We’ve just returned from a great one week break in the Algarve, Portugal. We stayed just NW of Lagos, in a villa belonging to our friend, Helen, who made us very welcome for our second visit.
As far as the birds are concerned, I only managed a total of 36 different species. Not as many as some, but as I am in a wheelchair, and we didn’t really go out specifically looking for birds (except on Thursday at Quinta De Rocha), I’m fairly happy with my list which included 17 new for 2007 and a further 4 lifers.
Started off quite well driving away from the airport at Faro, with bee-eaters jostling for position on the wires with the ever present azure winged magpies.
White storks were perched on the chimney stacks in Lagos, and the ubiquitous herring gulls swooped all over the place along the seafront. Tiny Sardinian warblers were spotted in the hedges, although nowhere near as many as last year.
In and around Helen’s back garden we had an opportunity to see (and hear) serins by the bucket load, house martins, willow warblers & garden warblers, and slightly further away, a Southern grey shrike and 4 woodchat shrike – the latter appeared to all have roosting permits for one large tree about 1/2 mile away, but easily seen by binoculars.
I was quite chuffed to have the hoopoes strut their stuff in the garden on the 3 occasions, and really pleased that my wife, Bev, also managed to see this wonderful bird.
We tagged along with Helen to watch her play bowls at PDF on Tuesday, and saw stonechats and waxbills on the golf course next door.
We took a trip to A Rocha on the Thursday and saw more hoopoes, swallows and red-rumped swallows, a little egret, cattle egret, a crested lark, and yet more serins. I missed out on a golden oriole, which had been sighted that same morning, but didn’t show up for me. However, the hospitality was up to its usual high standard, and I would recommend this place to anyone, even if not into birds – great cake J
Common (already listed) birds which we saw all through the week included goldfinches, greenfinches, house and tree sparrows, blackbirds, one solitary wren, collared doves & kestrels.
On the only wet and miserable day of the week, our host decided that the mountains above Monchique would be a good idea !! Wrong L I was car sick, and we were completely cloud covered, even before we got to Monchique, let alone Foia, so we came down again without seeing anything. But we did take a detour to a barragem or reservoir on the way up, with a great big dam at one end. We were able to walk out along the top of the dam, and view the valley below, which provided us with some interesting sights and sounds – a greater spotted woodpecker, linnets, willow warbler, a red legged partridge, a glimpse of a large bird of prey, possibly a buzzard or eagle, but not enough to positively ID, and long tailed tits. I also heard something which sounded like a loud, more musical than usual blackbird, but it wasn’t and I have no clue as to what it may have been.
PiriPiri chicken at Marmalete – wonderful :)
Two more really nice spots for me, a pied flycatcher, which I reckon must live in Helen’s front garden, was showing beautifully, and was quite a surprise, but once we’d seen it, we kept seeing it, and finally, a pair of booted eagles, soaring 20-30m overhead just as we were loading the car for our return flight.
Fantastic !
Full lists then :
15 Already listed –
Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Long Tailed Tit, House & Tree Sparrow, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Blackbird, Herring Gull, Wren, Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Kestrel, Collared Dove,
4 Lifers -
Red-Rumped Swallow, Little Egret, Pied Flycatcher, Booted Eagle
Plus, 17 new for 2007 -
Bee-Eater, Azure Winged Magpie, Sardinian Warbler, White Stork, Serin, House Martin, Stonechat, Waxbill, Hoopoe, Woodchat Shrike, Cattle Egret, Garden Warbler, Swallow, Red Legged Partridge, Linnet, Crested Lark, Southern Grey Shrike.
Hello David,
Really enjoyed your report, glad you had a great time. The bird singing may have been a Blackcap, they remind me at times of a musical Blackbird. Also the shrike was more likely a Southern Grey Shrike, one of those more recent splits.
All the best
Derek
Perhaps the Blackbird was Blue rock Thrush?