Castro Verde again!

We were in the Castro Verde / Mértola area again yesterday and enjoyed another reasonably successful day in spite of a much later start than we would have liked. Great Bustards, always one of the main targets, now have well-grown young but they can be hard to find and, even after a lot of searching in the usual places, the total number seen was in single figures. Little Bustards are currently even more difficult to see well.

Raptors, on the other hand, were show-offs! Montagu's Harriers, Marsh Harriers, Black Kites, Short-toed Eagles, Booted Eagles, Common Buzzards and Lesser Kestrels would have been hard to miss.

Booted Eagle

Short-toed Eagle

Golden Orioles, Tawny Pipits, Rufous-tailed Scrub-Robins, Collared Pratincoles, Rollers, a single Purple Heron and even Kingfishers and Little Owls were amongst the day's most popular species but, with the temperature around 36 degrees, finding and showing any birds at all had became a bit of a challenge by mid-morning!

Vilamoura & Quinta do Lago

Well that 10-day forecast certainly proved to be right! In fact, we've just experienced probably the worst prolonged spell of weather that we've known during our time here in Portugal. We've had a week of torrential rain, thunderstorms and quite severe gales. Just when people were starting to worry about low water levels in the reservoirs, we've probably had half the year's total rainfall dumped on us in a matter of a few days!

We have managed to get out birding once or twice but until today it's mostly been around Tavira. At last, today was promised to be a day without rain and we set off early to the Parque Ambiental de Vilamoura. As we have commented before, this wonderful wetland area with its extensive reedbeds is an important site for breeding, migrating and wintering birds and is surely deserving of some formal protection. Instead it is threatened by further development of the sort that has already claimed much of the surrounding area and made Vilamoura one of the most unattractive places in the Algarve.

Although the weather has been very wet it has remained quite warm and there is plenty of insect life about so it wasn't a complete surprise to see about two dozen hirundines feeding over one of the pools. Crag Martins we expect, but it was a surprise to see them out-numbered this morning by House Martins. With Barn Swallows also present, it was difficult to get an exact count of each species but House Martins probably made up half the total. As many as seven species of herons and egrets have been seen in the Parque Ambiental recently but today we managed to find only four of them. We did get good views of several Penduline Tits and also in the reeds were a few Yellow-backed (or Black-headed) Weavers.

We spent the afternoon at Quinta do Lago, another area that has been sacrificed to golfing tourism. Fortunately, what remains is still attractive to birds and the lake here is one of the most popular birding sites in the Algarve, known as 'the' place to see Purple Swamp-hen, Glossy Ibis and Little Bittern. Today we managed to see two out of the three.

Although we had no rain, we didn't see the sun either! So it wasn't really a great day for photography. Still we couldn't resist taking a few:

Chiffchaff

Purple Swamp-hen

Grey Plover

White Stork - nesting on camouflaged phone mast

Booted Eagle

Penduline Tit

Common Snipe

Breezy birding

We never tire of visiting Castro Marim. We were there again yesterday afternoon, just for an hour or so. Our targets were Little Bustard, Spectacled Warbler, Stone-curlew and Lesser Short-toed Lark and the first three were quickly and easily found. However, although it was bright and sunny, in a strong wind, the larks were more difficult and we really didn't get what might be described as a 'tickable view'. Consolation came in the form of a Great Spotted Cuckoo and there was also a fairly distant look at a Caspian Tern and a Marsh Harrier.

This morning we returned to Quinta do Lago but for a change from recent visits we walked in from the Faro side, past Ludo Farm. Again it was bright and sunny but with a stiff breeze blowing. It was no surprise that almost the first birds seen were two Booted Eagles - they are very regular here, even in winter.

Booted Eagle

A little further on we saw what might well have been the same Black Kite that was in the area on Monday but the highlight of our walk to Lago do São Lourenço was a Black Stork, seen first of all in flight and then perched in a tree. The explosive calls of Cetti's Warblers could be heard everywhere, several European Reed Warblers were singing and about a dozen noisy Bee-eaters were always just out of camera range.

At the lagoon a first-winter Little Gull was feeding over the water but otherwise there was little change from earlier in the week. As always, there were good opportunities to photograph several species and the Red-crested Pochards were difficult to resist. A Little Grebe was also reasonably obliging.

Red-crested Pochard

Little Grebe

As we returned to the car, this Yellow Wagtail allowed close approach. The wind was so strong that it was probably frightened to let go of the power cable!

Yellow Wagtail (iberiae)

Ludo & Quinta do Lago

Had it not been for the cold north westerly wind, today would have been just about a perfect birding day. The sun shone from a cloudless sky throughout and we recorded 87 species of birds. Once again we were at Ludo and Quinta do Lago. Did we think there might still be a chance that last week’s Dusky Warbler was in the area? Of course we did. Did we find it? Well, no but it didn’t really matter.

Dave and Sue Smallshire were with us, both of them dragonfly enthusiasts so it wasn’t just birds we were looking at. As a result, the walk that sometimes takes us five hours to complete today took just over six hours!

We started by climbing to a viewpoint from where we hoped, based on previous experience, that we might see some raptors; we saw two pale phase Booted Eagles almost overhead immediately we reached the top of the bank and a Peregrine Falcon followed just a few minutes later.
Then we began our walk, passing by a reedbed where a Penduline Tit was first heard and then seen very well at close range. A little further on we found a juvenile Black Stork and while we were watching that a Purple Heron appeared - two species that we definitely wouldn’t have predicted in the second week of November. It was that sort of day!

Glossy Ibis and Little Bittern both showed at Lago do São Lourenço, there were several good views of Bluethroats, most of the expected wildfowl and waders were there, plus Iberian Green Woodpecker, flocks of Azure-winged Magpies and lots more besides.

So there was no disappointment about the Dusky Warbler, nor about the Osprey that we apparently missed.