Down to Tarifa today for some raptor passage. Cazalla was murky with poor visibility first thing. Late morning I moved to Trafico on the coast where it was better. Hundreds of birds moving inc Booted & Sh-t Eagles, Black Kites, HBs, C Buzzards, Egyptian Vs, Marsh H, Spr'awks plus W-r Swift 1/3

Photos apparently confirm that one of the shearwaters on yesterday's trip was a Yelkuan. A good bird to get despite being (rightly) relegated to a subspecies of Balearic. (Photo: Manuel Barcena of Oxyura Birding who organised the trip). 🪶

A weak (2.5%) German grapefruit infused wheat beer. My beer aficionado friends will be appalled (I'm looking at you Craig @eastkentbirder.bsky.social) but it's delicious and ideal after a hot day birding in Spain😁

Today's pelagic out from Chipiona started very slowly. We struggled to see any Gannets, shearwaters, petrels or skuas. Happily, they finally obliged so we had good views of Cory's & Balearic Shearwaters, European & Wilson's Petrels, Arctic & Great Skuas. One of the best birds was a flying fish! 1/2🪶

Another pelagic out of Chipiona underway! Everyone else onboard is, understandably, Spanish. Time that I learnt Spanish bird names!

My second (failed) attempt to see a Mediterranean Chameleon in the Jardin de Celestino Mutis - said to be the best site for them in Andalucia. Sadly, gone are the days when the gardener here, Andrea, would drop everything to show you 'her' Chameleons ☹️

Good to catch up with Elegant Tern this morning at Playa de Montijo (Chipiona, Cadiz) today. Distant digiscoped images. Also Roseate Tern present 🪶

Overnight in Osuna, my favourite small town in Andalucia. It's an architectural gem. Late afternoon trawl around the Osuna triangle netted 13 Great Bustard, 6 B-w Kite, c200 Short-toed Lark, etc 42+° during the day & still 30+° at 22.40🪶

A pleasingly wet Brazo del Este (Seville) today produced mind-boggling numbers of Glossy Ibis, a huge flock of Pratincoles, Black Stork, Purple Swamphen, B-h Weaver, Golden Bishop, etc. Now in a hotel in Osuna waiting for cooler temperatures (currently c40°C) before looking for bustards🪶

Another good day around Tarifa with oodles of raptors; HBs, Booted & Sh-t Eagles, Egyptian Vultures, etc. but the star turn was a nice cirtensis Long-legged Buzzard (Photos again courtesy of Phil Chantler)🪶

Raptor watching at Punta Camorro (Tarifa) today:good nos of Short-toed & Booted Eagles, Egyptian Vulture, Honey Buzzards, fewer Black Kites, fewer still Marsh Harrier and a close cirtensis Long-legged Buzzard.

Good views of Western Olivaceous Warbler today by the service road at Junction 24 on the A381 near Medina Sidonia (Photo: Phil Chantler). A typical & surprisingly common bird of tamarisk stands in Cadiz Province 🪶

Good to see Laguna de Medina so full this month, in recent years it's had little water come autumn. Good birding too with Red-knobbed Coot, Whiskered Tern, W-h Duck & much else. A pre-dawn start netted a R-n Nightjar near Alcala, also Iberian Green 'pecker at Cetina (but I dipped Med. Lark) 🪶 1/2

Up to Trebujena early this morning to look for Rufous Bushchat with three Kent birding friends. Happily we soon had three birds at my favourite location. Fabulous birds! 🙂🪶

Good news/bad news Cadiz Birding. Good news: The track across La Janda is no longer impassable having been fully repaired and in very good condition. Bad news: The track at Bolonia to the famous Cueva del Moro is currently blocked at the Mirador del Camarinal (c2km) from the cave.

I loathe birding in crowded built up areas, but if you want to see House Buntings in Spain you have no other option than traipsing around the less salubrious parts of Algeciras (mobile phone shot)🪶

The obligatory photo of the sunset from my terrace in Alcala de los Gazules ...

Good to see & hear that there are still hundreds of House Sparrows (never any Spanish Sparrows as far as I can see) roosting in the small park in the middle of Alcala de los Gazules. Carmona (Seville) used have one numbering thousands in a similar situation but they cut down the trees ☹️

Chilly gusting northerlies this AM in Alcala so not ideal - 50+ Alpine Swifts, 3 Lesser Kestrels, 1 Short-toed & 3 Booted Eagles, a ringtail Montagu's Harrier (infrequent over the terrace) and 250+ Griffon Vultures (inc. an interesting looking dark bird l lost swapping between bins & 'scope🤦🏼) 🪶

Supper on the terrace in Alcala this evening with uninvited (but welcome) guests - 20+ Griffons low over the terrace, 10+ Lesser Kestrels & Booted Eagles (mobile phone shots only). But best news today is that equipped with new hearing aids I can hear Bee-eaters for the first time in years!😄 🪶

Back in Alcala de los Gazules (Cadiz). For once Andalucia looked greener than the UK I left. Unexpected rain overnight. A Bee-eater, a few Booted Eagles, Griffons & Lesser Kestrels overhead. Count of 21 Lks over the village last night higher than usual here in late August.

Helping at a "Meet the KOS" event at Dungeness RSPB this AM when a juv WWB Tern turned up; detoured en route to home via Stodmarsh for a 2nd WWB Tern (adult)!

I couldn't get to Oare (Kent) y'day for the W-r Sandpiper as I had a fitting for new hearing aids (& other things to sort out). Happily, I saw the W-r Sand today, but the highlight was hearing Bearded Tit & Whimbrel for the first time in years! Perhaps the new hearing aids are worth all that money🪶

Millions remember Bill Oddie as a musician, comedic genius and populariser of birdwatching (via his TV series); I remember him as the man whose programmes got my elderly mother to join the RSPB, where I'd failed! I remember too his "Little Black Bird Book" - a hilarious & astute book about birding

Yesterday, Alcala de los Gazules was a blue dot (= very low fire risk) surrounded by orange (= very high risk), but today it's surrounded by orange & yellow (= high risk), so the situation now seems less bad. 🤞 A fire doesn't break out locally; even without flames, smoke inhalation is not good!

After years of prevarication, I finally made myself some gazpacho. It was very nice too, but no better than the commercial stuff I can buy in my local Sainsbury's & quite possibly more expensive! The price of feeling virtuous.

I was pleased to be at the Global Bird Fair for three days as part of the Crossbill Guides team. It was great to chat to many happy users of the guides and to introduce others to the series. Unfortunately, I was manning the stand, so I missed Dirk's talk on how the guides are produced🪶.

At the Global Bird Fair this w/e & pleased to catch up with two school friends I birded with growing up in Southampton. Phil Gregory (tour guide & author now based in Oz) in the centre & Jim Milne (now in Coventry) on the right. Unbelievably, we started birding together 60+ years ago! 🪶

Dark-green Fritillary at Lullingstone yesterday. Photo by my old birding pal Phil Gregory over from Oz for the Global Bird Fair. A new species for us both.

16 butterfly species in Kent y'day (probably my biggest UK total). Neither Large Tort nor Purple Emperor obliged, but Dark-green Fritillary at Lullingstone was new for me. In breezy conditions, they hardly stayed still, so here's a photo of the habitat & a flower they had landed on moments before!