TRANSFER TO THE ALGARVE AT TAVIRA – WITH STOPS AT PEREIRO – CASTRO MARIM – TAVIRA SALT PANS – RIA FORMOSA NATURAL PARK QUINTO DE MARIM
WEATHER: sunshine and showers, quite windy, overnight thunderstorm. Top temp 16C
Our early morning walk was abandoned in advance as the weather forecast wasn’t good! We had an overnight thunderstorm and it was raining from 6am. It was still raining when we set off after breakfast, we said goodbye to the wonderful staff at the hotel and headed south for the last 4 days of the trip at the Algarve on the coast. We had really enjoyed our stay in Mertola, the hotel and the food had been fabulous.
Bee-eaters hunkered down shelting from the windy conditions.
Our first stop was very windy at the reservoir just outside of Pereiro, we had hoped to see Collared Pratincole at this breeding site. It was very windy but it stayed dry for our visit. We noted several Ringed Plovers and Black-winged Stilts around shoreline and then a couple of Stone Curlews with chicks appeared in the scrub, but there was no sign of the Pratincoles.
We noticed an Iberian Magpie raiding the nests of the House Martins, built under the eaves of a small tower and as we were watching a Rose-faced Lovebird popped out of one of the nests!! How strange was that...? We read up later and discover that 80-100 pairs of Lovebirds now breed in the wild in Portugal, I do remember seeing them in Spain in the past.
We travelled down to the coast reaching Castro Marim and a brief stop to scan the salt pans produced our first small waders of the trip. Dunlin and Sanderling, some of them in glorious summer plumage, along with a few Little Stints. Avocets, Stilts and Common Shelduck were also present with a bunch of Greater Flamingos in the distance.
Little Tern, two digi-scoped pictures taken at Tavira later in the day
In the Town centre we stopped for coffee, we visited a small lagoon with nothing on it, a Glossy Ibis flew over and White Storks could be seen on nests or flying around most of the time. The wind drove us off. After stopping to buy lunch at a supermarket we drove to Monte Gordo to visit the large lagoon there, but we were thwarted by modern changes and couldn’t find the entrance, if there is one! We choose to scan some pines along a nearby lane and Vanda produced a smashing Crested Tit, we all had excellent views of it except for Dave who had wandered off elsewhere. Serin, Linnets, Goldfinches, Chaffinch and lots of hirundines completed the rest of our sightings.
Yellow-legged Gulls 'kissing'. Note that the bird on the left has lost half of a leg
It was 1pm by the time we reached the salt pans at Tavira where we sat and ate our picnic lunch, it was still windy but at least the rain showers had stopped for now. We had sunshine for longer periods and the wind wasn’t cold, it was just annoying.
our first Audouin's Gull
Many waders were feeding in the pans, which were in various stages of producing salt. We noted large mixed flocks of Dunlin and Sanderling, also Ringed Plover, Kentish Plover, Redshank, Avocets and the ubiquitous Black-winged Stilt. Bee-eaters were flying over with lots of Yellow-legged Gulls milling about.
Cattle Egret colony at the Ria Formosa Natural Park
the beautiful fluff and feathers of the breeding plumage of the cattle Egret
In a large lagoon near the shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean we saw a couple of Little Terns, our first Turnstones and more Kentish Plovers, Little Stint and Sanderlings. A small number of Audouin’s Gulls flew over us and one adult dropped down to roost on the sand with a few Yellow-legged Gulls.
I don’t think we added any further new sightings to the list and it was nearly 4pm when we finally got to our rooms at the nearby hotel. We decided not to go out for further birding, the windy conditions prevailed.
Spanish Iris in the pine woods at Quinto da Marim
I decide to drive out to recce a part of the Ria Formosa Natural Park at Quinto da Marim, I spent an hour there walking the trails and visiting a couple of hides. The best of the sightings including a single Slender-billed Gull, a mixed breeding-colony of egrets, Common Pochard was also a new sighting.
Slender-billed Gull
sunshine and sand - but very windy, just around the corner from our hotel
On the way back to Tavira I spotted a Black-winged Kite hovering along the roadside a few kilometers from our hotel, we must stop there tomorrow to have a quick look for it. Our bird total isn’t a large one, we are approaching 120 species counting afe heard-only species and a couple of exotics.