26th February 2024 – Ria Formosa, Portugal

We spent our third day of birding in Portugal east of Faro. We started in the Parque Natural da Ria Formosa near to some disused salt pans.

The day started well with good views of two booted eagles.

As we walked along the pathway we soon saw a marsh harrier. Further in the distance through the telescope we also had reasonable views of an osprey.

Throughout our trip we have seen white storks perched on nests on lamp posts and low trees. But here there was a colony of white storks building nests quite high up in tall trees.

The highlight of this part of the trip was seeing several crested tits darting through the woods near the end of our walk.

Our next stop was at the salt pans of Ludo. Here we had great views of numerous waders.

We then moved on to some more salt pans at Olhão where there was an old tidal mill.

Here most of the birds were further away but we did get views of Kentish plover, common ringed plover, common sandpiper, greenshank and greater flamingos.

Our next stage of our birding day was based around the golf course at Quinta do Lobo. The golf course were very impressive but not as impressive as the houses built around them which are owned by the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Madonna (didn’t know she played golf).

We had some great birding here especially seeing some very colourful birds such as the black-headed weavers, a kingfisher and a red-crested pochard.

Fabulous day’s birding – just wish I had started this when I was a bit younger!

70 species observed:

Common Shelduck; Gadwall; Mallard; Red-crested Pochard; Greater Flamingo; Little Grebe; Common Moorhen; Eurasian Coot; Western Swamphen; Black-winged Stilt; Pied Avocet; Grey Plover;Common Ringed Plover; Kentish Plover; Whimbrel; Eurasian Curlew; Bar-tailed Godwit; Black-tailed Godwit; Common Redshank;  Common Greenshank; Ruddy Turnstone; Curlew Sandpiper; Dunlin; Purple Sandpiper; Little Stint; Black-headed Gull; Audouin’s Gull; Yellow-legged Gull ; Lesser Black-backed Gull; Sandwich Tern; White Stork ; Great Cormorant; Little Egret; Western Cattle Egret; Grey Heron; Glossy Ibis; Eurasian Spoonbill; Osprey; Booted Eagle; Western Marsh Harrier; Common Buzzard; Eurasian Hoopoe; Common Kingfisher; Eurasian Wryneck (Heard); Common Kestrel; Iberian Magpie; Common Magpie ; Crested Tit; Zitting Cisticola; Eurasian Crag Martin; Barn Swallow; Western House Martin; Common Chiffchaff; Cetti’s Warbler (Heard); Long-tailed Tit (Heard); Sardinian Warbler; Short-toed Treecreeper (Heard); Spotless Starling; Eurasian Blackbird; European Stonechat; Black-headed Weaver; House Sparrow; Pied Wagtail/White Wagtail; Meadow Pipit; Common Chaffinch; European Greenfinch; Common Linnet; European Serin; Eurasian Siskin; Corn Bunting.