Ludo & Quinta do Lago

An early flight from Faro this morning but thankfully not for us, we just gave one of our neighbours a lift to the airport! It was just the excuse we needed to spend a few hours around the nearby Ludo Farm and Quinta do Lago area. It began as a quite a chilly morning and there was quite a breeze but by midday we both felt that we wearing at least one layer of clothing too many.

There were few surprises among the species that we recorded. An adult Little Gull was unusual but it has been at Lago do Sã o Lourenç o for a few days now so we were looking for it. Three species of hirundines were perhaps not to be expected in mid-December but with lots of Clouded Yellow butterflies along the trail they really didn’t seem out of place on a sunny morning.
Wildfowl numbers had increased since our last visit here and there are now something like 2,000 Wigeon, which out number all the other duck species put together. White Storks had also increased and at one point there were at least 80 in the air together.

White Stork

Raptors included Marsh Harrier, Common Buzzard and a couple of Booted Eagles; there were 20 species of waders and a single Caspian Tern was with the flock of mainly Lesser Black-backed and Black-headed Gulls. Amongst those making up the total of 75 species seen were Serin, Sardinian Warbler, Hoopoe, Bluethroat, Zitting Cisticola, Purple Swamp-hen, Azure-winged Magpie, Crested Lark, Greater Flamingo and Spoonbill.

All in all, a very pleasant morning!