Wednesday, 24 August 2011

The view from the Mirador de Estrecho, looking across the straits of Gibraltar to the hills of Morocco in the distance.

All the sites in this section are treated, in detail and with precise maps and directions, in my book ‘Finding Birds in Andalucia’

If you have any information which you feel would help to update the book, please email me at dave@easybirder.co.uk and I’ll add your observations to these pages

To view more sites in Andalucia click here

Gibraltar to Tarifa

This stretch of coastline is famous for the spectacular bird-of-prey migrations which can be seen here every spring and autumn. Counts suggest that this area gets almost twice as many migrating raptors as the even more famous Bosphorus at Istanbul. This difference is due largely to the 100,000 extra Honey Buzzards which occur here but Gibraltar also gets 5 times as many Short-toed Eagles, 10 times as many Egyptian Vultures and 30 times more Booted Eagles (based on autumn figures). Black Kites, Sparrowhawks, Kestrels, Montagu’s Harrriers and Griffon Vultures also occur in much greater numbers here compared with Istanbul. As an added bonus, these viewpoints have also recently had regular sightings of Ruppell’s Vultures. There are impressive migrations of seabirds and passerines too.