grounds off the West African coast.

Oystercatchers passing Europa Point, Gibraltar
Oystercatchers and Whimbrel on the move at Europa Point, Gibraltar
Whimbrel rests and feeds at low tide on the rocky shore below Europa Point

Last week I wrote about the Black Kites (Milvus migrans) that are now heading south. With fresh south-westerlies good numbers of these kites are drifted out to sea, east of the Rock. They then make an exhausting flight back in a north-westerly direction to find land. Many evenings I’m watching seabirds and flocks of kites arrive from the south-east and fly north back towards the hinterland. These lucky ones have lived to fight another day, perhaps when conditions improve. I’m sure that many others are not so lucky and drown away from sight of land.

Black Kite passage now gathering pace

I always go out in the hope of seeing another very special bird that shows up at this time. This is Eleonora’s Falcon (Falco eleonorae). These are scarce but they do show up consistently in July and early August. They are birds that venture inland in search of concentrations of insects which they feed on prior to moving to their island colonies to breed. Others are non-breeding individuals wandering in search of food. The birds that I see, almost invariably, come in from the south, very probably the Moroccan coast just 21 kilometres away.

Eleonora’s Falcon is always a possibility at Europa Point in the summer

Sea-watching from the coast is great fun right now and it keeps me cool. Next week I’ll take a step further. In recent years pelagic trips have become increasingly popular and they offer a different window, one of seabirds that have always been out there at this time but that we have never been able to see from the coast.

Adult Audouin’s Gull head-on
Written by Clive Finlayson
Growing up in Gibraltar, it is impossible not to notice large birds of prey, in the thousands, overhead. That, and his father’s influence, got Clive hooked on birds from a very young age. His passion for birds took him eventually to the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology at Oxford University where he read for a DPhil, working with swifts and pallid swifts. Publishing papers, articles and books on birds aside, Clive is also a keen bird photographer. He started as a poor student with an old Zenit camera and a 400 mm lens; nowadays he works with a Nikon mirrorless system. Although his back garden is Gibraltar and the Strait of Gibraltar, Clive has an intimate knowledge of Iberian birds but his work also takes him much further afield, from Canada to Japan to Australia. He is Director of the Gibraltar National Museum. Clive's beat is "Avian Survivors", the title of one of his books in which he describes the birds of the Palaearctic as survivors that pulled through a number of ice ages to reach us today.