Tavira & Santa Luzia

We spent a couple of hours or more yesterday around the Tavira area, birding just from the car. It was mostly cloudy but at least dry and not a bad day.

An Osprey at Santa Luzia saltpans was perched exactly where we saw one on several occasions last winter, making us think that this is almost certainly the same bird returned. Also notable were a Black-necked Grebe (not common around Tavira), a flock of 48 Sandwich Terns, three Caspian Terns, a singing (as opposed to skulking) Bluethroat, a flock of 350+ Black-tailed Godwits and a hybrid “Grey Egret”. Only a handful of Audouin's Gulls remain and it's more than a week now since we last saw a Slender-billed Gull in Tavira.

It was remarkable that without getting out of the car we recorded 21 wader species - and we missed Common Sandpiper, Snipe and Northern Lapwing!

Not much light for photography but this Grey Wagtail, even in such unattractive surroundings, was hard to resist.