Loja Wildlife, Granada Province, Spain.: Cazalla Watch Point, Punto de Información Parque Natural del Estrecho, Rio de la Jara, Mirador del Estrecho and CA-2215 at Rio de los Molinos, Cadiz Province, Spain.

Tuesday 24 September 2024

Cazalla Watch Point, Punto de Información Parque Natural del Estrecho, Rio de la Jara, Mirador del Estrecho and CA-2215 at Rio de los Molinos, Cadiz Province, Spain.

Raptors and Butterflies with Karen and Robert.

Ebird List for Cazalla.

Sunrise from my Hotel.

After a good breakfast at the hotel I went and picked up Karen and Rob before we headed out towards Tarifa but stopped short of there and went up to the Cazalla Watch Point where we were hoping that there might be a bit of visible Migration going on.

Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Gavilán Común / Accipiter nisus).

Short-toed Snake Eagle (Culebrera Europeo / Circaetus gallicus).

As we stood there we watched Booted (Aguila Calzada / Aquila penntuas) and Short-toed Snake Eagle (Culebrera Europeo / Circaetus gallicus), Egyptian (Alimoche Común / Neophron percnopterus) and Griffon Vulture (Bultre Leonado / Gyps fulvus), Eurasian Sparrowhawks (Gavilán Común / Accipiter nisus) and Black Storks (Cigüena Negra / Ciconia nigra) all making their was across the Straits and then on south into Africa.

Booted Eagle (Aguila Calzada / Aquila penntuas).

Egyptian Vulture (Alimoche Común / Neophron percnopterus) adult.

Black Stork (Cigüena Negra / Ciconia nigra).

Black Storks (Cigüena Negra / Ciconia nigra).

Other species seen were Feral Pigeon (Paloma Bravía / Columba livia), Crested Lark (Cogujada Común / Galerida cristata), Common Blackbird (Mirlo Común / Turdus merula) and Sardinian Warbler (Curruca Cabecinegra / Curruca melanocephala).

Karen and Robert at Cazalla.

Whilst we were there a group from the Mariposa Nature Tours company turned up, Karen and Rob recognised several of the participants and had a good chat. I was pleased to meet the leaders, one Paul Selby I already knew but it was great to catch up with David Moore and Jon Dunn for the first time and have a talk about birds and butterflies.

Monarch (Danaus plexippus).

The group headed off and we popped down into Tarifa for a quick look around but couldn't find anywhere to park so we followed the group along the coast to the Punto de Información Parque Natural del Estrecho where we were hoping to find some Monarch (Danaus plexippus) butterflies at a site Javi from Birding the Strait's had given me and where Kevin the guy we had met yesterday had seen several.

Monarch (Danaus plexippus) on the food plant Gomphocarpus fruticosus .

Monarch (Danaus plexippus).

We arrived and the Mariposa group were spread out along the road and we were soon watching several Monarch's which was target species number two for Karen and Rob, to make it even better they were all in great condition and some even sat nicely for the camera.

Monarch (Danaus plexippus) Caterpillar.

David called everyone over to a spot nearby including us where they had found some Zeller's Skippers (Borbo borbonica) and a few Monarch caterpillars which I hadn't seen before.

Zeller's Skipper (Borbo borbonica).

In the same area we saw Holly (Celastrina argiolus), Lang's Short-tailed (Leptotes pirithous) and Long-tailed Blue (Lampides boeticus), Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina), Large White (Pieris brassicae), Lesser Emperor (Anax parthenope), European Stonechat (Tarabilla Europea / Saxicola rubicola), Eurasian Collared Dove (Tórtola Turca / Streptopelia decaocto) and White Storks (Ciguena Blanca / Ciconia ciconia).

Zeller's Skipper (Borbo borbonica).

We went just up the road to bar Zero Nueve where we had some lunch before going to a second site that Javi had given us looking for our final target of the trip the Plain Tiger (Danaus chrysippus), unfortunately even though there was a small amount of the food plant the Gomphocarpus fruticosus we only saw a single Sage Skipper (Muschampia proto) and Drimia maritima before we continued on to another spot a couple of KMs further on where we parked again and checked the trees and Strawberry Bushes for the very smart Two-tailed Pasha (Charaxes jasius), we saw at least 6 but the only one that came down was rather washed out and tatty unfortunately.

Morocco from the Mirador del Estrecho.

We made our way back down the track and on to the Hotels, on the way we saw Booted Eagle and lots of White Storks and back at my Hotel I saw Yellow-legged Gull (Gaviota Patiamarilla / Larus Michahellis), Western House Martin (Avión Común Occidental / Delichon urbicum) and Monk Parakeet (Cotorra Argentina / Myiopsitta monachus).