An Essay by Lynden Schofield.
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I first set foot in Tarifa on 16th December 1999 having spent two weeks cycling from Málaga through Coín and Ronda, Grazalema, Jimena and "Los Alcornocales" Natural Park. A friend in Barcelona had told me that Tarifa, the southernmost point on the Spanish and European mainland was quite a good place for birds. What an understatement this has proved to be!

My first walk around the harbour with gannets (alcatraz) and sandwich terns (charrán patinegro) fishing in the Strait of Gibraltar, turnstones (vuelvepiedras) and sanderlings (correlimos tridáctilo) on the harbour wall and adjacent rocks, and razorbills (alca) diving beside tiny fishing boats reminded me of the East coast of Scotland where I have spent the previous 26 years.

By early January I had rented a flat from which I watched the dusk flight of dozens of Cattle Egrets (garcilla bueyera) to their roost, looked out on the sun setting in the sea and the light of Tangier 20 kms away. Nothing could have been more different from the icy winds and grey skies of winter on the shores of the North Sea. How could anyone live so close to the North Pole?

Early explorations by foot and by bicycle produced dozens of wintering stonechats (tarabilla común), chiffchaffs (mosquitero común) and white wagtails (lavandera blanca) large flocks of goldfinches (jilguero) and linnets (pardillo común), black redstarts (colirrojo tizón) and blackcaps (curruca capirotada) in all suitable habitats.

Local residents, spotless starlings (estornino negro) and yellow-legged gulls (gaviota de pata amarilla) were new species for me but best of all was the flock of 120 griffon vultures (buitre leonado) feeding on a carcass in the valley of the Río Jara just west of the town.

There were 100 wintering crag martins (avión roquero) at Tarifa on 25th January but was the swallow (golondrina) at Bolonia on 23rd January from the wintering flock in Coto Doñana or an early migrant from much further south?. True evidence of spring came in the form of 80 white storks (cigüeña) and 12 black kites (milano negro) moving inland at Punta Paloma on 14th February with 3 house martins (avión común) collecting mud for nests from the Río Jara the following day. The swift in bad light over Tarifa on 18th February appeared to me to be a pallid swift (vencejo pálido). It would be good if I could have a chat about all these with local birders.

I had read something in the local newspaper about the Ornithological Station of Tarifa (EOT) and the need for repairs to its building at La Peña. There was even a contact telephone number for the local ornithological society "Cigüeña Negra" (Black Stork). Yes, there was a meeting at the EOT and I should go and introduce myself. Once over the initial formalities it was clear that Cigüeña Negra was the context for some serious birding fun.

Cigüeña Negra, funded by members subscriptions and the local authority has its headquarters, the EOT, in an old school at La Peña, 8 kms. West of Tarifa beside the main N340 road to Cádiz. The EOT provides a bunkhouse, kitchen and showers for those engaged on weekend projects, library, maps and computer to aid study and recording, a room for meetings and social gatherings, an outdoor pond and hide for schoolchildren. The EOT lies at the hub of about a dozen outdoor observatories carefully sited to view the best of spring and autumn raptor and stork migrations between Europe and Africa.

Cigüeña Negra's current projects and priorities are:
1-Counts of migrating raptors and storks, spring and autumn.
2-Counts of common cranes (grulla) wintering at La Janda, north-west of Tarifa.
3-Improuving the breeding success of local montagu's harriers (aguilucho cenizo) by working with farmers to avoid nest destruction during the cereal harvest.
4-Introductory courses for those interested in becoming ringers.

I've been lucky enough to be welcomed and participate in all these, except, because of timing, for the counts of common cranes.

For the spring migration three or four weekends during March and April attract volunteer observers from throughout Spain an beyond. Most memorable for me is 18th March. Looking out the Mirador del Estrecho (a viewpoint between Tarifa and Algeciras) the still, crystal clear air made the mountains of Morocco seem almost touchable. That day's census produced short-toed eagles (águila culebrera), booted eagles (águila calzada), sparrow hawks (gavilán) and black kites all easily into three figures, 3 marsh harriers (aguilucho lagunero), 2 ospreys (águila pescadora), 2 egyptian vultures (alimoche), and a black stork. Also on their way northwards were 5 common cranes part of the small population wintering in Morocco.

The autumn counts begin in early august when many black kites and white storks fly to West Africa to avoid the worst of the summer drought in Southern Europe. This august (and in 1999) Cigüeña Negra organized a very successful expedition to northern Morocco (sponsored by Euroferries) to count from the African shore as well. It was quite a sight to see on 12th august 4,000 white storks arrive in a single flock stretching almost from horizon to horizon against a backdrop of blue sea, sandy beaches, white mosques and fig plantations. They then climbed together in a huge spiral to get over the Rif mountains and continue their long journey southward. A couple of days before that, 1,760 black kites had come in off the sea during a one hour period in the evening. Northern Morocco produced many other highlights too, among them black-shouldered kites (elanio azul), common bulbuls and black-headed bush shrikes (alcaudón).

The timing of autumn counts is coordinated with SEO (Spanish Ornithological Society) which runs project Migres also attracting many international volunteers to the Tarifa area. August 23rd was a tremendous day in Tarifa with masses of white storks, black kites, honey buzzards (halcón abejero), booted (calzada) and short-toed eagles, smaller numbers of egyptian vultures and montagu's harriers together with bee eaters (abejaruco), alpine swift (vencejo real) and at least one little swift (normally found in Morocco). Oh, and don't forget the colony of lesser kestrels (cernícalo), summer residents in the church tower. Counts continue into October when larger numbers of short-toed eagles together with juvenile griffon vultures make, for them, the perilous crossing of the Strait.

The Tarifa bird list has real quality, thousands of cory's shearwaters (pardela cenicienta) moving east into the Mediterranean in March give it an oceanic flavour, overshooting cream-coloured coursers (corredor), little swifts and long-legged buzzards (ratonero moro) together with breeding rufous bush robins (alzacola) give it an African flavour, while collared pratincole (canastera), blue rock thrush (roquero solitario), wryneck (torcecuello), and rock bunting (escribano montesino) indicate the range of local habitats.

For those who enjoy birding and working with others for bird conservation Tarifa cannot be bettered.

Oh, and the language barrier is rarely a problem. During the montagu's harrier project Spanish Television were (fairly) happy to interview me even though I was speaking neither Spanish nor English but something in between.

Lynden Schofield

Tarifa 14th September 2000