Ah, Black Kites.... there's a good argument for them being the bird of the trip, such was their abundance, omnipresence, ability to hypnotise and personify the migration experience of the Straits of Gibraltar, more than perhaps any other species (and there were plenty of others....).
There were days when we had many thousands - in fact, multiple days when we had many thousands - and every day involved a spectacle that involved them; whether swirling in murmurations over our heads, bombing low over the undulating, last-stop-before-Africa banks along the coast, resting en masse on a sheletered hillside, or bravely attempting the crossing in loose squadrons, with 14km of water opening out below them.
A migrating Black Kite heading out over the Straits, against the backdrop of our hire car....
