Black-necked Grebes

Black-necked Grebes are regular winter visitors here in the Algarve.  They are normally seen between September and March but we have sometimes seen them in April and in 2007 we were surprised to see one stay at Castro Marim until as late as 20th May.

Castro Marim is where we have always expected to find them, either on the salinas at Cerro do Bufo or sometimes on the adjacent Esteiro da Carrasqueira.  The peak number during any winter is usually around 100.

Less regularly we have seen a few at Santa Luzia and birds have been present there throughout the past three months.  Our highest count has been 21 on 22nd January but numbers have varied, suggesting that they perhaps move between the salinas and the nearby Canal de Tavira in much the same way that at Castro Marim they use the Carrasqueira.

Yesterday there were just 10 birds present, some of them already well advanced in their moult into breeding plumage.  Soon they will depart for breeding areas in Northern Europe but exactly where we couldn’t say.

Black-necked Grebe is said to be the world’s most abundant grebe and they have a very wide distribution.  We have seen them in huge numbers at Mono Lake in California (where they are referred to as Eared Grebes and where during autumn migration as many as 1.6 million are estimated to have occurred) but we still enjoy seeing our few local birds and the occasional opportunity to photograph them.

Tavira Redstart

Spring is surely here!  It’s warmer, the days are longer and the birds are definitely getting in the mood for the breeding season.  Chiffchaffs, one of the most numerous species here through the last two or three months, are now singing everywhere, their numbers presumably boosted by returning migrants that have been much further south for the winter.  Zitting Cisticolas, with a song that is probably even more monotonous than that of the Chiffchaff, can be seen in display flights over almost any area of open grassland.  Hoopoes can also be heard; again theirs is hardly a musical song but always a pleasure.  Barn Swallows and House Martins can be seen collecting mud and starting to renovate old nests.  Great Spotted Cuckoos are courting, chasing each other around and at the same time causing alarm among the local Magpies.  How aware, we wonder, are the Magpies that they may soon be expending all their energy in raising young Cuckoos rather than their own offspring?  Yesterday, we saw our first Pallid Swifts of the year and any day now we expect to see Yellow Wagtails followed by Woodchat Shrikes and others as the migration season gets fully underway.  It all happens every year but we still find ourselves excited by it!

In the last week or so we have made further multiple visits to Castro Marim, we’ve spent quite a bit of time around our local patch, the Tavira and Santa Luzia saltpans, and we’ve been in the Castro Verde area, where Great Bustards, Spanish Imperial Eagles, Black-bellied Sandgrouse and an Ocellated Lizard were among the highlights.  Rather surprisingly, we’ve also spent quite a bit of time in the narrow, cobbled streets of Tavira town centre!

Ocellated Lizard

Black Redstart

There has been just one accepted record in Portugal of Moussier’s Redstart: a bird found near Sagres on 16th November 2006 that stayed in the area for about two months, long enough for us to see it when we returned here after an Avian Adventures tour in Costa Rica!  So, when we received news late last Tuesday evening that another male Moussier’s Redstart had been seen and that it is was no more than five minutes drive away in Tavira town centre, we immediately cancelled our plans for Wednesday!  Apart from wanting to see the bird ourselves, we were also keen to confirm the sighting and the identification because we knew that there would be people who would be planning to travel here from as far away as Lisbon once they were sure that there was a chance of seeing such an extreme rarity.  Unfortunately, our efforts have so far been in vain and we have yet to re-locate the bird.  There has apparently been another reported sighting in the last couple of days but at the moment details of that are lacking.  Our only reward to date for pounding the streets has been a nice, spiffy, male Black Redstart but we live in hope!     

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’.

Doing the splits!

We spent our Christmas and New Year holiday period thousands of miles apart.  While June divided her time between the UK and Portugal, Peter was in Florida leading a tour for Avian Adventures.  It isn’t what we planned and it certainly wasn’t what we wanted but circumstances conspired against us and that’s what happened.

The tour in Florida was enjoyable enough although the self-styled “Sunshine State” fell some way short of living up to its name.  As with the Algarve, winter birding in Florida gives the opportunity to see lots of interesting resident birds as well as a great many that are from further north and only there to escape the cold.

For many birders, however, particularly Americans, the reason to visit Florida is that there are quite a few exotic species that are now sufficiently established there as permanent residents that they are now deemed ‘countable’ by the American Birding Association.  What that means is that if your motivation is to make a list of the birds that you have seen in the USA, species such as Red-whiskered Bulbul, Spot-breasted Oriole, White-winged Parakeet and Nanday Parakeet will at some point have to be targeted and Florida is the only corner of the country where they can be found.  There are currently about a dozen such species and several more amongst the many other non-native breeding birds are potential additions to the official American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) Check-List.

Our tour in Florida was most definitely not about searching for exotic species!  However we did want to see Snail Kite and Limpkin that are at the northern edge of their natural range in Florida and not normally found elsewhere in the USA.  Others such as Painted Bunting, Roseate Spoonbill, Crested Caracara and Wood Stork, which all of us had previously seen in Texas, would also be good to find.  And it wasn’t just birds!  West Indian Manatee, a huge herbiverous, marine mammal, was also on everyone’s ‘wish list’.  In the event, all of these targets were seen without much difficulty.

Although we didn’t at any time find ourselves agonising over what was and wasn’t countable, there were a few questions raised, not about ‘exotics’ but about the differences in the way that the various ornithological authorities treat taxa such as Wilson’s Snipe, Common Gallinule, Cabot’s Tern, American Herring Gull and Hudsonian Whimbrel.

Wilson’s Snipe (Gallinago delicata) is regarded as a species separate from Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago) by the AOU, by the British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU) and by the International Ornithological Committee (IOC) but it is not recognised as such by BirdLife International (BLI).

Cabot’s Tern (Sterna acuflavida) and American Herring Gull (Larus smithsonianus) are treated as separate species by the BOU and the IOC but not by AOU and BLI which list them as subspecies of Sterna sandvicensis and Larus argentatus respectively.

The BOU haven’t so far had to worry too much about Common Gallinule as none have yet made it to Britain.  It’s a bird that looks very much like a Common Moorhen but, mostly it seems because it sounds very different from Gallinula chloropus, the AOU are now, since 2011, calling it Gallinula galeata, a distinct species.  So far, the ever-conservative BLI are not going along with this.

At the moment it seems that only the BOU are persuaded that the Whimbrel that occurs in the Americas should be called Hudsonian Whimbrel (Numenius hudsonicus) and recognised as a species separate from Numenius phaeopus.

It’s all very confusing!  When the so-called ‘experts’ can’t agree, what chance is there for the likes of us?
Of course, there are other pairs that may or may not be separate species.  One thinks of the two Black Terns and Hen and Northern Harriers, for example.

What we do know for sure is that we ourselves were definitely split up over the holidays and we didn’t much like it!  As for all these species splits, you’ll just have to make up your own mind whether you like them.

Incidentally, can you see which of our photographs is the odd one out in that it doesn’t feature the American half of a split? 

Long-stayers

Yesterday was our first day birding together in the Algarve in 2014 and what an excellent day it was, too.  We enjoyed good weather (pleasant temperatures, no rain and very little wind) and saw lots of birds.

We began birding at Quarteira where the Eider Duck, first seen at the end of November, remained in the harbour and was easily located.  There have been only a handful of previous records of this species in Portugal and the last one in the Algarve was as long ago as 1998.  Remarkably, the day after the first sighting of this bird three more Eiders appeared in the Ria Formosa.

Eider

From Quarteira it was just a short drive to go and find the long-staying Red-knobbed Coot that we first saw in November at Foz do Almargem and from there an even shorter distance to Trafal where we quickly located a Lesser Yellowlegs that has also taken a liking to the Algarve.

 Red-knobbed Coot

Lesser Yellowlegs

When we were last in this area several weeks ago we saw a flock of what we estimated to be about 100 Common Scoters far out on the sea.  We might not have seen them at all had they not been disturbed by a fishing boat and taken flight.   While we have been away these birds have been seen at much closer range and the flock found to include both a Velvet Scoter and a Surf Scoter, both very rare birds in Portugal.  This is the first Algarve record of Surf Scoter and only the second of Velvet Scoter. 

There is also a bird in this flock that may prove to be a Black Scoter, once regarded as a race of Common Scoter but now generally treated as a separate species.  Separation of the two, especially in seawatching conditions, isn’t easy and it is to be hoped that better views can be had and perhaps photographs taken.  It took a little while before the flock drifted close enough to shore for us to be able to pick out the three ‘odd birds out’.  Maybe someone needs to hire a boat!

While we were watching the Scoters, we also saw several Razorbills, four Great Skuas (one apparently feeding on a gull) and a first-winter Little Gull.  This last bird may also be a long-stayer as we saw one in roughly the same place in November.

Next we took ourselves off to the wastewater treatment ponds near Faro where we soon found amongst the thousands of ducks (mostly Wigeon) another bird that doesn’t seem to want to move on - the drake Falcated Duck that we reported on here.  A Ruff, two or more Marsh Harriers and a Glossy Ibis were also seen here but we were perhaps most pleased to see three Little Ringed Plovers, not commonly found here so early in the year.

The rest of the afternoon was spent around Tavira and Santa Luzia where highlights included Black-necked Grebes, Slender-billed & Audouin’s Gulls, Bluethroat, Caspian Tern, a male Hen Harrier and good counts of Stone-curlews (65+) and Knot (150+).

When we got home we realised that we had recorded 99 species during the day.  It could easily have been more.  It’s good to be back!  

More from Ethiopia

Here are some more photos from last month’s Avian Adventures tour in Ethiopia.

In contrast to the previous set, these are all of wetland species that are fairly widespread in Africa.  Most people we talk to about Ethiopia don’t associate the country with wetlands but the Rift Valley lakes that we visited (Lakes Zwai, Langano, Awassa and Chelekleka) held thousands of birds and Chelekleka (the spelling varies!) was again particularly good with several thousand Common Cranes among the highlights.

 Three-banded Plover

 African Fish Eagle

 Black Heron

 Black Crake

 Great White Pelican

 Long-tailed Cormorant

 African Spoonbill

White-winged Tern

We have another Avian Adventures tour to Ethiopia planned for later this year.  Details are on the website.
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Avian Adventures tour in Ethiopia

Here are just a few photographs from the recent Avian Adventures tour in Ethiopia.  It's pleasing to report that the accommodation and the food were both improved since our last tour there and we even managed to have much better weather than last time!

 Gelada - often referred to as Gelada Baboon - spends most of its time sitting eating grass. Apparently it's not really a baboon at all but it certainly looks like one.  It can only be found in Ethiopia.

 Spot-breasted Lapwing - an Ethiopian endemic, not difficult to find in the highlands above 2,500m.

Black-headed Siskin or Ethiopian Siskin - another Ethiopian endemic and common, sometimes abundant in the highlands.

Ethiopian Wolf - now listed as Endangered by the IUCN, on account of its small numbers and fragmented range. Threats include habitat loss and fragmentation, diseases and hybridisation with domestic and feral dogs.  We saw about ten of these fox-like animals, which feed mainly on rodents, notably Giant Root-rats.

Abyssinian Catbird - also an Ethiopian endemic, its song is reminiscent of a Nightingale and it looks somewhat like a Grey Catbird of North America but is no relation.

Stresemann's Bush-crow or Ethiopian Bush-crow - also endemic to Ethiopia and in some ways the country's star bird.  It's confined to a very small area but within that area is quite common.  It bears a striking resemblance Clark's Nutcracker.   

We have another tour to Ethiopia scheduled for December 2014.

More photographs later.