Migration – a birds eye view
Over the last few days I have begun to undestand how it feels to be a swallow! There you are in a warm paradise , loads of juicy insects to feed on ( or whatever else turns you on!) when all of a sudden some smart arse bird flaps by and casually(!) asks why you havnt moved on. They of course are bound for the Antartic ( read Caribbean) or have booked a Marina in Gibralter ( actually birds dont book marinas but by now you should have twigged the simile) and are eking out their final weeks by going from harbour to harbour.
The transatlantic boats seem to have all moved on and most of the boats around us have day sailed from the UK and are looking to leave their boats for the winter before moving into the Med next Spring. It leaves you with a restlessness that makes you want to move on and out to the Madeiran archipelago or somesuch. Unfortunately the weather system that is giving the Uk its Indian summer has cancelled the Portuguese trades and substituted SW winds .
It gives us a week to explore ( we are currently in Rota – a nice old town to the North of Cadiz) and perhaps attempt to organise a new tank . The repair to the old one stood up to 4 hours of beating into 15 knots with a full tank – not a huge test but encouraging – and of course it would be tempting to say it is cured and forget it . Lets just say that this swallow likes to do his migrating with everything just so – so we will see if we can arrange a replacement for the Canaries.
All of which reminds me that we need a bird book. We think we saw an osprey fishing as we travelled down the Guardiana – anyone out there know if they migrate South – or another medium to large brown hawk that fishes with its talons in South Iberia?