17th October 2025 – Quinta de Marim Nature Park , Portugal

After morning coffee in Fuseta we took an Uber for just a few euros along the coast to the Nature Park at Quinta de Marim. This is a favourite of ours: a 3 km trail takes you through various ecosystems – dunes, salt marshes, pine woodlands and there is a hide at the edge of the marsh. There’s also a very interesting tidal mill where generally you see lots of interesting birds. Unfortunately today there was a full tide and the only birds on the coast were clinging to a pier.

We saw lots of Iberian magpies and collared doves but my photos were too poor to publish.

However, there was lots to see at the hide which overlooks a small inland pool. I made a rather silly ID error here thinking a had seen a western swamphen, but it was really only a moorhen. Perhaps it was the terrapin alongside which confused me as we had seen western swamphens and terrapins together a little further along the coast at St Lourenco.

There were also lots of little egrets and grey herons around the lake but I will spare you my photos of these!

Our enjoyment of this nature reserve became even greater when, on leaving the park, we discovered a lovely local restaurant – the Restaurant Vista Formosa where the waiter told us that next time we should climb the stairs to see why it has this name. He assured us we would not be disappointed. Definitely a good reason to return.