I came to volunteer at Circe for three reasons: To meet up with some old friends, to burn all recognition out of my pale Irish skin and to have a chance to see some of the animals that live in strait of Gibraltar. On all three counts I wasn’t disappointed. There were plenty of nights out with friends, old and new, I’m returning home a nice healthy shade of bright pink and between the cetaceans, birds and even the odd mongoose I saw some really great wildlife.
The first thing the hits you when you arrive in Tarifa, is that for every 4 people in the town there’s one kite surfing shop. With a long sandy beach and the warm sea, Tarifa is a lively place to be on a windy day, which is great because there are lots of windy days. But on calm days it’s off to the survey site to look for fin whales.
The cliff top is a great place to be as long as you don’t mind armies of little red spiders or the long bumpy drive to get there, which I didn’t. You get a chance to see some of the really great birds that live by and migrate across the strait. Booted eagles, short toes eagles, griffon vultures, black kites, white storks, lesser kestrels and honey buzzards were all firsts for me and you get to see plenty of them here. On my final day a woodchat shrike popped up in front of us met with the sudden reaction of “what the hell is that?” After a few days on the mountain you begin to feel like you’re really doing something positive for the local ecology. And that positive thing is providing food for about a million horrible little mosquitoes that have evolved to feed almost exclusively on Circe volunteers. But when you see a whale it’s all worth it.
I’m used to doing land based surveys on my own and it was a nice change to have all the other volunteers with me to talk to during the days on the mountain. There was even a French lesson or two in the quieter moments (it’s amazing what people will say after long exposure to sunlight). For the first few days we went home without seeing any whales but on the 4th day the weather was good and after a couple of hours without success we got the call that the other survey team had spotted two fin whales heading on our direction. Before long I heard the only word anybody looking for whales wants to hear, BLOW! We tracked the whales for nearly three hours, including a few hairy minutes where it looked like they might be hit by a tanker but they were fine. Since then 11 other fin whales have passed through the straight while being watched by Circe and better still by me.
Volunteering at Circe has been great fun. Huge thanks to Pauline and Fil for asking me to come and to all the others who have made my month here so enjoyable. I won’t list you all cause I can’t spell you names but you know who you are. I’ll miss lots of things about Tarifa when I’m sitting in the Irish rain: the sun shine, the wildlife, the night life, swimming in warm water, looking at cetaceans and working on my tan at the same time, driving on the right and little lince the kitten who woke me up every single night since he arrived and let’s not forget the patatas bravas.
The first thing the hits you when you arrive in Tarifa, is that for every 4 people in the town there’s one kite surfing shop. With a long sandy beach and the warm sea, Tarifa is a lively place to be on a windy day, which is great because there are lots of windy days. But on calm days it’s off to the survey site to look for fin whales.
The cliff top is a great place to be as long as you don’t mind armies of little red spiders or the long bumpy drive to get there, which I didn’t. You get a chance to see some of the really great birds that live by and migrate across the strait. Booted eagles, short toes eagles, griffon vultures, black kites, white storks, lesser kestrels and honey buzzards were all firsts for me and you get to see plenty of them here. On my final day a woodchat shrike popped up in front of us met with the sudden reaction of “what the hell is that?” After a few days on the mountain you begin to feel like you’re really doing something positive for the local ecology. And that positive thing is providing food for about a million horrible little mosquitoes that have evolved to feed almost exclusively on Circe volunteers. But when you see a whale it’s all worth it.
I’m used to doing land based surveys on my own and it was a nice change to have all the other volunteers with me to talk to during the days on the mountain. There was even a French lesson or two in the quieter moments (it’s amazing what people will say after long exposure to sunlight). For the first few days we went home without seeing any whales but on the 4th day the weather was good and after a couple of hours without success we got the call that the other survey team had spotted two fin whales heading on our direction. Before long I heard the only word anybody looking for whales wants to hear, BLOW! We tracked the whales for nearly three hours, including a few hairy minutes where it looked like they might be hit by a tanker but they were fine. Since then 11 other fin whales have passed through the straight while being watched by Circe and better still by me.
Volunteering at Circe has been great fun. Huge thanks to Pauline and Fil for asking me to come and to all the others who have made my month here so enjoyable. I won’t list you all cause I can’t spell you names but you know who you are. I’ll miss lots of things about Tarifa when I’m sitting in the Irish rain: the sun shine, the wildlife, the night life, swimming in warm water, looking at cetaceans and working on my tan at the same time, driving on the right and little lince the kitten who woke me up every single night since he arrived and let’s not forget the patatas bravas.
