Autumn update

Some heavy rain today has put a stop to birding activity and so gives us a chance to report on the past two weeks.  It has to be said that the rain is much needed and welcome unless, of course, you have just arrived here for a holiday!

We’ve had two further trips to Sagres where we have been lucky to see a good selection of raptors with a Lesser Spotted Eagle being the star bird.  This species was first reported in Portugal in 2009 and was also seen in 2011, 2012 and 2013.  All of these records have come in the autumn from the Sagres area so this year’s bird wasn’t a complete surprise.  It was seen over a period of several days.

During the time we have spent at Cabranosa, the popular viewpoint, we have seen around a dozen other raptor species and quite a number of Black Storks - counting birds here isn’t an exact science as they circle around the area, going out of sight and then re-appearing.

Black Stork

There were also been plenty of passerine migrants in the Sagres area.  We saw Ortolan Buntings, Northern Wheatears, Pied & Spotted Flycatchers, Yellow Wagtails, Common Redstarts and a decent selection of common warbler species.  We also found a few Choughs.

Northern Wheatear

Red-billed Chough

An afternoon boat trip on 2nd October produced good numbers of seabirds.  We estimated 300 Cory’s and 50 Great Shearwaters but no more than a handful of Balearics and just three Sooty Shearwaters.  A couple of Great Skuas came close to the boat and about 10 European Storm-petrels were counted.  There was just one brief sighting of a Wilson’s Storm-petrel.  Gannets were surprisingly few.

Cory's Shearwater

Great Shearwater

European Storm-petrel

We’ve also been in the Castro Verde area a couple of times.  On both occasions we saw four eagle species (Spanish Imperial, Golden, Bonelli’s & Short-toed) while other raptors have included Griffon & Black Vultures, Black-winged Kite, Red Kite and Hen Harrier.  The biggest surprise was to see two Mute Swans on a small reservoir near Alvares, the first time we have seen this species in Portugal other than as ornamental birds on golf courses.  Where they have come from is anyone’s guess!

Mute Swans

In the Algarve we have made multiple visits to Lagoa dos Salgados where we watched 500 Glossy Ibis flying into roost one evening and where we helped a couple of people who were understandably struggling to identify a Fulvous Whistling Duck that couldn’t be found in their field guide - another bird of unknown origin!  The star bird here though was a White-winged Tern, seen in the company of a Black Tern for instant comparison.

We made two trips to see the team of ringers from the UK who were at the Parque Ambiental de Vilamoura for their ninth annual visit.  No major rarities were caught this time but it’s always instructive to see birds in the hand and we met up with old friends.  A full report on the week’s ringing should appear in due course on their website.  Ferruginous Ducks, Booted Eagles and a Black-crowned Night Heron were species seen there but not ringed!

 Cetti's Warbler

Ferruginous Duck

A Temminck’s Stint near Faro was probably the highlight amongst the many waders we have seen recently.  Although not a rarity in the strict sense, it’s a species that we have seen less often here than some that we do have to submit a description for!

Temminck's Stint

Needless to say, we have also been birding around Tavira and Santa Luzia, at Ludo and Quinta do Lago, at Olhão and at Castro Marim and, of course, we have been reading and reporting colour-rings.  

Seabirding

This morning’s pelagic trip from Fuseta was one of the best that I’ve experienced in the Algarve in terms of the numbers of species recorded even if the actual number of birds wasn’t exceptional.

The trip lasted just three hours during which time we went no more than about five miles from land, so hardly ‘pelagic’ really.  Surprisingly, no chum was used; it wasn't necessary - we simply headed out to find a fishing boat and that’s where most of the birds were.

The one major downside was that after weeks of uninterrupted sunshine it had to be today that started with 100% cloud cover.  Not until the trip was all but over did the sun put in an appearance.  As a result, photography was difficult to say the least and the results disappointing.

Highlights were Cory’s, Balearic & Great Shearwaters, Wilson’s & European Storm-petrels, Little, Black, Common & Sandwich Terns, Great & Pomarine Skuas, Sabine’s & Audouin’s Gulls.

I might have to go again!

After lunch back in Tavira, we were able to make it a 7-gull day with the addition of Slender-billed and a 5-tern day with the addition of Caspian.

Sagres Day

We were delighted to get a phone call on Friday from our friends at Marilimitado at Sagres. Unfortunately, the boat trip with them that we had been booked on earlier in the month had to be cancelled but now another one had been arranged.

And so, yesterday we set off early to drive almost the length of the Algarve coast – possibly the last time we will be able to do so without paying tolls on the A22 motorway – arriving at the harbour in Sagres at about 8.15am.

While Ricardo was getting the boat ready and fetching a barrel of ‘chum’, a noisy Blue Rock Thrush kept us entertained.

The boat is the ‘Kogia’, the same one we have been on in previous years. Sitting astride the seats and holding the bar in front is rather like being a pillion passenger on a motorbike. Thankfully, the seats are extremely well padded.

It was quite windy and the sea didn’t look particularly inviting but in no time at all conditions improved and it seemed that the sea was calmer the further out we went.

Northern Gannet

Before we found any seabirds of note a Hammerhead Shark was seen briefly and soon we came across several Common Dolphins, which are always fun to see swimming alongside the boat. However, better was to come in the shape of a huge Leatherback Turtle, the first time that Ricardo had seen a live specimen of this species in these waters and a creature we have seen before only in South Africa. Again it was only a brief sighting and there are no photographs but it was exciting to see!

The plan was to head south looking for a trawler or two and hope that fishing activity would be attracting some birds. We found a boat about 12 miles out and with it were about 100 gulls, mostly Yellow-legged. By this time we had seen a couple of Balearic Shearwaters and lots of Northern Gannets. When Ricardo began dispensing the ‘chum’ more Gannets appeared and several Great Shearwaters came really close but surprisingly, we saw only one Cory’s Shearwater.

Great Shearwater

Before very long several Great Skuas spotted the opportunity for a cheap meal and began harassing the gulls that were the main beneficiaries of our generosity. And then several European Storm Petrels came darting about looking like House Martins or perhaps White-rumped Swifts and about as easy to photograph as those two species!

European Storm Petrel

Great Skua

And that was it, really. As pelagic trips go it wasn’t one of the best we have done but it’s getting late in the season and we didn’t really expect lots of birds. Ricardo had warned us that he hadn’t seen Wilson’s Storm Petrels for a while and also that Cory’s Shearwaters were few. Maybe it was surprising that there weren’t a few more Balearics and maybe some Sootys.

After the boat trip we drove to the nearby raptor watch point at Cabranosa but didn’t stay there very long – just long enough to see a Peregrine Falcon, a Common Buzzard and a Common Kestrel and to find out that it was generally a pretty slow day as far as migrant raptors were concerned. However, we also learned that last week’s Rose-coloured Starling had been seen again at Vale Santo, so that’s where we headed next. This time we did at least find a small starling flock but unfortunately there was no sign of the rarity among its Spotless and European cousins. Consolation came in the form of three Black Storks and an Egyptian Vulture that passed almost overhead.

Black Stork

Sagres Pelagic Trip

We took a ride out to the west again this morning, to Sagres. We covered much of the same territory that we visited on Wednesday and some of the birds seen today, including the Golden Plovers at Vale de Santo, were probably the same individuals we saw during our earlier visit. There were fewer passerines today but still the odd Common Redstart and Pied Flycatcher here and there. Several Common Kestrels, a Peregrine Falcon and a Marsh Harrier were all seen before we even reached the raptor watch point.

At the watch point, where we stayed for only half an hour or so, we saw a Black Stork, three Short-toed Eagles, seven Booted Eagles and a Sparrowhawk. We heard later that 40 Griffon Vultures and an Egyptian Vulture were seen there in the afternoon but we had other plans and we have accepted now that we can only be in one place at a time!

After a coffee break at the birder-friendly Pastelaria Marreiros in Sagres we headed down to the harbour to meet Ricardo of Mar Ilimitado with whom we had arranged for an afternoon boat trip. After last month’s 11-hour pelagic trip that took us 50 miles out into the Pacific Ocean from the Oregon coast, today we were at the other end of the spectrum with a two-hour trip that took us just eight miles out from Sagres. However, we saw plenty of birds: at least one Great Shearwater, one or two Sooty Shearwaters, several Balearic and Cory’s Shearwaters, two European Storm Petrels, two Great Skuas, countless Northern Gannets and of course lots of Yellow-legged and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Not a bad return for such a short trip and all of the birds were seen really well. And neither of us was seasick!

Great Shearwater