Here Comes Summer

Even at the end of May there are still some waders to be found in the Ria Formosa and at Castro Marim, mostly Dunlin and Sanderling but also Knot, Oystercatcher and Bar-tailed Godwit.  However, for some time now our attention has been not so much on passage migrants as on the local breeding birds.

Dunlin

Species such as European Bee-eater, Little Bustard, Collared Pratincole, Iberian Grey Shrike and Spectacled Warbler have been in demand as usual and all have been easily viewable even from the car.  We have found Little Bitterns at two sites in the Eastern Algarve, close to Castro Marim and nearby there have also been Audouin’s Gulls, Great Spotted Cuckoos, Glossy Ibises and Stone-curlews.  In the same area, there have been regular sightings of Montagu’s Harriers and Marsh Harriers and occasionally a Short-toed Eagle.

Spectacled Warbler

 Great Spotted Cuckoo

Audouin's Gull

Inevitably, we have spent quite a lot of time looking for the scarcer and less easily found species and the last week or so has seen us earn the gratitude of visitors for whom Iberian Chiffchaff, White-rumped Swift and Western Orphean Warbler have been ‘lifers’.  This has taken us inland to areas where we have been able to enjoy the song of countless Nightingales and Blackcaps and often Woodlarks and Golden Orioles.  The White-rumped Swifts have been difficult and so far we have found them at only one of the five sites we have been to where they have bred in previous years.

Non-breeding birds still here include more than 600 Greater Flamingos, plus a handful of Caspian Terns and Slender-billed Gulls.  Once again, there was a Lesser Flamingo recently amongst the Greaters.

Caspian Tern

 Slender-billed Gull

Of course, we have also been making frequent trips to the Baixo Alentejo where Great Bustard, Little Bustard, Spanish Imperial Eagle, Short-toed Eagle, Montagu’s Harrier, Griffon Vulture, Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Roller, Lesser Kestrel, Collared Pratincole, Great Spotted Cuckoo and Calandra Lark have all been seen on virtually every visit.  Golden Eagle, Bonelli’s Eagle and Gull-billed Tern have also been fairly reliable. 

Collared Pratincole

We’ve been across the border to Doñana only once recently.  We found large areas of the National Park to be completely dry and it certainly wasn’t at its best.  It was good to see plenty of people visiting the Dehesa de Abajo (where Red-knobbed Coots seem now to be regular) but in contrast we were the only visitors at the JAV and so the only ones to enjoy seeing a Spanish Imperial Eagle pass low overhead!  Even so, we probably enjoyed the Purple Herons as much as any of the birds we saw.

Purple Heron

Summer has now arrived; temperatures are regularly reaching 26ºC and higher and there are more and more people here.  It will soon be time for us to retreat to the UK!

More Colour-rings

Although the numbers of gulls and other birds wintering in the Algarve have now reduced considerably, we’ve still managed during the last couple of weeks to read several interesting colour-rings.

There are Greater Flamingos here all the time.  Rings that we have seen recently confirm what we already know about their origin - most come from colonies in Spain and France.  Two that we saw at Castro Marim had both been ringed in July 2009 in Spain, at Laguna de Fuente de Piedra, near Malaga; one of them we had seen before in Tavira in November 2010 and in the Santa Luzia saltpans in June 2011; the other had been seen several times at Lagoa dos Salgados and Ria de Alvor.

There are very few Mediterranean Gulls here now so it was pleasing to find one at Olhão that had a colour-ring.  It had been ringed in France in June 2013 at Barbâtre, Polder de Sebastopol, Vendée, a site from which we have had several other birds here in the past.

The same day, also at Olhão, there was a Lesser Black-backed Gull that had been ringed in July 2011 at Rauna, Farsund, Vest-Agder in Norway.  It seems that this bird has spent quite a lot of its life around the harbour in Málaga and in fact was there only a month or so ago.

Slender-billed Gulls

Most of the ringed Slender-billed Gulls that we see have originated in Spain, with the majority coming from Veta La Palma in the province of Sevilla.  One of last week’s birds was ringed in 2001, making it the oldest ringed bird of this species that we have seen.

Slender-billed Gulls

We have reported the ring details of countless Audouin’s Gull over the last few years and most have originated from the Ebro Delta in Spain.  However, increasingly we are seeing birds with blue rings which we know straightaway come from the colony on the Ilha da Barreta, here in the Algarve.  We have seen two of these recently in Tavira, both of them birds hatched in 2012.

Using a telescope, reading the numbers and letters on the rings of flamingos, gulls and Spoonbills is child’s play compared with sorting out the details of multiple colour-rings on small waders.  However, last Sunday, we managed to get photographs of two Sanderlings at Olhão that enabled them to be identified.  The photographs were taken from quite a distance using a Panasonic Lumix FZ100 and they were pretty poor but sufficient to ascertain that one of them had been ringed in Iceland in May 2011 and the other in Greenland in June 2010.  Both birds had been reported previously during the winter in the Olhão area and the Icelandic bird was also seen there in January 2012.

Sanderlings - spot the rings!

Finally, we were delighted to hear that Common Redshank H19 has made it back to The Netherlands after its (her) fourth winter in the Santa Luzia saltpans.  We hope that she will attract a mate this year!

Our birding week

There aren’t too many ‘rarities’ to see here at the moment but there are certainly plenty of birds and it’s good to see some migrants starting to return.

On Monday afternoon we spent a couple of hours at Cacela Velha and Fábrica looking mainly at gulls.  There had been a recent report from there of a Great Black-backed Gull but we were also hoping we might come across the colour-ringed Caspian Gull from Germany that has been seen at several sites along the coast in recent weeks.  In the event, we saw only the six regular species: Black-headed, Mediterranean, Slender-billed, Audouin’s, Yellow-legged and Lesser Black-backed.  Among them were six colour-ringed birds: four Audouin’s (three from Spain, one Portuguese) and two Lesser Black-backed (one from Norway and one from the UK).

Slender-billed Gull

Audouin's Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Our enthusiasm for gulls continued on Tuesday.  In spite of it being a miserable, wet day, we went to Quarteira.  There have been a remarkable number of records of Glaucous Gulls in the Algarve this winter (mostly when we haven’t been here!) including one at Quarteira in January so it seemed a reasonable place to go and look for one.  Also, there have been reports of Great Black-backed Gulls from there, not quite so rare but still a very scarce bird in the Algarve.  Again we were unsuccessful, although we did find a colour-ringed Lesser Black-backed Gull from Belgium and a Yellow-legged Gull that had passed through the hands of Thijs Valkenburg at RIAS here in the Algarve.  In the harbour, the Eider was still in exactly the same place where we had seen it on 12th January.

Eider

We also went to Foz do Almargem and Trafal where quite a lot of Barn Swallows, House Martins and Crag Martins were feeding in spite of the weather.  Out at sea, a few Great Skuas passed by as well as the usual Gannets.

On Wednesday we had an opportunity to show off some of our local birds to visiting birders, taking them to Santa Luzia, Tavira, Castro Marim and to the Mata Nacional das Dunas de Vila Real de Santo António.  Among the most popular of about 85 species recorded during the day were Little Bustard, Great Spotted Cuckoo, Bluethroat, Black-winged Kite, Slender-billed Gull, Black-necked Grebe, Stone-curlew and Crested Tit, some of them because of the prolonged, close-range views we were able to enjoy.  Of course, we also found time to look for colour-rings, which included one on a Greater Flamingo that we had seen before in 2010 and 2012, a bird that was ringed in 2006 in the huge colony at Laguna de Fuente de Piedra in Spain.

Purple Swamp-hen

Friday was also a guiding day but this time we went a short way to the west of here, birding around Ludo, Quinta do Lago, Foz do Almargem and Trafal.  Again the species count for the day was about 85.  It was a remarkable day for raptors with Black-winged Kite, Osprey, Booted Eagle, Goshawk, Peregrine Falcon, Marsh Harrier, Common Buzzard and Common Kestrel all being seen before 10.00am!  Also notable were a first-winter Little Gull, probably the same bird that we saw at Foz do Almargem in January, and a flock of about 150 Common Scoters off Praia de Faro.  Again this is almost certainly the same flock of scoters that has been in that area for several weeks but we failed to find anything else among them.  As far as we know, there don’t seem to have been any recent reports of the Surf Scoter, Velvet Scoter and possible Black Scoter that we and many others saw with them a month ago.  Elsewhere, Purple Swamp-hens, Glossy Ibises and a Little Bittern all appeared on cue but it was a singing Short-toed Treecreeper that was named ‘bird of the day’ by one of our party, which just goes to show how we all view things differently.  It was certainly cute but for us the Goshawk was definitely the star, particularly as it was seen so well, perched for several minutes in full view.

If, like us, you have an interest in the gulls of the Algarve, you should take a look at Nelson Fonseca’s new blog, appropriately called ‘Gulls of Algarve’.

Winter 'Big Day' in the Algarve

Which is the best time of the year to come birding in the Algarve?  It’s a question that we get asked from time to time but, of course, there’s no simple answer – it really depends on what you want to see.  If Bee-eaters, Golden Orioles and Collared Pratincoles are on your agenda, then you might be lucky in March but April, May and June would probably be the best months.  If raptor migration is what you’re hoping for, then September and October should be your choice and September would also be a good time to take a boat trip to look for shearwaters and storm-petrels.

Azure-winged Magpie

Surprisingly few birders come here during the winter months, which is a shame because they’re missing out on some really good birding.  We know that the weather can be an issue but it’s almost guaranteed to be better than it is in northern Europe.  Today it is cloudless and sunny with a forecast high temperature of 19ºC and that is typical of how it has been recently.  It’s very difficult to stay home and not go birding on days like this!

Black-necked Grebe

To demonstrate just how many bird species are here in the winter, we went out on 1st January 2009 and 2010 to see what we could find.  Anyone who has participated in such a ‘Big Day’ in the winter will know that it doesn’t always pay to travel long distances when daylight hours are relatively short.  Time spent in the car on the motorway is not likely to be very productive.  We restricted ourselves to visiting Ludo/Quinta do Lago, Castro Marim and Tavira/Santa Luzia and on each of those days we managed to find 106 species.  The following year we proved our point by also going to the Parque Ambiental de Vilamoura.  Only four days earlier we had seen four species of hirundines and some Penduline Tits there but on our ‘Big Day’ none of those birds were present and we simply wasted time by going there.  We finished the day having seen only 96 species.

Purple Swamp-hen

On 1st January 2012 we were in Arizona and this year we had already left the Algarve to start our trip to Colombia so we haven’t been able to continue the sequence.  However, we have just had quite a full day out, this one on 1st February.  This time we went only to Ludo/Quinta do Lago and to Tavira/Santa Luzia and the pace was quite relaxed; with the longer hours of daylight we easily managed to see 101 species.  There was time for us also to have gone to Castro Marim and had we done so it’s probable that we would have found at least another four or five species but on such days nothing is guaranteed; when we look at the final list there are always one or two species that it’s hard to imagine missing.  To illustrate the point, yesterday we saw Great Spotted Cuckoo, Short-eared Owl, Southern Grey Shrike, Lapwing, Mediterranean Gull and Pintail that we didn’t see the day before when we needed them!  And for some reason we haven’t been able to find a Linnet or a Jay for several days.

 Slender-billed Gull

Kentish Plover

In a week here at this time of year it should be possible to see around 140 species, maybe a few more with a day trip to the Castro Verde area included.  There are some that are only likely to be found at the far western end of the Algarve (European Shag, Red-billed Chough) and others that are only here in the east such as Slender-billed Gull, so some travelling is necessary if you want to see them all.

Little Owl

But it’s not just about the numbers of species; there are simply lots of birds here in the winter.  And if you’re a photographer, there is the promise of good lighting conditions.  

Colour-ringed Gulls

At least one Short-eared Owl is still an attraction hunting over the local saltpans here in Tavira but the last few days have seen us giving more attention to the many gulls that have been loafing in the same area.

Mediterranean Gull

In particular, there are currently about 300 Mediterranean Gulls using the same bund every day and, of course, we’ve been reading and reporting colour-rings.  Green ones, white ones and red ones – so far we’ve been able to read 20 of them and although we’ve not yet had any details confirmed it looks as though we’ve got birds from Belgium, France, Hungary and Poland.

We’ve also managed to read a couple of Lesser Black-back rings.  One of them is a bird that was ringed here in the Algarve after being ‘rescued’ but we believe the other is from Norway and we’re looking forward to receiving confirmation.

While we were looking at the gull flock on Thursday afternoon the whole lot took flight and cleared off when an Osprey flew over, presumably the same bird that we had been so pleased to see a few days before but which now had brought to a premature end our search for rings.  Briefly, we were a bit annoyed but the mood quickly changed when we noticed that there was in fact a single gull remaining.  It was a first-winter Little Gull, not a very common bird here and only the third we have seen in the Algarve in December.

Little Gull

At a different site nearby there are still more than 100 Audouin’s Gulls, which like the Meds are faithful to one particular area day after day and therefore easy to see.  Again there are rings to be read and recently these have included several birds from the colony on the Ilha da Barreta here in the Ria Formosa as well as the usual birds from the Ebro Delta in Spain.

Audouin's Gull

Slender-billed Gulls are another story!  There are about 15 of them here currently but they seem to spend all of their time on the water with legs submerged giving only an occasional glimpse of a ring.

Slender-billed Gull

Migrants everywhere!

Another busy week has seen us visit Castro Marim, Ludo, Quinta do Lago, Olhão and, of course, our local saltpans around Tavira and Santa Luzia.  We’ve also had brief looks at Altura ‘tank’ and the Vitacress site near Almancil where last year we found a Pectoral Sandpiper.

Star bird for us has been the juvenile Red-necked Phalarope that was found here in Tavira on Monday.  It was the first of this species we have seen in Portugal, mainly because the last five that have occurred in the Algarve have somehow all contrived to turn up at times when we have been elsewhere!  It was found in one of the saltpans along the Estrada das 4 Águas and was last seen on Thursday.  At no time did it threaten to come within range of a camera!

Elsewhere in the Algarve, and much rarer, a Lesser Whitethroat found in Vale Santo, near Sagres on Wednesday was the cause of much interest, although unfortunately not seen by anyone other than the finder.  There has been only one previous record in Portugal of this species.  At around the same time a Lanner Falcon was also reported from Vila do Bispo, a species not yet formally admitted to the Portuguese list although there are several records pending.  Not surprisingly, like the one we saw some years ago, it was said to be of the northwest African race erlangeri .

Here in the Eastern Algarve, we have had to content ourselves with more common migrants such as Northern Wheatears, Pied Flycatchers, Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers.  European Bee-eaters have been heard most days as they’ve passed high overhead and on a couple of days we have seen hundreds of Red-rumped Swallows on the move.  Popular birds with our visitors have been a very obliging Little Bittern, a Wryneck, Stone-curlews, Caspian Terns, Glossy Ibis and Slender-billed Gulls.

  Slender-billed Gull 

Of course, in the Ria Formosa and at Castro Marim, we’ve got thousands of gulls and waders, Spoonbill numbers are also increasing and already a few Northern Shovelers, Eurasian Wigeon and Teal have arrived.

Lesser Black-backed Gulls adding flavour to the salt

A really Black-bellied, Grey Plover

 Little Stint

Also notable this week has been the return of one of the hybrid Little x Western Reef Egrets that have been a feature of the Tavira area for several years.  We went months without seeing one and had assumed that the regular birds had perished but it looks as though one has survived and may be going to spend another winter here.

Looking ahead, apart from guiding, there is fieldwork to be done for the Portuguese Atlas of Wintering and Migratory Birds, there will soon be a pelagic trip, some time will be spent with ringers and some will be devoted to photography.  It’s going to be busy and it’s going to be exciting!  Oh, yes, we almost forgot – June is going to Colombia on Tuesday!

The Last Two Weeks

It’s the migration season, that time of the year when even more than usual we want to be out birding all day every day. So that’s what we’ve been doing and why it is there’s been no news from us for almost two weeks!

During that time, we’ve had two further visits to the Castro Verde area, a trip across the border to Doñana and multiple visits to the usual sites in the Algarve – Quinta do Lago, Ludo, Castro Marim, Tavira/Santa Luzia, Olhão and even Lagoa dos Salgados, somewhere that we don’t go all that frequently.

We’ve had no further luck with the crakes at Quinta do Lago and neither it seems has anyone else. There’s been one further report of a Little Crake there but no confirmation of the Baillon’s Crake reported on 22nd March. Interestingly, three further Baillon’s Crakes have been found further north in Portugal during the past couple of weeks and there’s been at least one in Spain. There was another Little Crake at Vilamoura on 2nd April and there have been at least three Spotted Crakes in the Algarve during the same period of easterly winds.

The weather that brought the crakes has also resulted in us having many more migrants than usual in the Algarve. Species such as Subalpine Warbler, Bonelli’s Warbler, Black-eared Wheatear, Common Redstart and Greater Short-toed Lark have all appeared in greater numbers than we normally expect and it has made for some exciting birding.

Greater Short-toed Lark

No further sightings of crakes at Quinta do Lago but it has been a great place to watch Little Bitterns. Black-headed Weavers have been busy building nests there and are always a talking point and Purple Swamp-hens can always be relied on for entertainment. Not far away, Glossy Ibis continue to be seen and we’ve heard a Savi’s Warbler singing on two or three occasions. The Barnacle Goose that we first saw back in October is still present and appears to be of the fulica race, making itself at home feeding on the golf course with the Coots!

Glossy Ibis

When we’ve been to Quinta do Lago we’ve usually also spent time at nearby Ludo. The saltpans there haven’t been very productive but the raptors have been good with Booted Eagles, Black Kite, Montagu’s and Marsh Harriers, Common Buzzard, Peregrine Falcon and Osprey all seen there in the last week. A pair of Wrynecks (one of June’s favourites) also put on a good show for us one morning.

We still rate Castro Marim as the best birding site in the Algarve and spend quite a lot of time there. As well as regular birding there, we’re also helping with a survey of the breeding Lesser Short-toed Lark population. As usual with survey work, one of the side benefits has been that we have birded in areas that we don’t usually go to. Amongst the recent highlights at Castro Marim have been several pairs of Great Spotted Cuckoos, displaying Little Bustards, a Short-toed Eagle, Montagu’s Harriers, half a dozen Glossy Ibises, more than 50 Slender-billed Gulls and plenty of waders, including Spotted Redshanks and Curlew Sandpipers starting to show signs of breeding plumage and, yesterday, a Wood Sandpiper.

Slender-billed Gull

The woodland at Aldeia Nova is worth a quick visit when in the Castro Marim area and we have been rewarded there recently with Ferruginous Duck, Red-crested Pochards and Black-crowned Night Heron at the small pond and Bonelli’s Warbler in the pines.

The Castro Verde area has continued to provide us with excellent birding. Displaying Great Bustards and Little Bustards are the ‘crowd pleasers’ along with the Spanish Imperial Eagles and it’s great now to see so many Montagu’s Harriers and Lesser Kestrels. We’ve also enjoyed watching the song-flights of Calandra Larks. On our last visit we had great views of a flock of about 50 Black-bellied Sandgrouse, two Collared Pratincoles and the first Rollers of the year.

Montagu's Harrier

We also had good views of a Spanish Imperial Eagle when we were in Doñana but there the sandgrouse were of the Pin-tailed variety. Other highlights of our day there were 20+ Griffon Vultures, Short-toed Eagles, Purple Herons, Great Reed Warblers, Black-crowned Night Herons and countless Black Kites. It was disappointing to see how much the area seems to have suffered from the very dry winter; few egrets or Glossy Ibises appear to be nesting at the JAV Centre where they are usually such a feature.

Black Kite

The soundtrack to the last two weeks has been the songs of Corn Buntings, Cetti’s Warblers, Serins, Nightingales and Zitting Cisticolas and the calls of Bee-eaters. We’re looking forward to adding Golden Oriole to that list very soon and we’re also listening out now for the return of Red-necked Nightjars.

European Bee-eater

Castro Verde, Castro Marim and more

March is a month when we expect to spend a lot of time in the Castro Verde area and we’ve had two more trips up there this week, making three visits in the past eight days. The number of species recorded on each visit has averaged 76 but these days in the Alentejo are more about quality than quantity. During these trips we have not just seen but had really great views of 16 species of raptors with Golden Eagle, Bonelli’s Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Common Buzzard, Griffon Vulture and Black Vulture now added to the list that was included in our last report. We’ve watched countless Great Bustards displaying, almost seeming to turn themselves inside out and looking like big white powder puffs; some Little Bustards are also displaying now but many still seem to be in flocks. Other popular species have been Calandra Larks and Great Spotted Cuckoos, Black Stork and the numerous nesting White Storks.

Golden Eagle

Short-toed Eagle

Of course, we’ve also visited several of our favourite sites in the Algarve. At Quinta do Lago, we were pleased to get good views of a Purple Heron and a Little Bittern and once again a couple of Sacred Ibises were seen alongside the more familiar Glossy Ibises. At Ludo, we expected to find Booted Eagles and we weren’t disappointed.

Little Bittern

At Castro Marim, we had several encounters with noisy Great Spotted Cuckoos and at Aldeia Nova there was a Common Cuckoo. Last year we sponsored ‘Chris’, one of the Common Cuckoos that the BTO tagged and have been tracking by satellite throughout the winter months. It’s interesting that we have Cuckoos returning here now to the Algarve but ‘Chris’ and the other BTO Cuckoos, that are presumably going to return to the UK, are still in West Africa.

Great Spotted Cuckoo

Yesterday, during the high tide period, we were at Castro Marim again to carry out a count of the waders and other birds, mostly Greater Flamingos and Spoonbills, on the saltpans there. Avocets, Dunlins, Grey Plovers and Ringed Plovers were the most numerous species but the job wasn’t made any easier by a male Montagu’s Harrier that spooked the birds on a couple of occasions. Normally we love to see Montagu’s Harriers but when we’re half way through counting a flock of several hundred birds and they all take off in panic…well that does tend to change our views! It recalled occasions at Belvide Reservoir years ago when a Peregrine Falcon would often be the culprit that disrupted wildfowl counts.

Meanwhile, here in Tavira we’re starting to see a few more migrants. This morning we came across several Woodchat Shrikes, Greater Short-toed Larks and a Subalpine Warbler and heard the familiar calls of Bee-eaters. Our ‘bird of the morning’, however, was probably a lovely Black-necked Grebe in fine summer plumage. We have still been seeing Bluethroats this week but they will soon be on their way north. The Slender-billed Gulls that have wintered here will also soon be leaving; there are currently 14 of them. Only three years ago this species was classified as a rarity in Portugal but in the south-east of the country we go out most of the year almost expecting to see them and maybe it won’t be long before they join Audouin’s Gulls and breed here.

Woodchat Shrike

Bluethroat

Slender-billed Gull

Projecto Arenaria 2011/12

Projecto Arenaria (the ‘Turnstone Project’) is a survey of non-estuarine coastal birds here in Portugal that is similar to the Winter Shorebird Count carried out in the UK in 1984/85 by the British Trust for Ornithology. Living at the time in Staffordshire, about as far from the coast as you can be in the UK, Peter was an unlikely volunteer to participate in that survey but that’s what happened with round trips of 300 miles being made to count shorebirds along the coast of North Wales. Madness!

Arenaria began in 2009/10 so this is its third year. Counts have to be made between 1st December and 31st January, a period for most of which we were away in Ethiopia, the UK and the USA, so we weren’t expecting to take part this time. However, we returned last Tuesday to find that there was a stretch of coast not too far away that still hadn’t been surveyed.

Lesser Black-backed Gull

So this morning we walked along the beach from Praia Verde to Cacela Velha and back. It was another beautiful morning with a clear blue sky and temperatures that at times exceeded the forecast 16°C. A three-hour walk in the sun was exactly what we needed! As part of the survey, we counted not just the birds but also the people and any dogs that weren’t on a leash and as it was Saturday there were plenty of both.

By far and away the most numerous bird species was Lesser Black-backed Gull totalling just over 500. There were only a handful of Yellow-legged Gulls and a single Slender-billed. A few Sandwich Terns flew by, Northern Gannets were diving off-shore and just off the beach there was a single Razorbill. Waders were represented only by Kentish Plovers and Sanderlings and there were few of either.

Slender-billed Gull

Sanderling

Single Spoonbill and Cormorant flew over but probably the only real surprise was when a flock of 22 Common Pochards passed over, heading east to and from who knows where.

Will our data be of any use to anyone? Well, of course we hope so but more importantly we enjoyed collecting it and what’s more we didn’t have to drive 300 miles to do it!

On Our Travels...

We’re in the UK for a few days, preparing for an Avian Adventures tour in Ethiopia. There were long range forecasts of freezing weather here, so it’s a relief that it’s actually quite mild currently with temperatures up to 12°C. It’s still a bit of a shock to the system, though, for 'southern European softies' like us and we’re definitely hoping for some African sun next week. At the same time, we’re packing plenty of warm clothes for our days in the mountains.

Earlier this week we enjoyed what will be our last day this year of birding and guiding in the Algarve. An excellent day was spent around Ludo, Quinta do Lago, Olhão, Santa Luzia and Tavira recording a total of more than 90 species.

Slender-billed Gull

Highlights included at least 7 Booted Eagles, 2 Black-winged Kites, an Osprey, a Bluethroat, Slender-billed & Audouin’s Gulls, 23 wader species, more than 60 Stone-curlews, 3 Caspian Terns, a Blue Rock Thrush, 3 Black-necked Grebes and, of course, the always popular Purple Swamp-hens. Also notable for us were a Pied Wagtail, a sub-species that isn’t particularly common in the Algarve, and a Spanish colour-ringed Spoonbill that we had seen before in exactly the same place two years ago.

Purple Swamp-hen

Black-tailed Godwit

Although we're obviously looking forward to our travels, it's been a bit of a wrench leaving the Algarve where the birding can be so good at any time of the year and where we really enjoy spending what passes for winter.

Audouin's Gulls

Green Sandpiper

Look out for some photographs from Ethiopia in about three weeks time!