Tag: Olhāo

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

    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. 

    Black-tailed godwit
    Flyover spoonbills

    Selection of waders

    Spoonbills preening
    Dunlin
    Little egret

    Common ringed plover

    Sanderling
    Turnstone

    Black-winged stilt

    Caspian tern

    Slender-billed gull

    Zitting cisticola
    Greater flamingos

    Greenshank

    Las salinas de Olhāo

    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 back alleys of Ohāo

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

    Faro Town Hall at night

    The cathedral at Faro

    Faro old city walls at night