We visited Tavira for 8 days in late August – primary purpose was just a relaxing holiday in the sun, but of course we had BINs (plus scope, tripod, multiple cameras, etc) just in case.
I had checked out the Tavira weather forecast before leaving, and they had 5 days forecast, 4 timechecks per day, and I had the unusual experience of seeing 20 little sun icons in a row – no clouds, no rain, nothing but sun! ...and so it proved, with wall-to-wall scorchio very much the order of the day! Under these circumstances, we weren’t expecting too much birdlife, and it was certainly too hot for doing much trekking around, so birding was definitely 2nd priority.
First day in resort was Tuesday 21st, and decided on an early morning trip down to the Tavira 4-aguas area of pools and salinas, as we knew from previous visits that this would be a good spot (plus only 2 mins from our apartment!) We arrived at 08:00-ish and a number of close waders were showing very well in the beautiful morning sunlight inc many Dunlin, Avocets, Turnstones, Curlew Sandpipers, Black-tailed Godwit, Ringed and Kentish Plover, Little Stints and what looked to me like Sanderling, but I’ll need to double-check them from my pics. They certainly looked like Sanderlings, but just a bit uneasy, as I’ve never seen this species anywhere other than the tideline!
The mixed group of waders is typical of what can be seen in the area....
A bit further off were several Little Egrets, quite a few Flamingoes and some White Storks, and some Black-winged Stilts and Redshank were flying around in their typical panicky way. A single Greenshank was found in a quiet corner and several Grey Herons seen more distantly. Having had a bit of a look around I settled down to try to improve my Gull-spotting!
A couple of target species for me were Audouin’s Gull (quite hopeful) and Slender-billed (fingers-very-crossed!) both of which would be lifers for me. There were many, many Gulls present, but to my eye they were mainly Lesser Black-backs, Herring, Yellow-legged and a few Black-headed Gulls. Perseverance led me to find the attached, which I think (hope!) is an Audouin’s – leastways my search mantra was ‘red bill & grey legs’ and this one seems to fit the bill....let me know what you think.
Lots of breeding Little Terns around and quite a while was spent in trying to get pics of one in flight, which is a bit of a photo-ambition. I didn’t see any Caspian Terns on this occasion (but did hear one in Santa Luzia later that afternoon while we were having lunch) but I bumped into a Spanish birder who was telling me (v interesting conversation in Span-gles and Latin) that some other local birders had spotted a large yellow-billed Tern the previous day, but didn’t get a good enough look to id it – but presumed to be either a Royal or Lesser-crested – needless to say, we didn’t find it subsequently.
Passerines were decidedly thin on the ground, with just a single Northern Wheatear, 2 Crested Larks and a Fan-tailed Warbler.
It was now 10:00 and getting HOT, so back to the apt for breakfast and a couple of hours by the pool.
This was a major disappointment. On my previous (Spring-time) visit, we had seen lots of good birds in the hotel grounds :- Serin, Hoopoe, Sardinian Warbler for example, and pride of place went to a group of Common Waxbills that inhabited a small patch of ornamental bamboo. This time there was very little to be seen, just some House Sparrows and a pair of Blackbirds, even though I knew there were at least some Waxbills in the area as I heard them fly over a couple of times. Have to say that I’m not too surprised... apart from the differences in the weather, the pool area was hardly the tranquil place it had previously been, with lots of families of Brit holidaymakers ‘enjoying themselves’ – not really conducive for wildlife!
There were also several House Martins flying around and a couple of Red-rumped Swallows. This latter was slightly weird, as there actually appeared to be as many RR Swallows as Barn Swallows seen throughout our week – which was nice, but unexpected.
22nd August.
Morning visit to Tavira as before, and birds much as previously seen. Only significant difference being a large group of Spoonbills across the marsh and a fly-over flock of 18 Glossy Ibis. Never seen these here before and was so shocked that they had disappeared before I could get my camera out!
No sign of any interesting Terns (or Spanish birders) but a pleasant few hours were spent getting some pics in the beautiful morning light.
Spent quite a bit of time watching an adult Little Tern bringing in fish for a youngster.... The adult would appear to tempt the juvenile with the fish, but then keep it just out of reach - almost as if it was trying to entice it to go fishing itself. The youngster would then prostrate itself on the ground, so not really sure what it was all about.... here's a few photos anyway....
We saw lots of Kentish and Ringed Plover in Santa Luzia as we were passing through. Going out for a meal that evening, we saw a Hoopoe feeding on one of the roundabouts which was being watered following re-turfing. This turned out to be a good spot as we saw him there on many subsequent occasions.
I've never actually stayed in Tavira, but have visited it a couple of times on my way elsewhere. A few years back, we were sitting outside a restaurant in one of the main streets, and noticed that Pallid Swifts were nesting in the tops of the Palm trees. When we got home, I wrote a letter to "British Birds", which I think they published.
Portugal, and especially the Algarve, is a fabulous place for birding, though in August you definately need to be up for first light to beat the heat.