Back into Algarve birding

After quite a lot of rain at the end of October and in early November, there’s a fair amount of water lying on the ground here, the rivers and streams are flowing again and many of the saltpans are now flooded to a level that makes them unsuitable for short-legged wading birds.  There has been very little rain these last two weeks but, by Algarve standards, it’s been cold, often with a stiff wind that has had us wearing as many as four layers of clothing!

The numbers of some bird species, Spoonbills and Black-tailed Godwits for instance, have now reduced quite noticeably as they have continued their migration to West Africa, encouraged no doubt by the drop in temperatures and a following wind from the north.  However, the total number of birds remains high as thousands of gulls have arrived and there are Chiffchaffs wherever you look.

Black-tailed Godwit

Searching through the gulls isn’t everyone’s idea of fun but there are occasional rarities to be found and there are colour rings to be read.  A Ring-billed Gull was seen at Sagres at few days ago and two Great Black-backed Gulls were found at Quarteira but here in the Eastern Algarve we have so far had to content ourselves with the regular six species.  However, the numbers of Audouin’s and Slender-billed are now much lower and we have heard that Audouin’s colour-ringed this year in the colony in the Ria Formosa have been reported recently from The Gambia.  A colour-ringed Mediterranean Gull from Italy has been our best find this week.

Audouin's Gulls

We’ve been twice in the past few days to Castro Marim where there is now much more water in the Cerro do Bufo saltpans than we would wish for.  Notable sightings there have included as many as 200 Common Shelducks and close to 100 Black-necked Grebes.  Common Shelduck is a species that bred for the first time in Portugal as recently as 2000 but seems to be doing remarkably well.  Back in the summer we saw more than 100 young ones at a site near Faro but a winter flock of 200 is a record as far as we are concerned.

Common Shelduck

 Black-necked Grebe

Waders can still be found in good numbers and variety around the Ria Formosa.  In fact we have recorded 25 species locally in the last few days.  For us, one of the attractions here is how close we can get to them and, of course, we enjoy trying to photograph them.  Some are easier than others!

Little Stint

Other species that have proved popular with visitors recently have been Greater Flamingo, Bluethroat, Glossy Ibis, Little Bittern and Caspian Tern, all of which we expect but never tire of seeing and showing to people.

Caspian Tern

Less predictable are the hirundines, but at the moment we seem to be seeing Crag Martins just about everywhere (including from our window) and yesterday we saw Red-rumped Swallows.

The Algarve isn’t particularly noted for its birds of prey but in the last few days we have seen several Booted Eagles, an Osprey, Hen Harriers, Marsh Harriers, Common Buzzards, Common Kestrels, Black-winged Kites, a Merlin and an Egyptian Vulture.  And we can add to these the Red Kites, Golden Eagle and Spanish Imperial Eagles that we saw during our day in the Castro Verde area of the Baixo Alentejo.

Booted Eagle

In the Alentejo, as well as the raptors, it was good to see Great Bustards in reasonable numbers and we managed to get quite near to a flock of 100 or more Common Cranes.  On a particularly windy day we struggled to get good views of Calandra Larks or Black-bellied Sandgrouse but the Spanish Imperial Eagles made up for any disappointment; we watched three of them, all young birds, first on the ground and then all together in one tree.  It might have been nice to see them through a telescope but not really necessary as they were close enough that if we had got out of the car they would undoubtedly have flown off.

November was good, December has started well and today the wind has dropped and the temperature has risen.

Back in the Algarve

This is only our third day back in the Algarve and already our birding has taken us to Quinta do Lago, the Parque Ambiental de Vilamoura, the Castro Marim Natural Reserve and the saltpans of Tavira and Santa Luzia.

In rarity terms, the star bird so far has to be the Marsh Sandpiper that June found among the thousands of birds at Castro Marim when we were helping with the monthly high tide wader count.  This is a species that occurs here most years at this time and Castro Marim seems to be the most likely place to find one.  We also found one there in September 2009.  The Tringas are definitely amongst our favourite birds and it was unfortunate that this one was a very long way off and well out of camera range.

At Vilamoura, we enjoyed seeing five Ferruginous Ducks, not exactly rare but a species that seems to favour that particular area and one which we seldom see anywhere else in the Algarve.

However, it’s not all about scarcity!  It’s just very nice to be back amongst the huge numbers of birds, especially waders, gulls, terns and, of course, Greater Flamingos that occur here.  Yesterday, for instance, on just one saltpan we saw in the region of 1,000 gulls and today we counted 400 Audouin’s Gulls at Santa Luzia. 

Audouin's Gull - this one ringed in the Algarve

Santa Luzia saltpans

Inevitably, we have spent some time looking for any colour-rings that we can read.  So far in three days we have read and reported 37: 1 Black-winged Stilt, 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and 34 Audouin’s Gulls.  We haven’t even looked yet at the Flamingos and we know that there are rings on some of the Slender-billed Gulls if only they would get out of the water and let us see their legs! 

Audouin's Gulls

There seems to have been a clear-out of migrants overnight. There are still one or two Willow Warblers in the olive trees outside but there was no sign of a Pied Flycatcher or Redstart when we went out this morning. It's amazing to think that they have headed off across the sea and the Sahara to spend the winter in West Africa.

This afternoon we checked out a few sites around Tavira starting with the saltpans to the west of town towards Santa Luzia and then working our way back to Fort do Rota. A ‘Grey Egret’ wasn’t seen well but was almost certainly the presumed hybrid Little Egret x Western Reef Egret that regularly spends the low-tide period feeding in the same channel at Santa Luzia. A Collared Pratincole and five Slender-billed Gulls flew over as we settled down to try and photograph some of the many Black-tailed Godwits, but it wasn’t long before all the birds were disturbed by some passing children and we decided to move on.

In the saltpans by the market in town there were more Black-tailed Godwits, plus Curlew Sandpipers, Dunlins, Little Stints and Common Redshanks and plenty of Lesser Black-backed and Yellow-legged Gulls but we were looking at them against bright sunlight so again we quickly moved on.

Taking the road to Quatras Aguas we stopped to look at the gulls that were roosting around the saltpans and were surprised to find so many Audouin’s Gulls. Some of them were bunched so close together that they were difficult to count but there must have been 150 or so. With a rapidly increasing breeding population in Spain and now a few pairs also nesting in Portugal, Audouin’s Gulls are regular here but today’s count was our best in Tavira. It is said that 90% of the European population breeds at just ten sites, which is why the species is still classified as ’near-threatened’. Four Caspian Terns, several Little Terns and a Sandwich Tern were with them.

Audouin's Gulls

At Fort do Rota a Whimbrel called but there was little else to see other than the many Northern Gannets passing just off-shore.