Sunday 21 December 2008

Tavira saltpans

After spending most of last week away from here we’ve been quite busy today but this afternoon with the temperature around 20° C and the sky completely cloudless we couldn’t resist popping out for a walk down the road to the saltpans. We said we would be out for an hour but as can so often happen on such a gorgeous day, we were away for more than two!

We saw only about 40 species but a flock of 38 Stone Curlews was a new record number for us here in Tavira. On a newly ploughed field we found a couple of Mediterranean Gulls amongst a flock of mainly Black-headed Gulls and later a single Slender-billed Gull wasn’t hard to spot among the commoner species. Several Gannets passed off-shore and around the saltpans there were the usual waders, a Kingfisher, a Southern Grey Shrike and, of course…lots and lots of Chiffchaffs!

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