Tag: Flowers

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.

Birding in the Algarve

We had a gentle start to our Saga birding holiday to the Algarve which gave us a chance to recover from our rather uncomfortable flight of the day before. (An unexpected cloud burst on the tarmac caught us by surprise and resulted in us sitting for the two and a half hour flight from Bristol to Faro soaked to the skin.)

After breakfast we were able to explore the bird life of the hotel grounds and get our bearings. From our balcony we had a splendid view along the coastline and could see through the telescope on the cliff opposite both cormorants and shag.

Iberian magpies and house sparrows, however, were much closer and didn’t even require binoculars.

Later in the morning Maria, our very enthusiastic, knowledgeable and personable guide for the week gave us a good presentation of the birding areas we were going to explore and, accompanied by excellent photos, an idea of the of the birds we might expect to see.

After lunch we had a short drive by coach to our first birding area Lagoa dos Salgados (also known as Pera Marsh) where we  joined by Rui, a local bird guide.The excellent website Walk Algarve describes this area: 

“Lagoa dos Salgados is one of the most important freshwater wetlands in the Algarve. Despite being much smaller than Ria Formosa or even the Alvor Estuary, Lagoa dos Salgados is nonetheless inhabited by a quite large quantity and variety of bird species that include numerous rarities and scarcities. With reason, this severely threatened IBA site has become one of the most rewarding and sought-after birding hotspots in the Algarve.”

Before we even started birding we saw a spectacular oscellated lizard.

The first section of our walk was along a boardwalk where we had good views of the wetlands. We soon had close up views of a bluethroat (which was not easy to photograph as it darted in and out of the bushes in the shade) and a zittling cisticola in the reeds.

From the board walk we could easily pick out a large variety of waders and gulls. 

Marsh harriers and a booted eagle in the distance excited the group. We retraced our steps and then walked on grassy paths around the fringes of the wetlands where we had even better views. Spectacularly a small flock of spoonbills flew in to join a small colony of herons. 

Purple swamphen could also be easily seen.

I loved seeing swallows (both barn and red rumped) for the first time this year as they have already arrived back here from their long flights from Africa.

Black-tailed godwits also stood out in their breeding plumage.

I must admit I often dropped behind the group as I jostled activities between viewing with binoculars and telescope and trying to take photos with my bridge camera. (I have sacrificed my Sony mirror camera and long lenses for a telescope on this trip). Fortunately the terrain was very easy but by the end of the day I was certainly ready for a beer.

A very good start to the week.

List of species observed:

Northern Shoveler; Gadwall; Eurasian Wigeon; Mallard; Northern Pintail; Eurasian Teal; Common Pochard; Little Grebe; Collared Dove; Common Moorhen; Eurasian Coot; Western Swamphen; Black-winged Stilt; Northern Lapwing; Black-tailed Godwit; Common Snipe; Common Redshank; Sanderling; Dunlin; Audouin’s Gull;Mediterranean Gull; Yellow-legged Gull; Lesser Black-backed Gull; Caspian Tern; Great Cormorant; Little Egret; Western Cattle Egret; Grey Heron; Glossy Ibis; Eurasian Spoonbill; Booted Eagle;Western Marsh Harrier; Little Owl — Heard; Common Kestrel; Iberian Magpie; Common Magpie; Eurasian Skylark; Crested Lark;Zitting Cisticola; Barn Swallow; Western House Martin; Red-rumped Swallow;Common Chiffchaff;Cetti’s Warbler — heard; Sardinian Warbler — Heard; Spotless Starling; Eurasian Blackbird;Bluethroat; European Stonechat; House Sparrow; Pied Wagtail/White Wagtail; Meadow Pipit; European Greenfinch; Common Linnet; Corn Bunting

Number of Taxa: 55