Southern Portugal is obviously one of the destinations for birders....easy to get to and good birding to be had probably most of the year.
THE time to go is April and May....when youre just about guaranteed to see certain species that at other times can be quite difficult to see.....and here I was in late July and early August out and about looking for those birds....! All dressed up as a family holiday....
….and of course you will see many birds you rarely or have never seen before....nice...
I reckon many peoples first bird in a different country isn't that 'different' bird....it will be Feral Pigeon. Guaranteed to be hanging around the airport and guaranteed to get its beak first on the list....and so it was....and so it shall be....Feral Pigeon....
So...landed at Faro....get the hire car and head off toward Moncarapacho, east of Faro, where we had rented a 300 year old olive mill....and very nice it was too...
Very quiet....large grounds to wander around in....and lots of almond trees in the full throws of producing nuts.....nice....
In the garden there were a few butterflies....but the best was this Swallowtail that would appear almost every day....
The evening 'entertainment' was provided by these lizards....anywhere up to 11 would appear after dark and the outside light was on....the light obviously attracting small insects which the lizards galloped around the wall eating....
One visit to a local beach had the aim of finding these guys....Fiddler Crabs.....semi-terrestrial marine crabs....hundreds of them....
I eventually tracked down this Cicada...noisy or what...but surely one of the sounds of somewhere hot and letting you know you've arrived somewhere away from the drudgery of home weather....
The coastline between Faro and the Spanish border, which isn't that far away, holds many birds as there is a large sand bar running in front of the beaches, providing large areas of salt marsh and 'boggy' muddy areas.....there are also many salt pans, some old and disused and others still in use. Either way they hold birds....and well worth a visit....
Is this THE salt pan bird? Flamingoes….
To one side of some salt pans was this rough salt marsh being grazed by some cows...and where you find cows....there are Cattle Egrets....at this location I found bout 10...the most I had seen in once place.....
….and here are those salt pans....with Flamingoes of course...
Back in the garden insects seemed hard to come by....other than flies of course....
And heres a distance shot of....Flamingoes…
Near Olhao I found these disused salt pans, which was very nice....some Little Terns had been breeding there....
….and at jut about every site around the coast were these guys....Spoonbill...
….on my second visit to the site this White Stork sat on the far side and didn't move....
...and the Spoonbill again....
So...a list of birds from the first week is needed at this point before moving inland...im only going to list birds once as new birds seen rather than each site I visited....
One bird that I was hoping to see in this area....Kentish Plover....was on every beach I visited for bird watching....and could be found in the salt pans....so if this is a bird you want to see, visit this area ad you will not fail....
In blue - life ticks...
House Sparrow, Collared Dove (sooooo many of them too), Blackbird, House Martin, Barn Swallow, Azure Winged Magpie, Glossy Ibis, Sardinian Warbler, Redshank, Avocet, Crested Lark, Nightjar, Little Owl, Tawny Owl, Grey Heron, Oystercatcher, Sand Martin, Cormorant, Golden Oriole, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Red-necked Nightjar, Red-rumped Swallow, Spotted Flycatcher, Bonellis Warbler, Booted Eagle, Turtle Dove, Ferruginous Duck, Coot, Red-legged Partridge, Stonechat, Kestrel, Tawny Pipit, Little Egret, Slender-billed Gull, Mediterranean Gull, Yellow-legged Gull, Fan-tailed Warbler, Spotless Starling, Kingfisher, Common Sandpiper, Black-tailed Godwit, Curlew, Dunlin, Waxbill, Orphean Warbler, Yellow Wagtail, Kentish Plover, Ringed Plover, Black-winged Stilt, Magpie, Linnet, Goldfinch, Jay, Iberian Green Woodpecker, Great Tit...
...and now...the end is near...well...the first week...so it was time to move inland...to the Portugeuse Steppe....the Alentejo…..vast sweeping landscapes full of cereal growing....cork oaks....and some of that much hated, by me anyway, eucalyptus....however...ore of that later....
The second abode was more modern, located a few miles west of Ourique…..Vale da Cegonha….Valley of the Stork...…
….many of the posts and buildings had Storks nests on them....I imagine in April it must be an impressive site to see so many Storks on each post whilst driving along the road....we certainly came across many, usually 40 - 50 at a time out in the fields feeding....a fabulous thing to see....
....like the first there was a pool....
...though the view from this one to the far hills was pretty impressive and a wonderful site to see each morning...as was the pool as the temperatures climbed from the high 30's down on the coat up to the mid 40's inland....no complaints....I love it hot or cold...
….first evening produced the one and only mantis....a yellow one...
Of course this area is famous for Bustard species....
Great Bustard
Little Bustard
...and also Black-bellied Sandgrouse of course....
….and heres some of that rolling landscape near the house....very nice indeed...
….heres what the area is also famous for.....Cork Oaks...this one recently stripped...
….and here is a pile of cork from recently stripped Oaks...
When you've already seen 10 Cattle Egrets and you begin to think that that was a great site to see....then you are out looking for Bustards and come across a field with some cows in....and you are blown away by 70...yes...SEVENTY.....Cattle Egrets....whatever turns up after that will find it hard to beat such a site....
Southern Grey Shrike...just outside the door...
We came across these Bee-eaters whilst driving north from the coat...
LPN help run many of the conservation projects in the Castro Verde area especially for those three species already mentioned above and a visit to their head office just north of the town produced some 'possible' places to look for these birds of the plains....
I spent several mornings 'hunting' for the elusive birds....and was eventually rewarded with both Little and Great Bustard...though no Sandgrouse.....
One thing that surprised me was the amount of water around the area despite the heat and it being so far inland...the amount of water....plentiful lakes and the rivers usually running though smaller streams were usually dry....and this water provided great havens for many birds including waders which was very surprising....
If you go I have plenty of information of places to go...so you can always ask....heres the other birds I added to the list...
Short-toed Eagle, Woodchat Shrike, Griffon Vulture, Green Sandpiper, Crow, Redstart, Greylag Geese, Egyptian Goose, Stone Curlew, Little Bustard, Montagues Harrier, Hoopoe, Black-eared Wheatear, Black Vulture, Woodpigeon (too a long time to find on of these!), Greenfinch, Grey Wagtail, Pied Wagtail, Sanderling, Sandwich Tern (a visit to a west coast beach), Mallard, Great Bustard, Corn Bunting, Blue Tit....
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