The Costa del Sol - A few days in Spain !

Thursday 18th – Sunday 21st September 2003

By Andrew Bluett

The company conference took me to the Costa del Sol this year. The following notes record the birding I was able to do whilst there. 

Thursday 18th 

I left home just after 6.00 am and headed up the M5 to Birmingham Airport , where after parking the car, I arrived at 7.25 am . My colleagues started arriving and we all went through the process of checking in etc, culminating in a 10.15 departure courtesy of mytravelite.com flight VZ7011.  

We had an effortless flight down to Malaga over the south of Britain , the channel, along the French coast over the Channel Isles and Bay of Biscay to the north coast of Spain and down across country to the southern coast. The weather was good though with thin cloud cover which obscured fine detail below until we were beyond the end of the Pyrenees and over central Spain . The countryside looked baked and arid with vast fields clearly having been harvested, interspersed with areas of high maquis scrub and forests of Cork Oaks etc. The descent to Malaga was uneventful, the most remarkable landmark being the salt lake, which was situated in the hills just to the north of the coast. After landing at 1.45 pm local time (+ 1hour on BST) we were swiftly processed and transferred to coaches for the journey to the Atalaya Park Hotel between Marbella and Estepona. 

The coach journey took approximately an hour, and the first birds appeared along the roadside. I noted Swifts in various places, a definite Alpine Swift, several Common Swifts, at least two Pallid Swifts and a White Rumped Swift, the smallest of the swifts and with a distinctive white rump, which was unmistakable. There were odd groups of five - seven Spotless Starlings, House Sparrows and a few distinctive Rock Sparrows. As we approached the Marbella area I saw a pair of Ravens over the hillside above the road and picked out two falcons over the scrubby land along the hillsides, almost certainly Kestrels. 

Around the hotel Complex I saw more Spotless Starlings, House Sparrows and numbers of gulls, most of which appeared to be Herring and Lesser Black-Backed with good numbers of first year juveniles amongst them. 

After a buffet lunch, on the lawns, the conference meeting and a dinner in the La Torre Restaurant, we variously spent the evening and much of the night drinking and socialising, with a good few of the delegates heading for the bright lights of Puerto Banus and the fleshpots on offer. I eventually headed for my room and bed at around 2.30 am , finding a Toad trapped in the concrete basin of the outdoor shower alongside the swimming pool. I helped him out in spite of his threatening posture and headed for bed! There had been bats of indeterminate species fluttering around all evening over the gardens. 

Friday 19th 

One of my colleagues, the aptly named John Bird, reported a Scops Owl in the trees outside his room at around 5.30 am . The day started rather cloudy and grey, and although it began to break up soon after sunrise, it remained rather cooler than expected until after lunch. 

After breakfast and informal meetings I met up with those of my colleagues who were to take the coach for a visit to Gibraltar for much of the remainder of the day. We departed at 9.30 and headed west on the coast road. The journey was uneventful with sightings of a few more Spotless Starlings and a falcon, which was almost certainly a Kestrel. A small patch of damp green field near the roadside held a dozen or so Cattle and Little Egrets. 

The first view of Gibraltar came as we dropped down the hill from San Roque towards La Linea de la Concepcion, it was spectacular even from a distance and stood out as a white limestone mass which was so different from the yellow and russet mudstones and shales of the Spanish geology. This reflects Gibraltar ’s different status and seems almost to be a chip off the old block of the white cliffs of Dover offering a defiant stance to the pretenders to its sovereignty. 

Access is not difficult, provided one is prepared to accept the never ending lines of traffic at the frontier and the need to pass immigration and customs, both of which can be tiresome and long winded. Our excellent local guide Miguel was however well practiced at this manoeuvre and instructed us all to disembark from the coach and with passports in hand, walk through the buildings, whilst the coach driver patiently waited in line to bring the coach through to the park on the British side of the frontier. The rock is properly called Calpe , whereas Gibraltar should refer only to the town. 

We assembled in front of the airport terminal and waited for our pre-organised tour minibuses to arrive and carry us off to sample the delights of the rock. I took the opportunity to scan the rock for bird life and soon picked up several raptors, even from a distance. There were Booted Eagles, a Black Kite and a Red Kite on offer, and away up the limestone face of the rock to the left, a solitary small falcon wheeled and corkscrewed up on the up draught. 

The wind was from the southeast and the movement of moist warm air up and over the rock caused a veil to condense and mushroom over the town before dispersing in the warmer air beyond. This looked like a large sinister hood, and one of my colleagues joked that it showed that the rock was British territory (covered with cloud) as against the Spanish mainland, which was bathed in uninterrupted sunshine! 

Our transport arrived and we headed off in groups of 6 or 7 to a minibus, through Gibraltar town and up along the very narrow and winding streets, from where we could look down on the town, harbour, bay and to Algeciras beyond. The first stop was the viewpoint and attraction called The Pillars of Hercules. I, along with my colleagues, had a look around, took the obligatory photos, then darted across the road to the Gibraltar Natural History Society’s Field Study Station where I met and struck up a conversation with a group of birders from Surrey who were carrying out the ringing of migrants gathered from mist nets in the wood and scrub on the hillside above for the week. As we talked, a Booted Eagle circled overhead, one of the ringers returned with a Sardinian Warbler in a bag for ringing and several others called from the scrub around us. A Blackbird moved through the bushes and contact calls betrayed the presence of a juvenile close by. 

The information I gleaned from the ringers was that the Booted Eagle movement had been intensive for the whole week and was still in full swing, Turtle Doves had passed through earlier in the day, as had a Bee-eater along with several dozens of Sardinian Warblers.

I had to move on, so bid farewell to the ringers and re-boarded the minibus for the short trip to St Michael’s Caves. These are truly magnificent caverns with a concert hall inside and vast arrays of stalactites and stalagmites, lit with colours to emphasize and enhance their size and beauty. After a respectable length of time underground, I headed for the open air again and scanned the skies once more! Another Booted Eagle circled overhead no more than a couple of hundred feet up so that the colours, pale underside and markings were clearly visible. Close by the minibus parking area I saw one of the scourges of the wildlife in Gibraltar, a family of cat and kittens, feral, hungry and ready to try their luck with anything edible that passed by. We boarded again and moved on to a new stop where we could see the Apes at their feeding station. 

There were several adults, various ages of young and small babies being carried by mothers, generally oblivious to the human visitors, except when food or bags, which might contain food, were evident. This provoked a raid with the bag being snatched and spirited away, never to be seen again! The apes are Barbary Apes, Macaque silvestris to be precise and are not large, though can be dangerous – do NOT touch; they bite! 

We moved on again and dropped down past the Moorish castle and into the town proper, to be deposited at the gates to the square with a couple of hours free to explore, shop, eat etc. 

We walked into Casamates Square and found a restaurant/bar which suited our needs with little effort and spent the next hour eating and drinking in a pleasant situation and able to see the Booted Eagles coming in overhead at the same time! Another 45 minutes was taken up with shopping in Main Street leaving about half an hour or so to watch the Booted Eagles from a seat in the coach park. 

There had been a constant stream of the eagles all day. They approached from the north over La Linea and the land bridge, crossing the airport, marina and part of the town before circling and heading across the cliff face and slopes above the Moorish castle, then rising up the main northern cliff face of the rock, or passing around it to meet the up draught on the seaward side then rising fast to the top of the rock, from where they could circle over the arrays of aerials and domes, upwards to a decent height from where they could glide the dozen or so miles to Ceuta before dispersing into North Africa. They crossed over in singles or small, loose groups of 2 or 3, occasionally more, and gathered into groups of up to a dozen or more over the edge of the town.  The majority were light phase birds with perhaps only one in twenty being darker. Their appearance was reminiscent of a slim and lithe Buzzard, flying almost like a kite or harrier, a dancing and flexible motion and showing a more agile nature than the Buzzards I am used to at home. The small falcon appeared again and was identified as a Kestrel, a second larger falcon proved to be a Peregrine, harrying a couple of passing Booted Eagles. 

A few of my colleagues, not used to my birding, asked what I was staring at in the sky, binoculars fixed to my face and mumbling to myself. At the mention of eagles, interest was aroused, and within a few minutes, I had 30-odd non-birders also staring skyward and marvelling at a sight they would ordinarily have been blind to! Binoculars were borrowed and passed around the group; all were fascinated and ripe for conversion to the cause! 

3:15 pm came and it was time to board the coach and head back to the border. We passed through customs and immigration, booze, cigarettes and duty free purchases intact and headed back to San Roque to pick up the main road and return to the hotel. I spent the next hour scanning the hills and countryside along the road. The first sighting was of yet another Kestrel, a couple of groups of Spotless Starlings, a Booted Eagle, and then a huge and spectacular barn door of a bird perhaps 500 yards away. This was a Griffon Vulture, not a first for me, but a welcome sight nevertheless. The local information I had was that up 600 pairs were inhabiting the hills of Saint Bartholomew and the area around Betis, 30 km to the south west where the locals referred to them as Tawny Vultures. A kilometre or so further along the road, a pair of Griffon Vultures appeared and were pointed out to those of my colleagues who were not sleeping, another story for them to tell when they got home! Another Peregrine appeared over the hillside above the road and a few more Swifts including a Pallid appeared to round off a good few hours birding before we reached the hotel again, then, as we drove down the entrance drive, a Kestrel dropped from the hover and passed into a long, shallow dive to disappear into the adjacent gardens in pursuit of whatever it had seen. 

After a little refreshment and a rest I took a walk along the beach to the west of the hotel, towards Estepona.  As I walked down the steps from the hotel to the lawn, I found a Gecko clinging to the side of a Palm tree, just above the line of the adjacent hedgerow. 

The waters edge was pebbled, with coarse sand behind and a tide wrack of seaweed and debris, more coarse sand on a longish slope, and finally, dry, soft sand in a ridge with a covering of shallow, thin and thorny scrub leading to the edge of the pine forest. It was typically Mediterranean, and typically thin in the way of birds. However, after about a mile or more I came across a small group of waders on the tide wrack. A closer approach soon revealed a group of eight Turnstones together with seven Sanderlings. They were typically in various states of plumage change, fearless as long as the approach was careful and not too close, and very watchable. 

On the way back I followed the line of the scrub with an eye on the trees and as a result began to see the flickering movements of small lizards running for cover as I approached. They were mainly 4 or 5 inches long, including a proportionately very long tail. Their back legs and hindquarters were mottled with a sandy brown pattern over a very pale pink base skin colour, in front of the pelvis, the colours changed to a thin longitudinal stripy pattern of pale sandy brown and green. The largest individual I saw was perhaps 7 inches long. Amongst the scrub there were dozens of grasshoppers, some took flight with on black and white wings, which were reminiscent of the Peppered Moth. A Painted Lady fluttered around the edge of the pines and disappeared. 

My attention was drawn by the harsh calls of a Sandwich Tern and I turned to see two of them passing along just beyond the seaward edge of the surf. Greenfinches occasionally flew out of and away over the pines, a few Swallows flew back and forth and a Sardinian Warbler scolded from a deeper patch of scrub and bramble. 

Back at the hotel, the Herring and Lesser Black Backed Gulls headed east towards their roost, a White Wagtail flew over calling, the Kestrel passed over, a Sardinian Warbler moved from tree to bush calling and scolding and a Blue Tit appeared on the tennis court fence. 

Night came quickly after the sun set as it does in the Mediterranean, and was punctuated only by the flittering bats around the trees and gardens. After a very good dinner and plenty of liquid refreshment, I staggered off to bed at 4.30 am. I looked and listened but there was no sign of the Scops Owl at all. 

Saturday 20th

The sun managed to crawl over the sea horizon to the east at 8:00 am and began to warm up quite quickly. Two colleagues and I ate breakfast on the lawn, from where I watched a small group of seven waders, five Turnstones and a couple of Sanderlings, flying along the sea towards the east. Afterwards, we hired a taxi and headed for the centre of Marbella , from where we walked down to the seafront and wandered eastward to the marina. There were no birds to report other than a few House Sparrows, Spotless Starlings and assorted gulls around the harbour and marina. 

We wandered back, pausing for a coffee, and made our way back through Constitution Park towards the taxi rank seeing a few Feral Pigeons and more House Sparrows and Starlings along the way.  

On the drive back to the Hotel I saw more Common Swifts, a Pallid Swift and another White Rumped Swift hawking for insects. There were a few more Swallows, but no sign of any martins at all. 

After lunch and a decent bottle of white wine, followed by a rest in the shade of the palms, I walked along the beach again, this time to the west. The beach was very different here, coarse sand mixed with pebbles, but narrower since the gardens of the villas stretched down to within 30 yards or so of the waters edge. 

After about 3/4 of a mile or so, I found the mouth of the stream, which wound its way down from the hills behind the urban area to the sea. It was almost dry, with just a shallow stagnant pool contained behind the beach and between the garden wall of a villa and a fenced off pitch and putt green. A wide expanse of coarse sand surrounded the pool and there I found a group of twenty or so Plovers, eight Kentish and a dozen Ringed, including a few juveniles. They were distressed by the heat and stood still, first on one leg, then changing to the other as the heat got to them. Down on the tide wrack above the waters edge I soon discovered another group of waders, 17 Turnstones, 12 Sanderlings, a couple more Ringed Plovers and a solitary Knot. 

I watched the Knot quite closely, and came to the conclusion that with its yellowish green legs and the pale edge to the feathers, it was a juvenile. It was in beautiful condition with no wear and tear evident on the feathers. Behind the beach was a small, very green and grassy and well watered pitch and putt course on which was a Yellow Wagtail of the race M flava iberiae, it didn’t stay long and disappeared over the villas beyond. 

Back at the hotel I found Sardinian Warblers, Blue Tits, Collared Doves and Blackbirds in the gardens, House Sparrows on the lawns and in the Palm trees. The evening approached and it soon came time to prepare for leaving. I had a small mishap when two colleagues, with the best of intentions, stowed my bag on the wrong coach, for their earlier flight, complete with my clothes and passport. I came within a minute or so of being stranded until I could have obtained a replacement passport and flight home! 

Finally, after whiling away the evening, we headed back to the airport where we found that our flight, VZ7006, was delayed, eventually by an hour and a half, before we were able to board and take off for home. The flight headed out over the sea and along the coast before turning north over Spain . We could see every detail of the lit up towns, cities, settlements and roads as we passed over, including Madrid , which was truly magnificent. We began to lose height over the Channel, crossed over the Isle of Wight , and made our way in to Birmingham where we landed at 3.15 am . Back in the car and onto the motorway, I eventually arrived home in Gloucester and rolled into bed at 5.10 am . 

It had been a fascinating and exhausting trip, with a good measure of birds thrown in! 

Thoughts and Comments –  

Booted Eagles are obviously numerous, and the dates above were good for the main migration. 

Many Rivers and Wetlands aren’t very wet by September, so the birds move off to places like Donana, which stay wet. Earlier in the year, Fuente de Piedra Lagoon, just north of Campillos, (about 70km due north of Marbella) has the largest colony of Flamingos in Spain. 

Gibraltar – interesting and worth visiting, don’t forget the passport or you won’t get in (or out), beware of fake “tax free” goods like copy watches and designer perfumes which aren’t. Spirits and Cigarettes are cheap, most watches, electronic goods etc are not much if at all cheaper than UK. Some denims with labels “Levis” and “Wrangler” aren’t! Be aware also that local currency is the Gibraltar Pound – equal to sterling but almost impossible to change outside Gibraltar, and the cash dispensers only dispense Gib Pounds, Euros are accepted, but at a lower exchange rate. Best birding vantage points are possibly the “Pillars of Hercules” when the wind is right, or otherwise the gun emplacements above the Moorish Fort and along the road to the “Siege Caves”. Lots of the rock is military and fenced off. 

Spanish wine isn’t the best in the world, but their seafood is excellent! 

Mytravelite.com and Easy Jet do cheap flights to the Costa, accommodation down there is relatively easy and cheap out of season, so Autumn, Winter and Early Spring birding trips of two or three days are feasible at relatively low cost, the downside is that you have to get a few miles inland to escape the urbanisation and holiday hotel sprawl.