9 September 2024: Day 3, birding in Chipiona and driving to Tarifa, WINGS Spain in Autumn
Click here to see (generally) where I am today.

Yesterday we went birding at local hotspots near Chipiona. One of the best was Playa de Montijo at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River. We arrived just after high tide so the cobbles beyond the sand (not shown above) were exposed yet the birds were still close.

(embedded Google map of Playa de Montijo, Chipiona, Spain)

Since I wrote this article before this trip, the birds shown below are a selection of what was seen a year ago in September 2023. We saw them!

Of the 11 species of living oystercatchers, only the Eurasian oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus) has a distribution in Europe and Asia north of the equator. It is a Near Threatened species. We saw several noisy groups bowing and shouting, 25 in all.

A few whimbrelds fed near the oystercatchers. Interestingly the whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus) has recently been split into Eurasian whimbrel and Hudsonian whimbrel. Some taxonomic authorities do not accept the split and have kept them as one species. Alas, eBird is one of them so I won’t gain this Life Bird until eBird says changes its mind.

The bar-tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica) is the most cosmopolitan of godwits, breeding in northernmost Eurasia and Alaska and spending the winter on the coasts of Africa, southern Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Its close relatives — black-tailed, Hudsonian and marbled godwits — are all New World birds.

The common greenshank (Tringa nebularia) resembles a greater or lesser yellowlegs except that its legs are green. All of them are in the Tringa genus.

Last September there was quite a collection of birds on this rocky bar including Eurasian oystercatchers, a black-bellied plover, common terns and the rare-to-the-area elegant tern. We saw them all plus a rare roseate tern.

A bonus for me was the slender-billed gull (Chroicocephalus genei).

Great birding from the beach.

8 September 2024: Day 2, birding near Chipiona, WINGS Spain in Autumn. Pelagic eBird Hotspot = Salida Pelágica desde Chipiona Click here to see (generally) where I am today.

This morning we’re at the coast in lovely weather. But out to sea, beyond the continental shelf, the wind is blowing hard and the sea is too rough for our planned pelagic birding tour in the Gulf of Cadiz in a boat that comfortably holds 12 people.

No problem. There are plenty of birds to see from land, some of which we would have seen on the boat and I’m willing to pass up an opportunity to learn about seasickness.

One of birds we cannot see from land is the critically endangered Balearic shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus).

The Balearic Shearwater is one of the rarest birds in Europe, being one of just two species there to be listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Its successful conservation will require considerable effort, across country borders. As its name implies, as a breeder this shearwater is confined to the Spanish-owned Balearic Islands in the western Mediterranean, where its population is usually estimated at just 1,800–2,500 breeding pairs (of which about 50% nest on Mallorca).

… Counts at sea (especially through the Strait of Gibraltar) suggest it is possibly more numerous, which has led to a revised estimate of 24,000–26,500 individuals.

— Birds of the World: Balearic shearwater account

This bird might be really rare. Or there might be 10 times as many as we thought.

Balearic shearwaters are regularly seen in autumn in the Gulf of Cadiz as they leave their breeding grounds on the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean …

… and move to the Atlantic and the North Sea for the winter.

To me shearwaters all look the same so I would never have known I was looking at a Balearic shearwater without a guide. They’re a little like confusing fall warblers. 😉