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 sincere competitor. One in all them repeatedly insists that the interloper couldn’t be critical competitors as a result of “he doesn’t know the territory!”
I’ve discovered myself pondering usually about this line, as I try and fowl the southern tip of Spain. Regardless that that is the third time I’ve carried out 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 Chicken 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 solely alone, so far as different birders are involved, and with not a fowl of prey in sight. Or maybe it was the late October date? I don’t know for positive… As a result of I Do Not Know the Territory.
Defeated, I moved to a way more productive close by shorebird remark website. After just a few 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 shortly again into extra brush. Had this occurred at residence in Mexico, I might most likely have identified which birds these have been, simply by their habitat and habits. However right here? Don’t overlook: I Do Not Know the Territory. If I didn’t handle an honest photograph of them to review lengthy and laborious again at our lodge, I used to be out of luck.
Don’t get me improper. The Campo de Gibraltar space is one great territory. Despite the just about 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 continues 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 Frequent Terns, as I had first guessed. Peeps (Stints, in Europe) have been Dunlins and Sanderlings: two species I may also see in close to my residence, though not that simply. Plovers have been Frequent Ringed and Kentish. And I ultimately decided that these stripy little ground-hugging birds I saved seeing amongst grass seemed suspiciously like American Pipits. They have been Meadow Pipits, or maybe Rock or Tree Pipits. Both means, 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 photograph solely begins to recommend how briskly this Sanderling moved.
The Kentish Plovers have been calmer.
European Stonechats have been the one birds that enjoyed to pose for the digital camera on that cloudy, blustery day.
Two years earlier, when there was plenty of motion on the hawk watch website, the northern Europeans current have been thrilled to see Black Storks. However they can be seen at Los Lances Seashore.
I noticed fairly just a few lifer Meadow Pipits that day. I took nice photographs of none of them.
(I’m afraid all or any of those IDs could also be incorrect. In any case, I Don’t Know the Territory.)
