Back for the autumn migration

It’s great to be back in the Algarve!  The months of June, July and August in the UK didn’t seem to include summer but now at last we’re warm again.

It’s also good to be back in Tavira - nearly all of the guide books describe it as the most attractive town in the Algarve and we wouldn’t disagree with that.

The Gilão River in the centre of Tavira

Already we’ve spent a few hours checking out nearby areas of the Ria Formosa and it’s wonderful to have this huge wetland virtually on our doorstep.  Those saltpans around Tavira and Santa Luzia that aren’t being used to produce salt are currently attracting hundreds of birds: Greater Flamingos, Grey Herons, Little Egrets, Spoonbills, more than 20 wader species, at least five different gulls as well as various ducks. 

Santa Luzia saltpans

September and October are months when we can expect a few rarities to show up amongst the huge numbers of migrant birds that pour in here and already there have been a couple of Pectoral Sandpipers further west at Lagoa dos Salgados.  It can’t be denied that rarities add a bit of spice to our birding but there’s a great deal of interest and pleasure to be had from watching almost any birds especially those waders!

 We hope to share photographs here in the coming weeks of at least one or two rarities but in the meantime here are a few taken this week just down the road in the area we like to think of as “our office”.

 Juvenile Greater Flamingo

 Black-tailed Godwit

 Ruff

 First-winter Slender-billed Gull

 Common Redshank

Hoopoe

Back into Algarve birding

After quite a lot of rain at the end of October and in early November, there’s a fair amount of water lying on the ground here, the rivers and streams are flowing again and many of the saltpans are now flooded to a level that makes them unsuitable for short-legged wading birds.  There has been very little rain these last two weeks but, by Algarve standards, it’s been cold, often with a stiff wind that has had us wearing as many as four layers of clothing!

The numbers of some bird species, Spoonbills and Black-tailed Godwits for instance, have now reduced quite noticeably as they have continued their migration to West Africa, encouraged no doubt by the drop in temperatures and a following wind from the north.  However, the total number of birds remains high as thousands of gulls have arrived and there are Chiffchaffs wherever you look.

Black-tailed Godwit

Searching through the gulls isn’t everyone’s idea of fun but there are occasional rarities to be found and there are colour rings to be read.  A Ring-billed Gull was seen at Sagres at few days ago and two Great Black-backed Gulls were found at Quarteira but here in the Eastern Algarve we have so far had to content ourselves with the regular six species.  However, the numbers of Audouin’s and Slender-billed are now much lower and we have heard that Audouin’s colour-ringed this year in the colony in the Ria Formosa have been reported recently from The Gambia.  A colour-ringed Mediterranean Gull from Italy has been our best find this week.

Audouin's Gulls

We’ve been twice in the past few days to Castro Marim where there is now much more water in the Cerro do Bufo saltpans than we would wish for.  Notable sightings there have included as many as 200 Common Shelducks and close to 100 Black-necked Grebes.  Common Shelduck is a species that bred for the first time in Portugal as recently as 2000 but seems to be doing remarkably well.  Back in the summer we saw more than 100 young ones at a site near Faro but a winter flock of 200 is a record as far as we are concerned.

Common Shelduck

 Black-necked Grebe

Waders can still be found in good numbers and variety around the Ria Formosa.  In fact we have recorded 25 species locally in the last few days.  For us, one of the attractions here is how close we can get to them and, of course, we enjoy trying to photograph them.  Some are easier than others!

Little Stint

Other species that have proved popular with visitors recently have been Greater Flamingo, Bluethroat, Glossy Ibis, Little Bittern and Caspian Tern, all of which we expect but never tire of seeing and showing to people.

Caspian Tern

Less predictable are the hirundines, but at the moment we seem to be seeing Crag Martins just about everywhere (including from our window) and yesterday we saw Red-rumped Swallows.

The Algarve isn’t particularly noted for its birds of prey but in the last few days we have seen several Booted Eagles, an Osprey, Hen Harriers, Marsh Harriers, Common Buzzards, Common Kestrels, Black-winged Kites, a Merlin and an Egyptian Vulture.  And we can add to these the Red Kites, Golden Eagle and Spanish Imperial Eagles that we saw during our day in the Castro Verde area of the Baixo Alentejo.

Booted Eagle

In the Alentejo, as well as the raptors, it was good to see Great Bustards in reasonable numbers and we managed to get quite near to a flock of 100 or more Common Cranes.  On a particularly windy day we struggled to get good views of Calandra Larks or Black-bellied Sandgrouse but the Spanish Imperial Eagles made up for any disappointment; we watched three of them, all young birds, first on the ground and then all together in one tree.  It might have been nice to see them through a telescope but not really necessary as they were close enough that if we had got out of the car they would undoubtedly have flown off.

November was good, December has started well and today the wind has dropped and the temperature has risen.

Contrasting Days!

Some days guiding can be really hard work!  Take Sunday, for instance.  We had a 12-hour day and managed to find just 41 species.  We were in the Castro Verde area where finding birds at this time of year can be really tough. 

There are times of the year in that area when you can expect to see Great Bustards round every corner; this is not one of those times.  We saw only five all day!  Little Bustards are no better; in spring they are everywhere, displaying and drawing attention to themselves; in winter, they are in flocks, now they are more or less invisible.  We saw just three of them.

The day’s bird list also included Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Spanish Imperial Eagle, Griffon Vulture (70 of them, on the ground), Short-toed Eagle, Bonelli’s Eagle, Lesser Kestrel and Blue Rock Thrush so it wasn’t a disaster but it’s not good for the nerves when you have the responsibility for finding these birds.  People say it must be nice to have a job that you enjoy and without any pressure – they just don’t know the half of it!

Eurasian Griffon

Yesterday was entirely different.  We had just a morning’s birding around Tavira, probably no more than three hours during which we saw 50 species, 18 of which were shorebirds.  We say shorebirds rather than waders because, as on Sunday, we were accompanied by visitors from the USA.  In the USA, waders are long-legged birds like herons, egrets and storks.

Black-tailed Godwit

Anyway, they were two contrasting days but both enjoyable in their own way – good birding, pleasant company and super fine weather, too!

A Redshank's Story

We first saw this colour-ringed Common Redshank (ring no: H19) at Santa Luzia saltpans on 13th March 2011. We saw it on several further occasions over the next few weeks, the last time being on 5th April.

Subsequently we were able to find out that the bird had been ringed as a pullus in May 2010 at Westerland in the municipality of Wieringen in North Holland in the Netherlands. Later we also learned from the ringer, Wim Tijsen, that having left the Algarve it had returned to the area where it was raised, arriving there on 21st May. Apparently it is typical for young birds to arrive late on the breeding grounds like this; they are too late to breed but maybe they can find a mate for the following year. The site is a wet grassland, a set-aside meadow near the Waddensea that during the freezing winter was full of water and used for skating! Little wonder then that a Redshank wouldn’t want to stay there year round!

It is well known that many (most?) migrant waders, including Common Redshanks, return each year to spend the winter in the same area. We have records of colour-ringed Black-tailed Godwits, for instance, that we have seen in successive winters in exactly the same saltpan here in Tavira. So it was only natural that we should expect H19 to show up here again. The first sighting was on 31st December and since then we have seen it (her?) on about half a dozen further occasions, always in the same saltpan and seldom far from what seems to be the favourite corner of that saltpan. It was there again yesterday and we will be keeping watch to see whether we can establish at least an approximate departure date, which we might expect to be earlier than last year if it is going to breed. We have been told that H19’s father (H16) was back on the breeding grounds by mid-March last year so H19 might soon be heading north. We will also hope for confirmation that H19 is indeed a female.

Black-tailed Godwit - they also show a tendency to return to regular wintering sites

It’s interesting that there is also a Spotted Redshank occupying the same saltpan. It doesn’t have a ring on it but we do wonder whether it is the same Spotted Redshank that spent much of last winter in the same place. What do you think?

Spotted Redshank - probably the same individual that was here last winter

A Mixed Bag of Birding

It continues to be dry and sunny here with temperatures rising as high as 18º C most days. It’s a little over two weeks since we returned to the Algarve after our tours in Ethiopia and the USA and during that time we have seen mainly clear blue skies. That kind of weather makes it hard to resist going out birding and there have been only a couple of days when we have even thought about resisting! There's been guiding, survey work and lots more...

Yesterday we spent the whole day working on our Atlas square, carrying out timed counts of the birds in six different tetrads. That’s the Atlas Aves Invernantes e Migradoras or Atlas of Wintering and Migratory Birds, a project co-ordinated by SPEA which started last August and will continue until February 2013.

Our survey area is a 10km square in the rolling hills north of Tavira. It’s not far away and there are parts of it that we have regularly driven through, but we haven’t really done much birding there until now. Visiting and birding in new areas are the bonuses that come from atlas survey work.

Green Sandpiper – one of four wader species that we found along a short stretch of the Ribeira de Beliche

Spanish Festoon – just one of several butterfly species seen yesterday

Earlier in the week there was a cross border trip to the Doñana area, the highlight of which was finding a really wet and muddy ricefield that was just teeming with birds. There were thousands of waders of at least ten species plus Glossy Ibises, Yellow and White Wagtails, Little Egrets, Purple Swamp-hens, Meadow Pipits and probably more. Nearby, La Cañada de Rianzuela was also full of birds but otherwise much of Doñana was very dry and rather birdless. It’s a bit ironic that the birdiest area should be outside the National Park!

Little Ringed Plover – many were seen in the flooded ricefield and there was one in our Atlas square

We spent one morning last week near Castro Marim helping to make artificial flamingo nests. They have been sited in a protected area where there is no public access and the idea, which has been successful elsewhere, is that such nests might stimulate some of the Greater Flamingos that occur there to stay and breed. There was an unsuccessful nesting attempt at Lagoa dos Salgados in 2010 that was widely reported as being the first in the Algarve but there is actually a record of successful breeding at Castro Marim in 1987. Maybe they will try again...

Making mud pies to encourage Flamingos to nest!

Otherwise we’ve been birding at the regular sites along the Algarve coast. We were pleased to find that the two long-staying Snow Buntings were still in more or less the same spot along the beach at Vila Real de Santo António where they were first seen before Christmas. Debate continues concerning their subspecific identity!

Nivalis or insulae? You decide!

At Vilamoura we were able to find only four Ferruginous Ducks but there have been reports recently of as many as 17 of them there.

Ferruginous Duck

Short-eared Owls continue at the Tavira saltpans but it has been a while since we saw more than two of them.

Short-eared Owl

Mediterranean Gulls have been a feature of the saltpans at Olhão. More than 200 of them were counted this week including several with colour-rings, birds originating from France and Belgium it seems. There are also two pairs of Common Shelducks displaying there, a species that appears to be increasing in number in the Algarve.

Mediterranean Gull

In the last few days we’ve also seen a Dutch-ringed Black-tailed Godwit, both French- and Spanish-ringed Greater Flamingos and a ‘rescued’ Yellow-legged Gull that acquired its colour-ring here in the Algarve at the Centro de Recuperacao e Investigacao de Animais Selvagens where it was presumably treated successfully.

Dutch Black-tailed Godwit

Changeover time

What a busy time for us and the birds - plenty to see and to show to people! We've had some pretty poor weather these last couple of weeks but at last, today, the sun is out again!

Lots of migrants are arriving now. A few Barn Swallows and House Martins were with us throughout the winter and we even saw the odd Red-rumped Swallow in December. Now they're all here in large numbers and Sand Martins are also passing through. Two Pallid Swifts we saw on 14th February were, it seems, the earliest on record in the Algarve. They have since been followed by Yellow Wagtails, Woodchat Shrikes, Northern Wheatears, Common Cuckoos, European Reed Warblers and more. No matter how many times we've experienced the annual return of these birds in the spring, it's an exciting time and we want to be out there welcoming them back no matter what the weather.

Yellow Wagtail

At the same time, we are seeing waders such as Black-tailed Godwits starting to acquire their colourful breeding plumage while for some resident species the breeding season is already well underway. Some already have young in the nest.

Black-tailed Godwit

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

Many of our winter visitors are still here: we are still seeing Short-eared Owls, for instance, and there are still plenty of Chiffchaffs around and Bluethroats are still occupying their winter territories.

Short-eared Owl

The saltpans still have lots of waders and those that have wintered here are being joined by more that are on their way back having ventured further south. All too soon there will be a mass exodus as all these birds fly north to their breeding grounds. Our consolation is that we will have Bee-eaters, Golden Orioles, Nightingales and others to replace them!

Ruff

Sunday at Castro Marim

Without doubt, Castro Marim is one of our favourite sites in the Algarve and it's one we visit pretty regularly. However, the Reserva Natural do Sapal de Castro Marim e Vila Real de Santo António (to give it its full title) covers a huge area and at this time of year, when the temperature can be approaching 30 degrees by 10.00am, we're not inclined to cover all of it in one day. This morning we gave it about two and a half hours before retreating into some shade.

Although much of that time was spent taking photographs (how many flight shots of Spoonbills do we really need?) and trying to read colour-rings, we managed to dig out about 50 species with minimum effort.



The only real surprise was a Black-crowned Night Heron, a species that seems to be occurring more frequently in the Algarve and will surely be breeding here soon if it isn't already.


Amonst the gulls, we found about a dozen each of Slender-billed and Audouin's. (For some reason, the largest concentration of Audouin's in the area currently is at Santa Luzia where 268 were reported this morning.)

As well as the resident Kentish Plovers, Avocets and Black-winged Stilts, a few returning waders were in evidence including Dunlins and Black-tailed Godwits, a couple of Little Ringed Plovers, a Common Sandpiper and (our favourites) two Green Sandpipers.



Not many raptors were seen but we had several sightings of what was presumably the same male Montagu's Harrier, plus Common Buzzard and Common Kestrel.

One species that we particularly looked for was Common Magpie and eventually we found two rather bedraggled-looking birds. As we had hoped, these Magpies were feeding two well-grown Great Spotted Cuckoos. The Cuckoos looked as though they should have been well capable of fending for themselves, but why would they when their foster parents were so attentive. No wonder the Magpies looked worn out!

Other notables were Woodchat and Southern Grey Shrikes, three Common Ravens, Little Terns, hundreds of Greater Flamingos, Azure-winged Magpies, Common Shelducks and Red-rumped Swallows.

All in all, some pretty decent birding. We are no longer surprised that we didn't see another birder the whole time we were there.

Back in Tavira

After a short visit to the UK at least one of us is now back in Portugal! But before anyone starts to feel sorry for June, left behind in the cold, she will only be there for a couple of days before she flies out to Uganda for a two-week tour for Avian Adventures. Make up your own mind which of us has got the better deal!

The weather this morning on arrival here in the Algarve was wet and windy. There was a short interlude after lunch when the sun appeared but before long it had deteriorated again - wetter and windier!

After shopping for essential supplies there was time for a quick tour round Tavira's birding hotspots to see whether anything had changed while we've been away. There wasn't much light for photography, but when has that stopped us!

Regular readers may recognise the perch that this Common Magpie is using. We have photographed Bluethroat, Southern Grey Shrike and Whimbrel on the same branch and have seen several other species using it. Common Magpie isn't such a common bird along the coast; in fact we've never seen one west of Faro and rarely get an opportunity to photograph one.

Common Magpie

Barn Swallow and Black-tailed Godwit were two species more numerous today than they were a couple of weeks ago. There must have been almost 100 Barn Swallows feeding over the saltpans and maybe 1,000 Black-tailed Godwits spread out across the Tavira and Santa Luzia area. A few of the godwits are now showing signs of summer plumage.

Black-tailed Godwit

The usual "Grey Egrets" were seen but only one of them was within camera range. A nearby Little Egret was also hard to resist.

Western Reef x Little Egret hybrid

Little Egret

Greater Flamingos, Spoonbills, Audouin's Gulls and Stone-curlews were also in exactly the same places as always and it does just seem possible that all these birds might not have noticed that we've been missing!

Water Water Everywhere!

The monsoon season continues here in the Algarve - rain, rain and more rain, day after day. And it's still pretty windy, too! There's water lying everywhere, fields that just two weeks ago were bone dry are now under several inches of water. The depth of water in many of the local saltpans is now such that only flamingos and Spoonbills can feed in them - even the long-legged waders, Black-winged Stilts and Black-tailed Godwits have moved out into the fields. At high tide today flocks of waders, including Dunlin, Ringed Plovers, Turnstones and Little Stints could be found out in the stubble.

It's certainly not weather that anyone would want to be out birding in. However, we did find a brief window of opportunity today for a drive to some of our regular spots around Tavira and even to take a few photographs before the sky turned black again at about 3.00pm and another thunderstorm rolled in.

Today's photographs are all of common species and were taken in one place, a flooded field at the edge of town.

Common Redshank

Mediterranean Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Black-tailed Godwit

Black-winged Stilt

Meadow Pipit

Mediterranean Gull