BIRDING GIBRALTAR
Ernest Garcia
The famous Rock of Gibraltar is a limestone promontory, some five km long and one km wide. The summit ridge, rising to 426m, offers superb if vertiginous views over the westernmost Mediterranean, the Costa del Sol and, especially, the Strait of Gibraltar itself. The Moroccan shore is only 20 km away and views often extend to the Rif Mountains beyond.
The strategic position of Gibraltar is the root of its ornithological fame. Migration of soaring birds, i.e. storks and raptors, occurs year-round in some form and numbers can be spectacular in the peak seasons of March-May and August-October, almost invariably during periods of westerly winds. The principal species are Honey Buzzards and Black Kites, which both produce daily counts of thousands at peak times. Significant but lesser concentrations occur of Egyptian and Griffon Vultures, Short-toed Eagles, Marsh, Hen and Montagu`s Harriers, Sparrowhawks, Common Buzzards, Booted Eagles and Ospreys, among others, as well as White and Black Storks.
Migration of seabirds is also an all-year phenomenon and features important numbers of Cory`s and Balearic Shearwaters, Northern Gannets, Great Skuas; Mediterranean, Little, Black-headed, Lesser Black-backed and Audouin`s Gulls and Sandwich Terns. Many other seabirds occur regularly, including Lesser Crested Terns (October/mid-November).
The local list, of some 310 species, grows annually. Recent additions have included Indigo Bunting (April 2004) and Purple Gallinule (August 2004). The list includes a particularly comprehensive contingent of passerines, most of them migrants grounded on the Rock by inclement weather, often during the frequent bouts of strong easterly winds which produce the famous levanter cloud over the summit. A diversity of vagrant species enlivens the birding scene; recent examples have included Lammergeier, Spotted and Lesser Spotted Eagle, Pallid Harrier, Allen's Gallinule, Mountain Chiffchaff, Yellow-browed Warbler, Pallas's Warbler, Seebohm's Wheatear, House Crow, African Chaffinch, Dark-eyed Junco and White-throated Sparrow.
Key places to visit in Gibraltar are the bird observatory and ringing station at Jews'Gate (run by the Gibraltar Ornithological and Natural History Society - see their web-site www.gonhs.org which also gives details of low-cost accommodation at the Observatory and at Bruce's Farm Field Centre); the Summit Ridge, Botanic Garden, North Front Cemetery and Europa Point. Gibraltar is within day-trip distance of the Eastern bank of the Guadalquivir river (Brazo del Este, Bonanza salt pans, Algaida pine woods); the Serrania de Ronda, the Guadalhorce estuary at Malaga, the cork forests of the Cadiz sierras (Parque Natural de los Alcornocales) and the Costa de la Luz. For details of all these sites and around a couple of hundred others, I hope I may be forgiven for recommending my own site guide; Where to watch birds in southern and western Spain; Andaluc�a, Extremadura and Gibraltar, by Ernest Garcia and Andrew Paterson,2nd edition 2001, Helm/A&C Black, �16.99. I am also happy to answer specific queries from visitors to this Forum.
� 2005 Dr EFJ Garcia
Content and images originally posted by ErnestGarcia
