More Alentejo days

At this time of the year it is difficult to beat a day‘s birding in the Castro Verde area of the Baixo Alentejo, particularly if you enjoy seeing birds of prey.  We’ve been up there three times during the past week and seen 16 raptor species!  That’s five eagles, three kites, three falcons, two harriers, two vultures and of course Common Buzzard.  There has seldom been a moment when there wasn’t at least one raptor in view.
 

Montagu's Harrier

Great Bustards are easy to see; Little Bustards are easy to hear but becoming more difficult to locate as the vegetation grows.  Roadside fence posts and power poles and cables provide perches for countless Corn Buntings and Thekla Larks and a surprising number of Iberian Grey Shrikes; among them the prospect of an occasional Black-eared Wheatear, Tawny Pipit or Short-toed Lark keeps us alert.  Yesterday we found an Ortolan Bunting, which was a surprise - an unusual bird in this area and on an early date.

Little Bustard

 Black-eared Wheatear

Iberian Grey Shrike

Rollers have now returned to their regular nesting areas and they are always fun to watch.  They mostly nest in artificial sites, nest boxes and the like, which are provided for them at several of the farms.  Often they have Lesser Kestrels as next-door neighbours but yesterday we watched a pair that seemed to have competition from Jackdaws.  It is easy to see how a resident species like Jackdaw might gain the advantage over a late-arriving migrant when it comes to nest site selection.  

European Roller

The area is dotted with small reservoirs and ponds where Little Grebes and Little Ringed Plovers are frequent and Black-winged Stilts are often found.  One or two of them have Collared Pratincoles breeding.  We have particularly enjoyed watching the Pratincoles this week.  They are such attractive birds and wonderfully confiding.

Collared Pratincoles

Nesting White Storks never lose their attraction and there are so many that we have given up trying to count them.  There are nests on poles, in trees and on buildings and many of them have tenants living alongside the storks: House Sparrows, Spotless Starlings and Spanish Sparrows.

Spanish Sparrow

And it’s not just a visual experience!  As well as the constant jangling song of the Corn Buntings and the zitting of Cisticolas, most of the water courses with any vegetation have Nightingales singing loudly.  There are numerous Calandra Larks singing and displaying, Bee-eaters can frequently be heard passing overhead and where there is suitable habitat, often roadside eucalyptus trees, there is the sound of Golden Orioles.

Corn Bunting

No doubt we’ll be heading to the Alentejo again next week!  Every day up there is different.   

Another Alentejo Day

At this time of year we are regular visitors to the plains around Castro Verde.  The area is simply full of birds, there are butterflies, there’s a wonderful display of wildflowers and there’s always a chance to see something else of interest, perhaps a snake, a lizard or maybe just an oil beetle.  Why wouldn’t we be up there as often as we can be?

The weather for our latest trip yesterday was warm enough but mostly cloudy so the light wasn’t particularly good for photography.  However, without too much heat haze, conditions were good for looking at distant birds through a telescope and that’s important!  No matter how often we complain to Swarovski, the problem of heat haze doesn’t seem to be one that they are able to overcome!  Being out early in the day is usually the best remedy but yesterday visibility was reasonably good throughout.

When the males are displaying, both Great & Little Bustards are easy to find and fun to watch.  We saw lots of them!  However, the raptors are a different story!  Species such as Lesser Kestrel and Common Buzzard are hard to miss but others require a certain degree of luck.  We think the numerous Montagu’s Harriers themselves make the trip worthwhile but yesterday we ended the day having seen 13 raptor species, which may not be any sort of record but is still fairly impressive.

 Black-eared Wheatear

Green Sandpiper

Amongst the day’s other highlights were Black-bellied Sandgrouse, European Roller, Great Spotted Cuckoo, Calandra Lark, Black-eared Wheatear, Golden Oriole, Purple Heron, Stone-curlew, Blue Rock Thrush and a spiffy Green Sandpiper that was our latest ever in the spring.  We saw 75 species in total during a fairly relaxed day.  We can’t wait to go again! 

The Last Few Weeks...

Can it really be five weeks since Peter returned from China?  Where does the time go?

It’s fair to say that we’ve had one or two distractions and diversions from our normal routine during the past month, some of them planned but others not so.  However, in spite of these there has been plenty of birding to enjoy.

 European Roller

Montagu's Harrier

Visits to the Castro Verde area have been fewer of late.  In contrast to the wonderful display of wildflowers that we were seeing earlier, the landscape is now looking very parched and straw-coloured as crops of hay and cereals have been harvested.  As the breeding season progresses, both species of bustards have become more difficult to see and now Montagu’s Harriers, Lesser Kestrels and Rollers are among the most conspicuous birds as they go looking for food for newly hatched young.  Also regularly seen have been Collared Pratincoles, Calandra Larks and Black-eared Wheatears and the number and variety of raptors has guaranteed regular roadside stops to check them out.

Black-eared Wheatear

In the Algarve, we’ve made only a couple of visits to Ludo and Quinta do Lago and most of our birding has been around Castro Marim.  It’s been very convenient to have several pairs of breeding Collared Pratincoles easily viewable and Little Bustards were also good while they lasted although impossible to find once they stopped displaying.  More often heard than seen have been several pairs of Water Rails.  About 20 Slender-billed Gulls and up to about 10 Caspian Terns have been regular and in the past few days the number and variety of waders has increased with Black-tailed Godwits, Red Knot, Curlew Sandpiper, Sanderling, Turnstone and Dunlin all in smart breeding plumage.  There are waders in the Ria Formosa, too, and Audouin’s Gulls are ever present.

By way of a change, we recently spent a morning just a few kilometres inland from Tavira, sitting in the car by the roadside next to a small river.  The aim was photography but we weren’t very successful!  However, from that one spot we were able to watch a surprising variety of species that included Golden Orioles (a pair with three young), Kingfisher, Bee-eater, Little Ringed Plover, Green Sandpiper, Grey Wagtail, Rock Bunting, Blue Rock Thrush, Turtle Dove, Crested Tit, Long-tailed Tit and Azure-winged Magpie.  Only a Green Sandpiper and a Grey Wagtail came close to performing for the camera on this occasion but when we have time to return to this delightful location we will be hoping to have some more of these birds coming down to the water.

 Grey Wagtail

Green Sandpiper

Earlier this week we popped across the border to Spain, to the Doñana area.  Unfortunately, the White-headed Ducks that June found on her last visit in May were nowhere to be seen but we did see five Red-knobbed Coots, a species that we don’t often find in Portugal.  It was good to see that the visitor centre at the Dehesa de Abajo is now regularly open and we met up there with ‘old friends’ Beltran Ceballos Vázquez and Sergio González who regaled us with stories of the latest sightings of Iberian Lynx.  Huge numbers of Glossy Ibises were a feature of the day with nice views of them nesting at the José Antonio Valverde visitor centre alongside many Cattle Egrets and smaller numbers of Little Egrets, Squacco Herons, Little Bitterns and Black-crowned Night Herons.  Elsewhere there seemed to be plenty of our favourite Purple Herons feeding well-grown young hidden deep in the tamarisks.

 Cattle Egret

Purple Heron

Black-crowned Night Heron

In the Tavira area, the ‘best’ bird we have heard of was one that we didn’t manage to see even though it was apparently around for several days.  It was in the mouth of the harbour and described to us by a non-birder friend as “looking like a penguin”.  Previous reports of penguin-like birds have usually involved pale-fronted immature Great Cormorants but when we eventually saw the photographs, this one proved to be a first-winter Atlantic Puffin, somewhat unexpected at this time of year.  What a pity that we didn’t get a phone call until long after the bird had gone!

Days out from Tavira

Last week was a busy one for us with days spent in the Castro Verde area of the Baixo Alentejo and across the border in Doñana as well as around some of the usual sites in the Algarve.

The Alentejo is at its very best right now.  Both Great Bustards and Little Bustards are displaying and easy to see, there are raptors everywhere (13 species this week), Calandra Larks singing, Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Collared Pratincoles, Great Spotted Cuckoos, Rollers, Black-eared Wheatears and more.  However, what makes this time of the year really stand out is the amazing display of wild flowers – carpets of yellow, white and purple with patches of red.  Truly spectacular!

Alentejo flower show...

...too many to name!

Black-eared Wheatear

Lesser Kestrel

Doñana, too, is really looking good.  In complete contrast to last year’s disappointment following the drought, currently there is water everywhere and, as a result, lots of birds fixing to breed.  In particular, there were hundreds of Greater Flamingos and Glossy Ibises and seven species of herons and egrets.  Throw in a few Gull-billed & Whiskered Terns, some Greater & Lesser Short-toed Larks, Red-knobbed Coots, Great Spotted Cuckoos and an assortment of raptors and waders and it makes a great day trip from Tavira.  There was even a Long-tailed Duck at the Cañada de Rianzuela.

Great Spotted Cuckoo

Little Ringed Plover

In the Algarve, we’ve been to Ludo, Quinta do Lago, Olhão and, of course, Tavira, all of them within the Ria Formosa.  Highlights for our visitors have included Collared Pratincoles, Little Bittern, Bee-eaters, Caspian Terns, Slender-billed Gulls and Stone-curlews.  Just as much as those, we’ve enjoyed hearing the air filled with the songs of Nightingales, Cetti’s & Reed Warblers and watching Black-headed Weavers busy building their nests.

Collared Pratincole

Black-headed Weaver

Finally, news of the colour-ringed Common Redshank, H19, which we previously blogged about here.  This bird, which has now spent three winters in the saltpans here, is so faithful to one particular area that when we couldn’t find it on 15th March we were confident that it had left to start its migration to The Netherlands.  At the time, the weather there was awful with temperatures down to minus-3 and it didn’t seem like a good place to be going.  We were worried!  Anyway, the good news is that ‘our’ bird (which we share with Wim Tijsen who ringed it) arrived back on the breeding grounds on 9th April having presumably stopped somewhere on the way to wait for better weather.  We hope for news of a successful breeding season.       

Rollers Return

Several days of rain and generally unpleasant weather has meant that we've mostly been staying at home catching up with 'admin'. There have been a couple of visits to the local saltpans in between the thunderstorms but otherwise it's been an opportunity for both of us to finish writing the reports relating to our recent Avian Adventures tours.

At the same time we've been keeping an eye on news of the travel chaos caused by ash from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano. The impact on the travel and tourism industries that we are just a very small part of is obviously enormous. Our personal concern is the need for Peter to be back in the UK in time to fly out to Arizona on Saturday with another Avian Adventures tour. All fingers are crossed!

Anyway, the weather forecast for today was good and proved for once to be reasonably accurate - it hardly rained at all! We set off early and spent the day in the Castro Verde area. As usual, there were plenty of Great Bustards and Little Bustards, we saw a couple of Short-toed Eagles, a Booted Eagle and a rather distant Spanish Imperial Eagle, there were countless Montagu's Harriers and Lesser Kestrels and several Black Kites and Black-winged Kites. Add to that list Golden Orioles, Stone-curlew, Calandra Larks, Black-eared Wheatears and our first Rollers of the year and we reckon we had quite a good day. It was certainly a welcome escape from 'admin'.

Little Bustard - getting harder to see as the vegetation gets taller

Three Montagu's Harriers chase off a Black Kite

Roller - our first of year

Black-eared Wheatear