Piscivore party

An unusual concentration of fish trapped in one of the salt pans here in Tavira has been attracting numerous birds these past few mornings. Up to 80 Spoonbills and about 50 Little Egrets have been joined by smaller numbers of Cormorants, Grey Herons, White Storks and a single Great Egret.

The fish seem to have been of a size to suit these larger birds but both Caspian & Sandwich Terns have been joining in and have presumably been able to find some smaller ones. Gulls, too, have been looking for a cheap meal, a few Lesser Black-backs but mostly Slender-billed and Black-headed.

It’s not an ideal site for photography but it has been hard to resist trying to get some images. I used a Canon EOS 7D Mk ll with a 100-400mm lens and a 1.4x extender but would have liked to get closer.

It was no surprise to find that some of the Spoonbills were colour-ringed but the depth of the water made it difficult to record the details. As so often, taking the ring details from the photographs was the best plan.  Full details are still awaited of the five birds reported but it looks as though three were ringed in The Netherlands and one each in France and Portugal.  One of the Dutch birds we have actually seen here before in 2011 and 2013; it's a female ringed in 1999.

No doubt some of these Spoonbills will stay in the Algarve for the winter but many will find their way to Mauritania and Senegal.

Another Sunday at Castro Marim

When we arrived at Castro Marim this morning it was barely light and decidely chilly; for the first hour or more another layer of clothes would have been very welcome! However, by the time we finished our walk more than five hours later the temperature had reached a more 'normal' 24°C.

There was no salt harvesting activity this morning and for a while we had the place to ourselves. It being Sunday though, one of the days on which hunting is allowed here, inevitably a few shots were fired over on the neighbouring farmland and the birds were skittish. A couple of patrolling Marsh Harriers probably didn't help. The ducks in particular, mostly Mallard and Shoveler, were quick to take off and there were plenty of opportunities also for photographing Grey Herons, Greater Flamingos and Cormorants in flight. A Stone-curlew also came by at one point.

Grey Heron

Great Cormorant

Greater Flamingos

Stone-curlew

After seeing Greylag Geese at Ludo on Friday, it was no surprise to find 13 of them here. In fact there were no real surprises at all this morning; we saw more Curlew Sandpipers than on our last visit including 50 or so in one flock; the regular flock of Black-necked Grebes was a long way off, tightly bunched and frequently diving but numbered at least 60 birds; there were 16 Little Terns, two Caspian Terns and a handful of Sandwich Terns; Audouin's and Slender-billed Gulls went uncounted; Avocets and Black-tailed Godwits are in their hundreds and although they were impossible to count today it looked as though there were still at least 200 Spoonbills. The species count for the morning was 72 and while migrants such as Northern Wheatear are still here, more and more winter birds are in evidence including Common Snipe, European Starlings and Meadow Pipits as well as the wildfowl.

Probably the morning's highlight was a flock of 34 Little Bustards, not because we don't regularly see them here but because they perhaps had more sense than to fly. We were certainly able to get closer to them while they remained on the ground than we ever have done before at Castro Marim. They just looked back at us and slowly moved away, continuing to feed as they went. Maybe they can tell the difference between a tripod and a shotgun!