Pratincoles; no Water Rails

This morning we were at Castro Marim. It was a beautiful, warm morning with barely a cloud to be seen. And there were plenty of birds!

Particularly pleasing to see were our first Collared Pratincoles of the year; there was a good selection of waders that included Spotted Redshank and several Ruff; Bee-eaters were numerous; several Spectacled Warblers were singing; we saw at least three Marsh Harriers and, of course, there are still a few Spoonbills around and hundreds of Greater Flamingos. Less expected species were a Whiskered Tern and a Jackdaw (only our second record at Castro Marim); totally unexpected was an Orphean Warbler.

Collared Pratincole

This afternoon we came back to Tavira and spent two hours baking in the car in the hope of seeing the Water Rail family that performed so well yesterday. Unfortunately, there was no sign of them! Instead we had to make do with a Stonechat, a Crested Lark, a couple of Barn Swallows and a Little Ringed Plover, all of which came to the water and at least provided some entertainment. Maybe we'll try again if we can find time.

Crested Lark

Little Ringed Plover

Common Stonechat

Barn Swallow

Crested Lark or Thekla?

Some years ago Tucson Audubon ran a series of articles in their newsletter under the title 'Dastardly Duos'. These were guides to the identification of confusion species such as Hammond's and Dusky Flycatchers, Eastern and Western Bluebirds, Northern and Louisiana Waterthrushes and very useful they were. In fact, they're still available online.

We have at least a couple of dastardly duos of our own here in Portugal. Let's take, for instance, Crested and Thekla Larks. We are regularly surprised how readily birders visiting here, often with no previous experience of either species, confidently identify them. Maybe we're missing something!

So what are the differences between the two?

Let's start with the excellent Collins Bird Guide (Mullarney, et al). This tells us that close views are required to separate them. Fine, that shouldn't be too difficult. But it then goes on to say that Thekla is marginally the smaller of the two and then mentions a number of other features that really aren't much help unless you've got one of each species side by side or until you've got your eye in and see them regularly.

It tells us amongst things that the plumage of Thekla is greyer, that its bill is 'usually not so pointed' and 'often slightly darker' and that 'the mantle and back on average (are) somewhat more distinctly streaked'. There's not much to argue about there but equally none of that is going to clinch that sought-after tick for the first-time visitor. When it says 'the uppertail coverts (are) more reddish-brown' we start to wonder whether we shouldn't just tick both of them and move on!

In our view, no more helpful is the difference in the shape of the crests of the two species that is suggested by the illustrations - this seems to vary with individuals and can be affected by the wind, by moult and probably age. The illustrations do show that the streaking on the breast of Thekla is always distinct but the text concedes that some Cresteds are similar.

So what about songs? Again, although there are a number of comparative descriptions in the field guide, the statement at the end of them that Crested Lark is 'often difficult to separate from song of Thekla' doesn't send us out into the field full of confidence! It does, though, confirm our experience.

And then there's habitat. Although there is some overlap, as pointed out by Mullarney et al, Thekla is generally a bird of arid, barren, rocky areas, while Crested is the much more likely bird in cultivated areas or near human habitation. You might well see a Crested in Thekla habitat but a Thekla in Crested territory is much less likely.

As far as we are concerned, almost as useful as any of these things is one of the first bits of advice we were given when originally faced with this problem: if it's perched in a bush, a tree or on a pile of rocks, it's very probably a Thekla; if it's on the ground, the likelihood is that it's a Crested.

Finally, what for us is easily the most useful feature: bill shape and length. Simply, Theklas have shorter, stubbier, more triangular bills with the lower mandible often slightly convex, while Cresteds have longer, more tapering bills with a generally straighter lower mandible. Usually! As the man said, 'close views required'.

Let us know via a comment what you make of these birds, all photographed in Portugal:

That Was The Week

We’ve had a bit more variety this week, visiting Alvor, Monchique, Quinta do Lago, Lagoa dos Salgados and Castro Marim and everywhere (not surprisingly) we have seen newly arrived migrants.

At Alvor we spent a very pleasant Monday morning walking round the marsh where there were plenty of birds to keep us interested. Among the 14 species of waders identified was a single Northern Lapwing, interestingly the only one we have seen since we returned to the Algarve on 5th March. A Little Owl staring back at us from the wall of a ruin near the parking area was a popular find and while we were having our picnic lunch there we saw our first Common Redstart of the year.

Later the same day we drove up through Monchique to Foia, at 902 metres above sea level, the highest point in the Algarve. Apart from the magnificent views and an array of telecommunications and radar installations, Foia offers Rock Buntings and Blue Rock Thrushes, both of which we found without too much trouble. We also had very good views of four Dartford Warblers together, presumably two pairs engaged in some territorial dispute. A brief stop on the drive back down produced a Common Cuckoo.

We stayed at home all day on Tuesday as PT Comunicações had promised to send out a technician to look at a problem we have been experiencing with our phone line. It wasn’t a complete surprise that nobody came but the day was saved when a male Montagu’s Harrier sailed past the kitchen window!

On Wednesday at Quinta do Lago we saw a Purple Heron, a drake Garganey, a Glossy Ibis, the long-staying Red-knobbed Coot plus the usual Red-crested Pochards and Purple Swamp-hens that are always crowd-pleasers. From Lago do São Lourenço we walked part of the way towards Ludo Farm and found five Slender-billed Gulls on one of the saltpans. There was also a single Audouin’s Gull on the estuary. However, there was a gale blowing and it really wasn’t a great day to be trying to find birds.

We took our picnic to Lagoa dos Salgados only to find that the lagoon has been drained yet again. That this excellent site for birds is treated so badly can only be described as a disgrace. A stunning male Black-eared Wheatear on the dry lake bed cheered us up a little and there was a brief and distant view of the four Northern Bald Ibises that have taken up residence on the adjacent golf course, birds that have absconded from the re-introduction programme in Spain.

Yesterday was spent at Castro Marim. Highlights among the 82 species recorded were a Purple Heron, two Collared Pratincoles, four European Bee-eaters, at least seven Slender-billed Gulls, a Spectacled Warbler, a Common Whitethroat and numerous Yellow Wagtails that included the subspecies iberiae, flava and flavissima all feeding together.

Yellow Wagtail (iberiae)

Today we’ve doing a bit of 'admin' but we did try to find some birds to photograph around Tavira. A Hoopoe and Crested Lark were the only ones that co-operated at all.

Eurasian Hoopoe

Crested Lark