Scenes from Zahara de los Atunes

Zahara de los Atunes is a small town on the Costa de la Luz in Cádiz province in south-west Spain. Last month, I was on a field course there which provided sightings of Northern Bald Ibis, Griffon Vulture, Booted Eagle, Black Kite, Montagu's Harrier, Kentish Plover, Audouin's Gull, Caspian Tern, Pallid Swift, Bee-eater, Calandra Lark, Red-rumped Swallow, and Blue Rock Thrush in the town and surrounding fields and hillside.

When a strong Levante (Levanter in English) is blowing, raptors and other larger migrants trying to cross the Straits from Morocco to the Gibraltar/Algerciras/Tarifa area can be forced as far west as Zahara in certain conditions, allowing raptor watching from shore-front hotel roofs!