10th October 2024 – Salinas de Olhão, The Algarve, Portugal

We are enjoying a short stay based in Faro on the Algarve in Portugal.

It’s not really a ‘birding’ holiday but we have come equipped with walking boots, binoculars and, in my case, a bridge camera. 

Our second ‘birding’ opportunity was to the east of Faro along some of the disused salt pans to the west of Olhão. Here we were lucky to have fairly close up views of waders (although not fantastic light) on the estuary and especially good views of spoonbills, little egrets, greater flamingos and other waders on the salt pans. 

After our birding session we behaved more like normal tourists and visited the food market at Olhāo and had another lovely lunch in a back street alley restaurant away from the main tourist area. This time our walking gear didn’t look too out of place.

The rest of our stay we have been doing cultural things and just wandering around Faro enjoying the local flora.