Deep Purple

A decade or more ago finding a Purple Gallinule, sorry Purple Swamphen, was quite an achievement. You could find them but they were localised in some well protected lakes and other wetlands.

In the early to mid 1990s you would certainly be very lucky to find one in La Janda. Then, possibly thanks to improved conservation, they started to turn up in the oddest of places. I even found them in small ponds within industrial estates. They certainly took off!

La Janda is now a great site to see them, often in flocks. They are quite bold and will come out of the reed beds into the open in broad daylight.

In fact they are so bold that they will venture onto tracks frequented by vehicles that simply drive too fast, to the detriment of these amazing birds...

But the balance is a positive one and we are now able to enjoy these iridescent birds where until recently there were none...

Winter paradoxes

Yesterday I saw this young Short-toed Eagle over La Janda. This is a predominantly reptile hunter, though it does take other prey, and most books tell you they all go to spend the winter in tropical Africa. Before anyone jumps to the conclusion that global warming is changing the habits of this bird, I hasten to add that I have seen these majestic raptors in the area of the Strait most winters over the past 45 years.

So how do they survive? For starters we have to realise that only a few do it as the carrying capacity of the area for these birds cannot now be that high. But the ones that stay seem to survive, probably on a combination of snakes, lizards and small mammals. The reason is that these lowland areas of south-western Iberia are mild. But even here the nights can be cold, temperatures dropping below zero away from the coast. But the secret is that the sun retains a position high in the sky at noon which means that it rapidly warms up, even up to 20 or more degrees Celsius in mid-winter. This generates reptile activity and food for the eagles...

This is also the reason why many insectivorous birds also stay down here, or arrive from the north and go no further. Even obligate insect eaters, like the Crag Martin (below), winter here. This is the only European hirundine to winter north of the Sahara. I studied them many years ago and found that they survived by laying down fat reserves when conditions were favourable and surviving on these when it rained and they could not hunt. They were behaving like birds on migration throughout the winter. Adults, I found were better at it than first winter birds. In particularly bad years many young birds died and I would pick up their emaciated corpses at the base of their cave roosts.

Two other largely insectivorous birds winter down here in very large numbers. White Wagtail (above) and Meadow Pipit (below) also rely on small insects, especially those that live close to water. In winter swarms of these rise in the middle of the day as temperatures rise. The ones that the wagtails and pipits miss are probably taken by the martins!

All this should not surpise us. The latitude of Gibraltar is, for example, lower than parts of North Africa. And as Abel Chapman wrote more than a century ago this is, after all, a little piece of Africa in Europe!

In Search of the Ibex

The Spanish Ibex is one of those gems of Nature that have somehow managed to survive, by a combination of luck and dedicated individuals prepared to come to their rescue, amidst the increasing human pressure on the fauna of Europe. Now confined to inaccessible high mountains, these animals once roamed rocky terrain down to sea level where they were hunted 40 thousand years ago by Neanderthals on the rocks by the sea at Gibraltar. But intense human pressure has driven these animals from any ancient favoured haunts.

To find and photograph these animals, my son Stewart and I climbed up the rocky terrain of the Sierra de Gredos in Western Spain. Winter is a good time as the snows push these animals down to where they can graze but this does not mean they are easy to find. To get to them requires hard work, not made any easier by altitude (we were between 1800 and 2000 metres) and snow showers...

Finally, a chance as a group of young and females allow approach during a heavy snow shower...

Stealth, while keeping downwind, allows a window of opportunity to get the shots we were after!

...not winking - left eye closed as the driving snow hit this ibex's face on its left side!

baby ibex

then a spectacular male, casually shows itself as it forages among the rocks, allowing an opportunity for good close-ups!

Exhausted but exhilarated we start the long trek back. A clearing in the the weather allows Stewart a chance to take some stunning photographs of Ibex Country...

father and son after a hard day's work!

Among the Reeds and Rushes in La Janda

The warm spring days when Great Reed Warblers (above) and Yellow Wagtails (below) dominated the aquatic vegetation of south-western Iberia are a distant memory. These birds are now somewhere in tropical Africa, south of the Sahara...

but the bullrushes (above) and reeds (below) continue to provide cover and food for other birds...

Cetti's Warblers (above and below) lead the line of skulkers that can go by undetected if we are not patient and careful. These warblers were there alongside the Great Reed Warblers in the spring but manage to hang on and find sufficient food throughout the winter...

The Bluethroats are winter visitors (see also post of 19th October) and occupy most patches of swampy vegetation. The females (above and below) are easily passed by...

the males (below) are equally hard to pick up but when they show themselves they are stunning...

from above, even the males look cryptic...

which is not a bad thing seeing the predators that patrol the swamp...

Marsh Harrier

Buzzard

Barn Owl

other migrants and local birds also focus on the reeds and its insects. These include Chiffchaffs (above) now in bid numbers and Stonechats (below) which use the reeds as hunting perches.

 ...but the star of the show has to be the Bluethroat