Another Rare Bird Alert!

The warm and sunny weather continued until Thursday but since then we have had some heavy rain and it has been mostly cloudy.

We had a couple of days covering the usual sites around Tavira and Santa Luzia where a big female Peregrine Falcon was the only unusual bird seen. We used what turned out to be the last of the sunshine to photograph a Bar-tailed Godwit and some Lesser Black-backed Gulls. It’s very easy here to photograph Black-tailed Godwits but Barwits, being mainly coastal, are almost always viewed against the light and are a different proposition. The same is true of Oystercatcher, Curlew and Knot. They do come on to the saltpans at high tide but only rarely do they roost where we can get near enough for a photograph with the sun on them. This one was unusually obliging, feeding only a short distance from the road.

Bar-tailed Godwit

Lesser Black-backed Gull

On Sunday, in spite of the dismal weather and the fact that it was a hunting day, we took a trip to the Castro Verde area. Hunting is allowed here on Thursdays, Sundays and Public Holidays but we do wonder sometimes whether the locals have calendars! Anyway, the amount of shooting that we saw and heard on this occasion wasn’t enough to spoil our day, although it may have been sufficient to explain why we didn’t manage to find a single Little Bustard. Who could blame them for keeping their heads down? Happily, we did see plenty of Great Bustards and Black-bellied Sandgrouse and a good selection of raptors that included an immature Spanish Imperial Eagle and, more surprisingly, a Merlin. Lapwings and Golden Plovers were in their hundreds.

As we were driving back late in the afternoon we received a phone call from Thijs Valkenburg to tell us that he had just found a Long-billed Dowitcher on the saltpans at Olhão. There have been only a handful of records of this North American wader in Portugal and had we been at home we might have dropped everything and gone to look for it. As it was, we had no chance to get there in daylight.

So this morning at 10.30am we were at Olhão watching the Dowitcher. Even then it still didn’t seem like daylight but at least we got there before the rain started again. It almost goes without saying that we were on our own. There has been some discussion here recently about how we might improve the flow of news about rare and scarce birds and we support that. However, the fact is that there are still very few birders here and the record for the most people we have seen at a twitch in Portugal remains the 16 who came to Martinhal for the White-rumped Sandpiper in November last year. It seems likely to be a while before we are offered a Portuguese pager!

Long-billed Dowitcher

Long-billed Dowitcher

A Rare Week

What a hectic week! In the last eight days we have been three times to the Castro Verde area, twice to Sagres and Cape St Vincent, we've been to Foia, the highest point in the Algarve, we've made four visits to the ringing team at Vilamoura, there were mornings at Castro Marim and Ludo and we've also spent a couple of hours looking for a Yellow-browed Warbler near Silves. Of course, we haven't both been to all those places, once or twice we've headed off in different directions, but we've certainly kept busy.

As we have remarked before, every trip to the Castro Verde area is different. Great Bustards, Little Bustards, Black-bellied Sandgrouse and various raptor species are the main targets but at this time of year some of them are quite difficult to find. We've been reasonably successful but two particular highlights stand out: the return of the first Common Cranes of the autumn, a party of 28 birds seen on Wednesday, and then, yesterday, one of the best views we've had of a perched Spanish Imperial Eagle, an adult on top of a small tree seen well through the 'scope. With flocks of larks, Meadow Pipits and Corn Buntings everywhere and increasing numbers of Northern Lapwings the change of season is very evident in the Alentejo.

Great Bustard - as many as 50 seen some days but never as near as you would want them.

At Cabranosa, the raptor watchpoint near Sagres, there have been reports of at least eighteen raptor species this week, amongst them Lesser Spotted Eagle (which we missed) and Rüppell's Griffon (which we did see). Red Kites have been in unusually high numbers but the main spectacle has been the gathering of Eurasian Griffons with more than 600 birds seen some days.

Eurasian Griffon

Eurasian Griffons - just a few of the 600 or more

Rüppell's Griffon - now seen annually in the Algarve

Red Kite - 50 or more were present on Monday

Short-toed Eagle

We also saw Griffons from the top of Foia, above Monchique, where Montagu's Harrier, Blue Rock Thrush, Ring Ouzel, Woodlark and Dartford Warbler were the main highlights. The views from up there at just over 900 metres are spectacular.

The ringing activity at Parque Ambiental has already had some coverage with the previously reported Common Yellowthroat being the obvious star of the show. However, it was followed by two Common Rosefinches, probably the seventh and eighth records for Portugal, both of which we managed to miss in spite of our four trips to Vilamoura! The whole place seemed to be full of birds and its importance as a staging post for migrants and a wintering site for quite a number of species can't be overstated. As well as the ringing we had multiple sightings of Booted Eagles, Black-winged Kites and Marsh Harriers and we also enjoyed seeing a tiny Soprano Pipistrelle in the hand. Thanks, once again, to Fergus Henderson and his team for sharing news of their remarkable captures.

Penduline Tit

Grasshopper Warbler

Both Castro Marim and Ludo provided the usual quality birding that we expect at these sites. Booted Eagles and Black-winged Kite are always popular at Ludo; Little Bustards continue to be much easier to find at Castro Marim than they are in the Alentejo!

Next week we're planning to be a bit more relaxed!

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!

Castro Verde and more

We spent much of today in the Castro Verde area. Not surprisingly, the forecast was for it to be hot, around 35 degrees, and not surprisingly that's exactly what it was - it was baking hot! But we started early and had an enjoyable and reasonably successful day. We had no particular plan or target species but simply wanted to try and take a few photographs. With very little effort we saw most of the 'usual suspects', including Rollers, Black-bellied Sandgrouse, both Bustards, Collared Pratincoles, Black-eared Wheatear, Great Spotted Cuckoo and a good selection of raptors. We eventually succumbed to the heat and headed back south soon after lunch.

Here are a few of today's more co-operative birds:






On the way home we diverted to a site where White-rumped Swifts were found breeding last year and we were pleased to find that they had returned. This species is now known to be breeding at several sites in the Alentejo and the Algarve and is almost certainly overlooked.



While Peter was away in Tanzania, June managed to see four species of owls in the Algarve in the space of just a few hours. Today it was just Little Owls - lots of them, but they're hard to resist when they pose like this one!

We regularly make our last stop at Altura where the 'tank', a wastewater pond that doesn't look particularly promising, has turned up several interesting species for us in the last few years. These have included Red-knobbed Coot, Ferruginous Duck, Whooper Swan and Ring-necked Duck. Today we spotted a Little Bittern lurking in the reeds, not an unusual species in the Algarve but the furthest east we have seen one.

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

Another Alentejo Day

With Peter just back here after his tour in Costa Rica, still jet-lagged and not really knowing whether he should be looking for bustards or becards, we spent today in the Castro Verde area.

A day that started cloudy and quite cool soon warmed up and by late morning we were enjoying the sunshine. Birds seen included Great Bustards (80+), Little Bustards (30+), Black-bellied Sandgrouse (28), Great Spotted Cuckoo, Blue Rock Thrush, Black-eared Wheatear, Lesser Kestrels, Black Kite, Red Kite, Black-winged Kite, countless Montagu's Harriers and Calandra Larks. The highspot of the day came when we found ourselves watching five Griffon Vultures and four Black Vultures at a carcass with a Spanish Imperial Eagle circling overhead. Earlier we had watched the eagle apparently playing with some prey item that it repeatedly dropped from on high and somehow managed to swoop down and catch again before it reached the ground.

As if the birds weren't enough, the whole area is a mass of colourful flowers. All in all a great day!

Black Vulture

Lots of migrants arriving

A strange bright object appeared high in the sky above Castro Marim on Tuesday morning; some older residents of the town thought they remembered it as something they used to call “the sun”!

And the sunshine has continued and with it have come more and more migrant birds. At Cerro do Bufo, we saw Great Spotted Cuckoo, Yellow Wagtails, Pallid Swifts and the ‘full set’ of hirundines including Sand Martin; we heard a singing Sedge Warbler. Later, near the Visitor Centre, we found a Woodchat Shrike and watched a delightful little Spectacled Warbler; in the afternoon a Common Cuckoo was calling loudly at nearby Aldeia Nova.

Woodchat Shrike

Enjoying the sun - an Iberian Wall Lizard

Wednesday was another 'bustard day' in the Castro Verde area. For the record, we saw 50 Great Bustards and about 65 Little Bustards (not to mention several Short-toed Eagles and Griffon Vultures and a Spanish Imperial Eagle). There are plenty of Lesser Kestrels and Montagu's Harriers around now, Woodchat Shrikes have joined the resident Southern Grey Shrikes on roadside power lines and Great Spotted Cuckoos are easy enough to find; we've also seen Little Ringed Plover and a few Black-eared Wheatears have arrived.

Ribeira do Vascão - boundary between the Algarve and the Alentejo

Countless White Storks nest in the Castro Verde area

Yesterday morning, we went to Cape St Vincent where off shore the numerous passing Gannets were mostly adults heading north to their breeding sites. Near Forte do Beliche we came across three smart-looking Ring Ouzels , we watched a Montagu's Harrier in the Vale Santo and again saw a Woodchat Shrike. We also watched a Short-toed Eagle soaring and saw two more from the motorway as we headed back east.

Lighthouse at Cape St Vincent

Vale Santo

Rugged coastline at the south-western tip of mainland Europe

Yellow hoop-petticoat daffodil

On the way home we called at Lagoa dos Salgados where there is now plenty of water again. Our first Garganey of the year was one of six duck species seen and we had just a brief look at our first Alpine Swift. Most of the time we were there a pale phase Booted Eagle was soaring high above. A lingering Bluethroat seen from the boardwalk was a definite crowd-pleaser.

'Hide' at Lagoa dos Salgados - more of a viewing platform and another design not to be copied!

All in all, we've had a really good week and after months of dismal weather it's great to see the countryside lit up not just by the sun but by lots of birds that we haven't seen in a while and wonderful displays of flowers.

Alentejo Day

We were in the Castro Verde area again today. The morning was reasonably warm with some sunshine but the afternoon brought more heavy rain and at about 3.00pm we started heading for home.

Grey skies over the Alentejo

Just like the Algarve, there is water lying everywhere but the countryside is amazingly green and there are carpets of flowers. Great Spotted Cuckoos and Quail are here, we lost count of the number of White Storks' nests and we saw our first Little Ringed Plover of the year. Great Bustards were displaying, the males almost seeming to turn themselves inside out. Most of the Red Kites seem to have left but Montagu’s Harriers and Lesser Kestrels have arrived.

Little Ringed Plover

The most noticeable change since our last visit was the complete absence of Golden Plover and Northern Lapwings. Where, less than two weeks ago, there had still been hundreds of both we didn’t seen a single one of either species. Not surprisingly, the Sociable Lapwing has also departed. We wonder whether it will make it back to Kazakhstan or wherever it was it came from.

Recent Highlights

The lack of any news posted here during the last week or so is not because no birds have been seen - quite the opposite in fact!

Although the weather continues to be pretty unfriendly (an understatement), I've been out most days and enjoyed some really good birding at Castro Marim, Ludo/Quinta do Lago, Tavira/Santa Luzia, Vilamoura, Cape St Vincent/Sagres, Castro Verde area and elsewhere. Never a dull moment!

Unfortunately, there have been few opportunities for photography and on several days I have actually left the camera at home.

Recent highlights have been returning migrants (Wood Sandpiper, Red-rumped Swallows, Pallid Swifts, Great Spotted Cuckoo), the re-appearance of the Whooper Swan (first seen in November at Altura, now at Cacela Velha), the continuing Squacco Heron at Vilamoura, the long-staying Sociable Lapwing (still exactly where we found it two months ago at Benviuda) and 11 of those 'rare' Slender-billed Gulls at Santa Luzia.

Add to those the expected Great Bustards, Little Bustards, Common Cranes, Red-billed Choughs, Booted Eagles, Black-winged Kite, Audouin's Gulls, Caspian Terns, Bluethroats and 22 waders species and you will see that I've not been short of birds, just short of time!

Bluethroat

June's return to Portugal is now less than a week away and eagerly awaited but there are plenty of domestic chores and responsibilities to be attended to before that!

Alentejo day

It was quality rather than quantity today as we made our first visit for some time to the Castro Verde area.

As always in the Alentejo, Great Bustards were a prime target and during the day we found 40 or more without too much difficulty. The first ones were a long way off, shimmering in the heat haze, but eventually we saw some at reasonably close range and had good telescope views.

Remarkably, we saw Great Bustards, a Golden Eagle, about 20 Eurasian Griffons, two Black Vultures and several Black-bellied Sandgrouse all from the same vantage point. The vultures were on a sheep carcass with several Common Ravens in attendance. All this was enjoyed with the sweet song of a Woodlark in the background, at times the only sound to be heard - definitely a 'cosmic birding experience'.

It was quite a good day for raptors - apart from those already mentioned we saw mostly Red Kites and Common Buzzards but we did get first class views of a Bonelli's Eagle, not an everyday occurrence. The only Little Bustards of the day were ones that were flushed by the Bonelli's Eagle although Red-legged Partridges seemed to be its main target.

Not a long species list but some first class birding in a beautiful area and with wonderful, sunny but not too warm weather.

Birdy Castro Verde

Yesterday we were in the area around Castro Verde with a familiar list of target species. It was a bright and sunny day but a wind coming mostly from the north had some of us wearing three layers of clothing early on.

Our birding began in impressive style. Not far from Castro Verde, we stopped the car and jumped out when a male Montagu's Harrier was spotted. We had a decent enough view and it soon went on its way but within minutes we had also seen several Great Bustards, Little Bustards, Lesser Kestrels, Red Kites and Calandra Larks, not to mention a couple of Common Buzzards and two Little Owls! All these without walking away from the car - not a bad start!

Later we saw lots more Montagu's Harriers. On several occasions there were as many as six in the air together and we just sat and watched their marvellous sky-dancing displays. There were plenty of Great Bustards to be seen also, maybe 100 in total during the day. As usual, Little Bustards were less conspicuous but we did have two fly up from beside the car at one place that we stopped. This was the same spot from which we had managed to see a Spanish Imperial Eagle on three separate occasions in March. Well, it happened again! Not surprisingly, we never now drive past this little pull-in area. Soon after we flushed the Little Bustards we were watching Griffon Vultures rising on the warming air and then an immature Spanish Imperial Eagle came into view. It wasn't as close as we have seen it on some previous occasions but close enough.

Later we saw more Spanish Imperial Eagles (probably including the bird seen earlier) at another 'hotspot' not very far away. That was just after we had seen Black-bellied Sandgrouse there and before we found a pair of Stone-curlews! It was that sort of day. By the time we headed for home, we had seen about 70 species.

It would be a shame not to mention the White Storks' nests that are such a feature of this area. We haven't counted them but there must be 50 or more nests between Castro Verde and Mértola, most of them on poles along the roadside. The bill-clattering display of these birds was a sound we heard regularly during the day. Many of their huge nests are tenanted by Spanish Sparrows - but don't you think they and the Imperial Eagles should be Iberian rather than Spanish?

Great Bustards

Our last birding in Portugal for a while involved a drive up to the Castro Verde area of the Baixo Alentejo. We covered most of the regular places and saw most of the usual birds although it wasn’t a great day for raptors and we saw neither of the eagle species that we have come to expect.

As always on visits to this part of Portugal we were hoping for an opportunity to photograph Great Bustards and finally we got lucky. They may not be the greatest set of Great Bustard photographs but they’re the best we’ve managed so far. They were taken from the main Castro Verde to Mértola road where a flock of 50 Great Bustards stayed (just about) within range of the 600mm lens (actually a 300mm f2.8 with a 2x Extender) long enough for us to get a few shots of them on the ground and later in the air.

It was our last birding here because we’re flying to the UK later today to prepare for an Avian Adventures tour in The Gambia later this month.