EARLY START AT THE LPN RESERVE NEAR SÂO MARCOS DA ATABOEIRA – STREAM NEAR CASTRO VERDE – ESTRADAS TO MERTOLA BACK ROAD – PICO DE ALCARIA RUIVA RAPTOR WATCH-POINT – FERNADES MINOR ROAD AND TELEGRAPH HILL
WEATHER: a lot of cloud cover today and the wind picked up during the afternoon, but we still had long sunny spells and a top temp 0f 25C
We made an early start this morning and so we took our breakfast with us, in a bag! We set off at 6:15 just at it was getting light and drove to the steppe area between Guerreiro and Sâo Marcos. Along the way we saw many Rabbits, Fallow Deer, Turtle Doves, Red-legged Partridges and Iberian Magpies.
The birding on the steppe was slow, but what a fantastic place to be on a still, bright morning in May. Singing Larks were everywhere, the huge Calandra Larks dominated, followed by Crested and a few Short-toed Larks.
It took us us a while to find any Bustards, we found a couple of Great Bustards, a very distant Stone Curlew and two Little Bustards were seen in flight (our only two). Common Quails were calling from all directions, some were very close to us, but they never showed. We saw a few Eurasian Hoopoes, Raven, Lesser kestrels, Common Buzzard, Marsh Harrier and Griffon Vulture. Spanish Sparrows zoomed about whilst Corn Buntings, in their hundreds, sang from fence posts and bushes.
A little further along the track Lyn found a large party of Great Bustards, there was 18 of them, walking in the distance, we saw a small flock of Cattle Egrets, plenty of Zitting Cisticolas and not too far from the exit gate we put up two Black-bellied Sandgrouse.
Before we drove into Castro Verde for coffee, we stopped at a well know site to look for Rufous Bush Robins. Cetti’s Warblers and Common Nightingales called, a Kingfisher flashed by, Bee-eaters were all over the place, but we never saw a Rufous Bush Robin. Raptors overhead included Boote and Short-toed Eagles.
After coffee in Castro Verde we drove to Estradas and onto the unnamed track back towards Mértola, we spent a couple hours along that track hoping for a sighting of Black-winged Kite. Woodchat and Iberian Shrikes were common, as were Stonechats and Corn Buntings. Iberian Magpies appeared everywhere and Spanish Sparrows were in their thousands. We ate our lunch at 11:30 by the bus near a small ford. We searched the area for Rufous Bush Robin as it also a known site for this species. We found nothing new but we did see our second Imperial Eagle of the trip.
Our next stop was at the Pico de Alcaria hillock (370m) which is supposed to be good for raptor watching. We ended spending more time tracking down a melodious Warbler in the scrub and watching low flying raptors across the road in an open area. We found a Black-winged Kite which gave us brief views, a Black Kite which was very close and a Golden Oriole (male) flew right in front of us. Raptors seen over the hill we just Griffon Vultures.
For the last hour we drove to the east of Mértola to visit some areas of rock rose scrub with broom and heather, hoping for a sighting of Spectacled Warbler. We saw Sardinian and Dartford Warblers but no Spectacled I’m afraid.
We called it a day at 3:30pm because the group had booked a boat trip along the river at 4pm. I left them to it and retired for the day and enjoyed a short break.