Tag: Fuseta

Before our last full day here in Fuseta on The Algarve we thought about what birds we had not seen that we would normally expect to see. The standouts were white wagtail, whimbrel and oyster catcher. We couldn’t believe our luck when we went for a walk this morning and saw all three. We only saw one of each and I only managed to get photos of the whimbrel and the oystercatcher. I was also pleased to get a photo of a cattle egret which had also eluded me until today, although I had seen them on a taxi ride.

Nothing much this evening except a zitting cisticola

And so, I took a couple of landscapes from the balcony to end our wonderful stay.

Below is the list of birds that we have seen during our stay in Fuseta. Surprisingly we haven’t seen any raptors. Perhaps we have been watching the floor too much to check that we don’t trip up!

Common Shelduck
Northern Shoveler
Gadwall
Mallard
Feral Pigeon
Common Woodpigeon
Collared Dove
Common Moorhen
Eurasian Coot
Black-winged Stilt
Pied Avocet
Eurasian Oystercatcher
Common Ringed Plover
Kentish Plover
Whimbrel
Black-tailed Godwit
Common Sandpiper
Common Redshank
Common Greenshank
Ruddy Turnstone
Curlew Sandpiper
Sanderling
Dunlin
Black-headed Gull
Common Gull
Yellow-legged Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Sandwich Tern
Greater Flamingo
Little Grebe
White Stork
Great Cormorant
Eurasian Spoonbill
Little Egret
Western Cattle-Egret
Great White Egret
Grey Heron
Common Kingfisher
Iberian Magpie
Common Magpie
Eurasian Skylark
Crested Lark
Zitting Cisticola
Common Chiffchaff
Sardinian Warbler
Eurasian Blackbird
Bluethroat
European Stonechat
Common Waxbill
House Sparrow
Pied Wagtail/White Wagtail

Over the last couple of days, when we haven’t been doing touristy things, I’ve grabbed a few more bird photos as the opportunities here are endless. We have an armchair view (literally) so the pickings are very easy although I did miss a kingfisher which perched right opposite us as I was without camera at the time. I must be getting blasé.

I can’t believe how indolent we have been today. We have spent most of the day sitting in the garden of our holiday let watching (and in my case photographing) birds. I can’t remember ever having a day like it.

There’s been so much to see and I don’t really know how to go about recording what we have seen. I will just publish a sample of my photographs and tell you that most of the action has taken place at a distance of less than 20 metres from where we have been sitting. The day ended when a kingfisher perched in the garden less than 3 metres from us, before scuttling off down the river. I didn’t have a camera in my hand at the time as I was holding my evening aperitif!

Supper time now and a day free from birding tomorrow!

Day two of our stay on The Algarve in Portugal.

We have had a lazy day sitting watching the birds from our holiday rental accommodation looking over the salt pans of Fuseta, wandering around the streets of Fuseta and spending far too much time having lunch at our favourite restaurant in this part of the world, À do Ruí. Tomorrow we must get out a bit more!

It seemed a shame to leave Bristol in the lovely October sunshine but (and don’t feel sorry for us) we are spending the next 11 days on the Algarve in Portugal which is even more sunny and with even better temperatures,

We have come to Fuseta, a tiny fishing village in the eastern Algarve. Fuseta is relatively unspoilt and full of beautiful tiled streets to wander around with fantastic restaurants where you can eat fabulous fresh seafood and with lots of cafés to sit and people watch. One of the main attractions for us is that Fuseta is very easy to reach by taxi from Faro airport (we only took just over 5 hours from home to rental property) and it has a train station (2 in fact) from where we can easily explore other parts of The Algarve.

Better still, this area is fabulous for bird watching with loads of salt pans attracting a huge number of birds.

We have found an amazing apartment which is called “Birdwatchers’ Paradise” and looks out onto the salt pans of Fuseta. It is rather like being in an amazingly comfortable bird hide on two levels with very close up views of the birds from the terrace and the first floor balcony.

Here are some of my photos from our first half day. I’m sorry if some of them are rather too close up!

An old tidal mill (now accommodation)