Audouin's and Slender-billed Gulls

We’ve had a couple of days of photography around Tavira. Although we’ve spent most of our time sitting in the car, we haven’t actually been anywhere that we wouldn’t be happy to walk to from home.

At this time of the year the saltpans here offer plenty of opportunities to photograph waders, gulls, Grey Herons, Little Egrets, Spoonbills and Flamingos. Although it was impossible to resist a few shots of Black-tailed Godwit, Sanderling, Common Redshank, Little Stint, Dunlin and Ruff, we were keen to get decent images of Audouin’s and Slender-billed Gulls.

Audouin’s Gulls now breed not far from here and their numbers are increasing. Currently there are about 150 on the saltpans just outside of town. Slender-billed Gull is still a species classed as a rarity in Portugal, which means that we should be submitting records with descriptions to SPEA! The fact is that the species is quite common in the south east of the country and at the moment we can go out pretty much everyday and see them. Yesterday there were 31 at Santa Luzia, today there were 25 on the edge of Tavira where we watched them bathing in a fresh water pool.

We’re still sorting through the day’s images but here is one that caught the two target species together - and without any of the Lesser Black-backed and Yellow-legged Gulls that seem to want to be in every picture, whether invited or not!

Audouin's and Slender-billed Gulls