Saturday 15 April 2023

Cattle Egrets - a new species for the headland

Friday 14th April -  A Cattle Egret found on rocks by the lighthouse during the morning flew off south and was followed until lost from sight. Amazingly, just 10 minutes later, another one also flew south. These are the first records of this species for the headland.

On the lands highlights included a Pallid Harrier (present for its third day) that ranged widely across the headland as it hunted for prey and a Roller, the earliest ever.

Counts of grounded migrants for Friday 14th (and the previous five days) are viewable on Trektellen: https://www.trektellen.nl/count/view/3384/20230414

Cattle Egret on rocks below the Lighthouse



Wednesday 12 April 2023

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater !!

The first scarce migrant of the year was seen yesterday (11th April) - this very smart Blue-cheeked Bee-eater was resting on wires next to the road between Beehive Pass and Kokinoghia.

There was also an Eastern Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus samamiscus) near Paliros and an Osprey flew north. Full details of what was seen are on Trektellen: https://www.trektellen.nl/count/view/3384/20230411

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater


Eastern Redstart

Tuesday 11 April 2023

Whitethroat Arrival

Monday 10th April - A good count of 65 Whitethroat - info on the other birds seen is now available on the Trektellen website: https://www.trektellen.nl/count/view/3384/20230409


Saturday 8 April 2023

Cape Tenaro - Spring 2023

This year we will be covering spring migration at Cape Tenaro from 8 to 15 April and from 22 April to 12 May.

For the next week bird news will only be on Twitter @capetenaronews (or use this link like a webpage if you don’t have a Twitter account https://twitter.com/capetenaronews). This blog will have regular posts from 22 April.




Wednesday 27 April 2022

Last Morning

Highlights - Wednesday 20th April

A final morning’s birding before the last two of this year’s Tenaro Team departed. Clear skies overnight saw a clear out of grounded migrants and limited new arrivals. The highlights for the morning, in the limited time available, were 3 Eastern Orphean Warbler and a Roller (which may or may not be one of the birds seen on Monday).

Grounded Migrants: 5 Hoopoe, 1 Roller, 1 Wryneck, 6 Woodchat Shrike, 8 Whitethroat, 3 Eastern Orphean Warbler, 5 Collared Flycatcher, 10 Pied Flycatcher. 

Visible Passage: Limited …..

Raptors: 1 Montagu’s Harrier, 1 Harrier Sp, 2 Kestrel Sp.

Bird Ringing: None

Weather: Clear conditions overnight saw most of yesterday’s migrants depart. 

A Mini Flycatcher Arrival

Highlights - Tuesday 19th April 

A small arrival with black and white flycatchers the most conspicuous of the grounded migrants. Also on the move were swifts, Swallows and House Martins. Warblers were down in numbers.

Grounded Migrants: 4 Hoopoe, 2 Wryneck, 2 Golden Oriole, 14 Whitethroat, 23 Nightingale, 16 Redstart, 19 Collared Flycatcher, 24 Pied Flycatcher and 1 Ortolan Bunting.

Visible Passage: A strong movement of swifts say 150 move through, most of which were assumed to be Common Swifts. Also on the move 11 Bee-eaters, 150 Swallow, 100 House Martin ( a notable count for Tenaro) and 160 Spanish Sparrow.

Raptors: 2 Montagu’s Harrier, 2 Harrier Sp, 1 Eleonora’s Falcon

Bird Ringing: None

Weather: Showers overnight and more heavy rain early morning, clearing later.

Tuesday 26 April 2022

Two Roller Day

 Highlights - Monday 18th April

The morning saw the first rain since we arrived 3 weeks ago with a shower before dawn and another two during the morning. This grounded a selection of migrants including 64 Nightingale and 29 Whitethroat it also provided the days highlight, two different Rollers, one in the lone pine and adjacent wires 500m north of Kokinoghia and the other on wires to the east of the car park at Kokinoghia. Rollers are a scarce spring migrant at Tenaro, with the last record being back in 2006, this is explained by their migration strategy as in spring they almost all migrate around the eastern end of the Mediterranean.

Other birds of note included a Black Kite, 6 Golden Oriole and at least 14 Bee-eaters.

Grounded Migrants: the rain helped to deliver a small arrival of migrants, Nightingale (64) and Whitethroat (29) being the most numerous. Other counts were: 6 Golden Oriole, 7 Woodchat Shrike, 7 Willow Warbler, 3 Subalpine Warbler, 1 Garden Warbler, 2 Great Reed Warbler, 2 Sedge Warbler, 13 Redstart, 13 Whinchat, 9 Collared Flycatcher, 15 Pied Flycatcher, 3 Ortolan Bunting and a single late Serin. 

Visible Passage: Good numbers of Swallows were present from early on with 100 feeding on the 'Narrows' at 07.00, with the total for the day of 310 being the highest spring count for the headland. Also 32 House Martin and 11 Red-rumpled Swallow through. 14 Bee-eater and 33 Turtle Doves, 25 Tawny Pipit, 31 Tree Pipit and 142 Spanish Sparrow were recorded.

Raptors: 1 Black Kite, 1 Montagu’s Harrier, 1 Harrier Sp, 2 Lesser Kestrel, 3 Kestrel Sp.

Bird Ringing: None

Weather: A pre-dawn shower was the first rain for over 3 weeks. Wind SE 3-4 early on, with two heavy showers during the morning. Overcast with sunny spells. A front moved through late morning after which SW 3-4.

Roller on the wires north of Kokinoghia \ '

Bedraggled Roller in the lone pine tree north of Kokinoghia 

Bee-eater and Turtle Doves at Paliros after one of the rain showers

Golden Oriole at Mianes

Monday 18 April 2022

A Purple Heron Day

Highlights - Sunday 17th April

Despite expectations a great days birding with a diverse range of species arriving in off the sea at the lighthouse; featuring as the star attraction a spectacular flock of 42 Purple Herons that took almost half an hour to progress past the lighthouse.

The Purple Heron flock fighting; and eventually failing; to fly past the lighthouse

With the forecast similar to yesterday our hopes were not high however conditions in North Africa must have favoured departing migrants as visible passage of arriving birds proved to be the best since we arrived at the end of March (unusually it’s been all but non-existent throughout our stay). Numbers were not huge (see below) however after 3 weeks of almost non-existent movements it was great to see some visible migration.

Grounded Migrants: The continuing windy conditions made observations difficult until late afternoon when the wind finally eased. As a consequence the number of grounded migrants recorded was down on yesterday although it is hard to know if this reflects a true drop in numbers or was simple the windy weather menacing the birds were out of sight. Counts for a selection of species were: 1 Hoopoe, 1 Wryneck, 4 Woodchat Shrike, 18 Nightingale, 16 Redstart, 2 Spotted Flycatcher, 14 Black-eared Wheatear, 7 Northern Wheatear, 1 Isabelline Wheatear, 10 Whinchat, 13 Pied Flycatcher, 4 Collared Flycatcher, 2 Spotted Flycatcher, 6 Whitethroat, 4 Subalpine Warbler, 1 Blackcap, 1 Eastern Orphean Warbler, 1 Great Reed Warbler, 1 Wood Warbler, 1 Sedge Warbler, 4 Ortolan Bunting.

Visible Passage: Hirundines, Swifts and falcons were see moving north at Kokinoghia however a wider range of species were visible at ‘Turtle Dove Step’ (the first point on the path to the lighthouse that affords a view of both sides of the headland) which was watched form 11.30 to 13.00 and 14.35 to 15.25 (when passage had dried up).
Combined Counts as follows: 42 Purple Heron, 22 Turtle Dove, 2 Alpine Swift, 84 Common Swift,  3 Pallid Swift, 173 Swallow, 13 House Martin, 28 Sand Martin, 7 Short-toed Lark (+ 5 grounded), 151 flava Wagtail, 2 Red-throated Pipit, 4 Tawny Pipit, 30 Tree Pipit.
The Purple Herons, first seen at 12.25 as the arrived from the SW, twice tried to fly past the lighthouse and continue up the east coast, however the wind was so strong that they were beaten back. On each occasion they circled in a confused state before regrouping, they eventually came, painfully slowly, up the west side of the headland but were continuously caught by down drafts and eddies caused by the near gale force NE wind passing over the ridge that leads to the lighthouse. While the majority of the flock eventually went north (and may have landed on the slopes further north) at least 5 stragglers couldn’t keep up and landed on the slopes just north of the lighthouse (where they presumably waited for conditions to ease).

Raptors: 2 Kestrels, 1 Lesser Kestrel, 7 Kestrel Sp, 1 Hobby, 1 Falcon Sp

Bird Ringing: None

Weather: NE 7-8 overnight and much of the morning, dropping off after 15.00. Heavy cloud to start, brighter later. Rain threatened but only a few drops fell. Visibility fair.

E they 
A flava wagtail takes a first brief rest after crossing the Mediterranean 

Common Swift returning to Europe

Purple Herons arriving at Cape Tenaro

Purple Heron fighting the gusty wind