Migratory birds don’t recognise borders, and finding out where they are passing through, and going to and from is vital not only to understand the threats and areas for conservation but also to bring to life the epic story of migration. Flyway-scale conservation and funding must be driven by good science, wise spending and cross-border,Continue reading “The strange case of a Black Kite marked in Tarifa and recovered in Benin, West Africa.”
Tag Archives: Europe
Craniacs!
“Cranes are the stuff of magic, whose voices penetrate the atmosphere of the world’s wilderness areas, from arctic tundra to the South African veld, and whose footprints have been left on the wetlands of the world for the past 60 million years or more” Andalucía is an important wintering and stopover point for migrating CommonContinue reading “Craniacs!”
Over 20,000 Moths in one night!!
Dave Grundy – leading authority on Andalusian moths and expert guide for Inglorious Bustards’ Mothing The Straits holiday – tells us about this phenomenal eruption of Gypsy Moths!
Breakfast with Vultures!
Going out to a restaurant isn’t something we’ve been able to do a lot of recently, but today we were thrilled to be invited to an eatery with a difference! The menu didn’t really appeal – we’re all for trying new things but offal, rotten eggs and cow dung are a bit too avant-garde evenContinue reading “Breakfast with Vultures!”
Loving the moths but missing the moth-ers!
Somewhere in a parallel universe, this weekend Dave Grundy and I would just have been saying goodbye to a group of moth-ers and wildlife lovers, having spent a week enjoying Andalucía’s lepidopteran delights! Here’s a heartfelt message from renowned moth expert Dave, as well as some stunning photos to look back on from the excellentContinue reading “Loving the moths but missing the moth-ers!”
Noisy Neighbours – #DawnChorusDay
We have noisy neighbours! However, far from being an annoyance they are very welcome – even if some of them do decide they want to sing all through the night!
Today is International Dawn Chorus Day, held annually on the first Sunday in May. We are all encouraged to rise early and listen to bird song. But if you slept through your alarm, don’t worry – we didn’t!
A tale of two Eagles
A young Italian called Michele caused a frisson of excitement here in The Straits last month, turning up safe and well after being missing in Africa since mid-November! Not long after his reappearance he was on his adventures again, awaiting fine weather on the northern shores of Morocco before jetting across the Straits and spendingContinue reading “A tale of two Eagles”
Fourteen Kilometres of Joy and Sorrow
Read our award-winning blog about how a sudden drop in the wind on an autumn day in Andalucía inspires heart-stoppingly spectacular mass avian movement, but also provokes thought on travel, conservation and global change… Fourteen kilometres of sea and sky are all that separate two continents. At 9am, the Mediterranean sun is alreadyContinue reading “Fourteen Kilometres of Joy and Sorrow”
Boosting the Count
The eBird database just received a significant boost, in the form of information on almost two million migrating birds from our conservation partners, Fundación Migres! Many is the joyous day we’ve spent with our conservation partners Fundación Migres, helping with the autumn migration count, gazing up spellbound as literally thousands of raptors migrate over ourContinue reading “Boosting the Count”
Mysterious migrations of the deep!
We often think of the Straits of Gibraltar as a barrier to be overcome, a great leap of faith for the hundreds of thousands of birds that must move between the land masses of Africa and Europe. But through the eons, other vast, invisible migrations have gone almost unseen in the dark depths beneath theContinue reading “Mysterious migrations of the deep!”