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

Griffons and Gulls

The weather here remains dry but temperatures are falling and today’s forecast maximum is ‘only’ 21° C. For a few days now a strong wind has been a feature.

Yesterday morning from the window here on the outskirts of Tavira we watched for half an hour or so a group of 15 Griffon Vultures struggling to make headway in the wind. We don’t often see Griffons at this eastern end of the coast but we also saw two last week near Castro Marim. Presumably these are young birds that are gradually and inexpertly finding their way to the Tarifa area for the short crossing to North Africa.


We now have hundreds of gulls on the local saltpans. Six species are involved and it’s not difficult to see them all together. Lesser Black-backs are the most numerous and at the other end of the scale there are just a handful of Slender-billed Gulls.







We were very pleased earlier this year when SPEA announced at last that they would no longer be treating Slender-billed Gull as a rarity requiring a description to be submitted with our records. With an expanding population in Iberia, the species has not been a rarity in Portugal for several years now but it is regular only here in the south-eastern corner of the country. As these decisions are made in far away Lisbon where Slender-billed is hardly if ever seen it has taken time for its true status to be acknowledged. In 2008 we found more than 70 individuals on 23 different dates and we are now seeing them most days.

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!

A Break from 'Admin'

We spent most of Monday at Castro Marim including a decent walk around Cerro do Bufo in the morning. Most of the expected birds were seen although for once we failed to find Little Bustards. On the way home we looked in at Altura tank hoping as always to find something unusual but it's been a while now since this short diversion brought any real reward. Actually there were 60 Little Grebes which is quite a good number for such a small site but we live in hope of finding another Red-knobbed Coot there or maybe a Grey Phalarope. Next time, maybe! At the end of the day we had seen 77 species, several of them in quite large numbers so there were no complaints.

Since then far too much time has been spent on 'admin', a term that covers everything we do that isn't birding! Finally, late this afternoon, we cracked, we couldn't take any more and had to get out for a couple of hours. We grabbed binoculars and the 50D and headed for the local saltpans, five minutes drive away.

The light was fading fast as these photographs were taken and well before we got to the Audouin's Gulls the camera really ought to have been put away. We spent a while watching the Stone-curlews and trying to work out how we might get close enough to get some proper photographs. We reckon there are now about 80 birds and it was impossible to resist taking a couple of 'snaps' even from a distance.

Black-tailed Godwit

Common Redshank

Greenshank

Stone-curlews

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Kentish Plover

Audouin's Gull

After watching a flock of about 100 Greater Flamingos flying across the saltpans against the backdrop of a typically vivid Algarve sunset, we thought about heading for home. Instead, not yet satisfied, we drove a short way and then sat in the car listening to the Cetti's Warblers, Azure-winged Magpies, Crested Larks and Little Owls and watching Cattle Egrets streaming in to roost. A Fox appeared from nowhere and for a moment sat in the road and then we got our bonus, a Black-crowned Night-Heron - a really scarce bird in these parts even if we have seen lots of them elsewhere. It would have been greedy to have asked for more...