Photo practice

To say that I’m dangerous with a camera is an understatement so when our friend (and professional photographer) Ray Tipper suggested a trip to Spain to photograph Red-knobbed (Crested) Coots in breeding plumage I thought I’d tag along and just watch the birds. But with Peter in Arizona and his Canon 10D and 300mm lens here, it was the perfect opportunity for me to at least try and take a photograph that (a) contained the intended subject and (b) was even slightly in focus – a tall order indeed!

We arrived at the Marismas del Odiel just about an hour after leaving Tavira. The sun was shining but the biting northerly wind soon had us donning our fleeces. Our target was spotted as soon as we left the car and we quickly set up our gear. We spent a very pleasant few hours waiting for the Coot to come close enough for us to photograph it, which it did several times, but only briefly, and it was never still. Ray photographed flyover Pallid Swifts, Spoonbills and Purple Herons and we watched a male Montagu’s Harrier as it quartered the nearby saltpans putting up flocks of small waders. We could see Greater Flamingos, mostly adults, feeding in a more distant pan and at least two Great Reed Warblers were singing close by but alas it was too windy for them to sit high in the reeds and sing.

The Coot didn’t come as close as I would have liked and the gusty wind caused some problems but I think I got a passable shot.

A Day in Doñana

We spent yesterday in and around Doñana National Park across the border in Spain. Although we drove through thick fog on the way there, the day turned out warm and sunny, thankfully lacking the cold wind that has been a feature here recently.

We always enjoy Doñana. We regularly see there species such as Red-knobbed Coot, White-headed Duck and Marbled Duck that are found only rarely in Portugal and others such as Glossy Ibis, Purple Heron and Whiskered Tern that occur there in greater numbers than we ever see them in the Algarve. Yesterday we also saw five Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, a species that we have never seen in Portugal.

Purple Heron

It is difficult to think of a day when we saw over 100 Black Kites and more than 50 Griffon Vultures as a poor day for raptors, but numbers of the other regular species were fairly poor.

Black Kite

On the other hand, we saw plenty of migrant passerines, a nice selection of waders and four species of larks - a total of 87 species in all.

Greater Short-toed Lark

It is impossible to do justice to Doñana in a one-day visit but we never come away disappointed.

Ludo & Quinta do Lago

We were at Ludo Farm and Quinta do Lago again today. We thought we should try for a photograph of the Greater Scaup that we saw on Thursday, which is after all quite a scarce bird in these parts.

Our arrival at Ludo coincided with the start of a torrential downpour including hail with the result that we spent the first half an hour sitting in the car. A selection of the common wader species and a couple of Caspian Terns kept us entertained until the storm passed.

Our walk to Lago do São Lourenço and back was an exact repeat of the one we did on New Year’s Day but today it took quite a lot longer. Mostly the weather remained reasonably sunny and bright with just an odd shower or two. We had e-mailed our friend Georg Schreier with news of the Scaup and he arrived shortly after us also hoping to see it. The three of us spent a long time searching for the bird but unfortunately there was no sign of it.

We did see today four species that we failed to find during our Big Day: Grey Wagtail, Green Sandpiper, Black-necked Grebe and Red-knobbed Coot. Of course, there were several species that we saw on Thursday that we didn’t see today! That’s birding. The Red-knobbed Coot was a bird with a white neck-collar that was first seen here several months ago but hasn't to our knowledge been reported since September.

As usual it was hard to resist photographing Purple Swamp-hens.