In The Music Man, a beautiful work of musical theater to which I used to be a lot uncovered as a toddler, the primary scene begins with a number of touring salesmen contemplating the specter of a brand new, even much less trustworthy competitor. Certainly one of them repeatedly insists that the interloper couldn’t be severe competitors as a result of “he doesn’t know the territory!”
I’ve discovered myself considering usually about this line, as I try and chicken the southern tip of Spain. Though that is the third time I’ve finished so, there are nonetheless so many issues I discover tough. For certainly, I Do Not Know the Territory.
I set out (one hour too) early every week in the past, hoping to see the raptor migration spectacle at Andalucía’s Cazallas Hovering Chook Observatory. Nearly two years earlier, I had been amazed by the fixed parade of hawks, eagles and vultures chickening out there to cross the Straits of Gibraltar. However this time, wild winds and the specter of rain left me totally alone, so far as different birders are involved, and with not a chicken of prey in sight. Or maybe it was the late October date? I don’t know for certain… As a result of I Do Not Know the Territory.
Defeated, I moved to a way more productive close by shorebird commentary website. After a number of hours there, I moved to some close by cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean, hoping to maybe see some seabirds. As I walked this cliff space, small passerines usually flew out of the dense, wind-sculpted brush, over my head whereas combating the still-wild winds, and rapidly again into extra brush. Had this occurred at dwelling in Mexico, I’d in all probability have identified which birds these had been, simply by their habitat and habits. However right here? Don’t neglect: I Do Not Know the Territory. If I didn’t handle a good picture of them to check lengthy and arduous again at our resort, I used to be out of luck.
Don’t get me unsuitable. The Campo de Gibraltar space is one fantastic territory. Regardless of the virtually full lack of raptors, I nonetheless managed to see 30 species in a single morning. I even caught a pair of lifers. However I have to say, my ignorance of the Territory remains to be huge.
It didn’t assist that many birds on this space current identification challenges. The gulls ended up being Mediterranean and Yellow-legged Gulls; no Black-headed or Lesser Black-backed Gulls turned up. The terns all appeared to be Sandwich Terns; not Widespread Terns, as I had first guessed. Peeps (Stints, in Europe) had been Dunlins and Sanderlings: two species I may additionally see in close to my dwelling, though not that simply. Plovers had been Widespread Ringed and Kentish. And I finally decided that these stripy little ground-hugging birds I stored seeing amongst grass regarded suspiciously like American Pipits. They had been Meadow Pipits, or maybe Rock or Tree Pipits. Both approach, they gave me one lifer. Eurasian Linnets chirping from the thick shrubs gave me the day’s different lifer.
That’s a Sandwich Tern, Dunlin, Yellow-legged Gull, and Mediterranean Gull. I believe.
The blur on this picture solely begins to counsel how briskly this Sanderling moved.
The Kentish Plovers had been calmer.
European Stonechats had been the one birds that loved to pose for the digicam on that cloudy, blustery day.
Two years earlier, when there was numerous motion on the hawk watch website, the northern Europeans current had been thrilled to see Black Storks. However they can be seen at Los Lances Seashore.
I noticed fairly a number of lifer Meadow Pipits that day. I took nice pictures of none of them.
(I’m afraid all or any of those IDs could also be incorrect. In spite of everything, I Don’t Know the Territory.)