Boots In The Algarve – 04 Oct To 17oct 2010 (1 Viewer)

WESTERN ALGARVE – 04 OCT TO 17OCT 2010
Logistics and Location:
Flying via Thomas Cook from Birmingham Airport on Sunday 3rd October, Tina and I arrived at Faro about mid day in time for a stop off at Choela Beach for a Piri Piri lunch, some shopping at the local Aldi and a very quick twitch at Salgados/Pera Marsh for views of little owl, spoonbill, godwits, common tern, sanderling and other common waders, before making the journey west to our accommodation.

Villa Kimbo is situated in rural countryside just out of Espiche, about 15 minutes from Largos (booked through Simply Travel – private off season bookings are available from the owners).
It provides an excellent base for Western Algarve bird watching being a 30 minute drive to both the raptor watchpoint at Capo St. Vincent and the nature reserve at Alvor. Pera Marsh/Salgados and Foia, are a 40 minute drive away, whilst Quinta du Lago is approximately an hours drive.
In spring Bocha da Rio is also worth a visit and is also only a very short drive away.

The Villa Kimbo lies in a small private complex with its own pool, four bedrooms and bathrooms
Hoopoes called outside in the morning, foraging on the lawn whilst little owls called after dark.
The surrounding countryside is a mixture of grazing, scrub and woodland, which can provide some interesting local birding.
As mentioned hoopoes and azure winged magpies are present most of the year, wheatears and black redstarts are common in fall.
In autumn robin and black caps are present, along with the proverbial cattle and little egrets.
A good selection of raptors can turn up at any time, both kestrel and buzzard show regularly with a chance
of black shouldered kite also turning up.

The return flight on Sunday 17 October was on time. However luggage collection at Birmingham was inefficient, being at least
double our normal 20 minute wait at Manchester Airport.
The promised £1 taxi shuttle from the airport to the hotel and the long stay car park, failed to turn up Although it worked on the way out, it cost us a tenner for a taxi on the way back (please note that this was a private booking and nothing to do with Simply Travel, who were excellent throughout the holiday).

The holiday booking included a hire car for the two weeks.

Weather:
We arrived to grey skies and temperatures in the low 20’s.
Over the two weeks the weather was mixed with extremely wet and windy conditions prevailing from
08 Oct to 10 Oct, thereafter it was breezy with plenty of warm sunshine.

Sites Visited :
Espiche
*Capo St.Vincent 04/10; 09/10; 11/10; 14/10
Quinta du Lago 06/10; 10/10; 15/10
Alvor 07/10; 08/10; 13/10; 16/10
Pera 08/10
Foia 10/10; 12/10; 16/10
Silves 12/10


*Important re Capo St.Vincent raptor watch point.
Although most of the sandy track from the coast road is drivable, at this time of year following heavy rain, it can be subject to turning to mud in a couple of places. I know of two cases where experienced birders got stuck axle deep, having helped one party out of it myself.





The Birding Part 1:
The visit gave us a number of “lifers” including: griffon vulture; crested tit; rock bunting; storm petrol
Reports by other people:
Danny Isle of White had good pictures of mystery falcon, that better men than my self could not identify.
The guys at the raptor watch point report regular views of black stork, vultures, black kite and bonelli’s eagle. Little bustard and dotterel were reported off the Cape – Bispo track, however despite several attempts we failed to connect. A party of a dozen ring ouzel were reported as seen at Foia during the first week of October also a buff bellied sand piper at Alvor. A juvenile Upland Sandpiper (Bartramia longicauda) was near Tavira on 03-10-10 ( 2nd for Portugal).
Useful websites for Algarve updates are :
http://jupiterbirding.blogspot.com/
http://algarvebirder.blogspot.com/

Since quite a number of birds are common in the Algarve at this time of year, I propose to list only our more interesting sightings here, hopefully however I will be able to include a full listing in due course.

Raptors:
Cape St.Vincent Raptor Watchpoint (Kestrel vary common);
The moorland area surrounding the Cape St.Vincent to Vale du Bispo gave us the best and most frequent views of raptors with as many as 20 booted eagle of various phases being seen in a single afternoon.
04 Oct : Short Toed Eagle x 1;Honey Buzzard x 1;Hobby x1;
09 Oct : Booted Eagle x 20;
11 Oct Booted Eagle x 15; Egyptian Vulture x 2;Montagu’s Harrier x1;
Short Toed Eagle x 2; Common Buzzard x 2
14 Oct : Griffon Vulture x 3, Egyptian Vulture x 2;
Short Toed Eagle x3;Common Buzzard x 3;Booted Eagle x 6
Note: 14 October was hot and sunny, with views of vultures mostly confined to high soaring birds.
consequently a quite few unidentifiable raptors also passed over.

Alvor:
07 Oct & 08: Oct Black winged Kite x1 ;
13 Oct: Marsh Harrier x1;Booted Eagle x1
15 Oct: Osprey x1; Peragrine x2;

Quinta du Lago
15Oct : Booted Eagle x 1

Nice one Mick, look forward to part 2.

Your Buzzard in pic 5 looks more like an intermediate phase Booted Eagle to me, I should check any other pics you've got of it for a better viewing angle to see if you can confirm it.

regards

John

Western Algarve – 04 Oct To 17oct 2010 –part 2

Thanks for the input john-henry, comments always appreciated.
Sorry about the delay in putting this together.
WESTERN ALGARVE – 04 OCT TO 17OCT 2010 –PART 2

Re:Salgados/Pera Marsh[/B]
The lagoon was flooded during our two visits, on 04 and 08 Oct 2010. This was in contrast to our first visit a few years back when it was bone dry during the first week of October due to the local drainage “scheme”, convincing us at the time that we were in the wrong place. We understand from various anecdotal reports, that the planned joint RSPB water management scheme has been abandoned on account of a gross underestimate of the cost and the lack of planning permission.
The surrounding land on the western side was heavily ploughed, badly affecting possible shoreline views of waders. There were good numbers of godwit,avocet,spoonbills, grey heron, little egret, cormorant, coot and little grebe 08 October, a day which was very overcast.
The marshy area near the beach hut café held surface water, though we failed to connect (again) with the sacred ibis reported there. However green sandpiper, red legged partridge, common snipe and sandpiper, along with two common magpies and a hare, showed well there.

02 Passerines
Northern wheatear, stone chat, black redstart, black cap, Sardinian and willow warbler, fan tailed warbler, both spotted and pied flycatcher, crested lark, corn bunting, the common British garden birds, spotless starling, azure winged magpie and hoopoe were relatively common at most sites. Serin, finches (except chaffinch – Foia only) and waxbill were also common, though the latter in no where near the numbers that we had seen them before. Danny whom we met at CSV raptor watch point was kind enough to show us the location of crested tits; he also reported that a nightjar had been seen nearby, by an acquaintance.
We connected with a few pipits and common redstart (Cape St.Vincent & Foia – also wren & Dartford warbler here), yellow wagtails (Val du Bispo), village/black headed weaver, sub alpine warbler, short toed tree creeper (all QDL), and winchats were seen at Alvor and CSV, Spanish sparrow and blue throat at Alvor.
Re Alvor.
Strangley we didn’t see anything like the number of waders
I should note that for us Bluethroat are a must see bird . On 15 Oct at Alvor on I found myself in the situation where, having gone in the opposite direction to Tina, I could see and hear a bird singing on a fence wire some forty paces away, but quite near to T although she was looking in the opposite direction at a Kingfisher in a channel. Although we didn’t get the satisfying views we hoped in the end we did see one again at Alvor, on our last day in addition to Osprey and Peregrine. Also at Alvor, one day we counted 17 stone curlew resident in the field between the farm ruins and pines near the eastern side of the car park, they were present during all of our visits. We also met up with Colin Key at Alvor who was as charming as ever.

Western Algarve – 04 Oct To 17oct 2010 –part 2

Warblers
Some pictures attached.
Picture number one was taken at the Alvor "a Rocha" conservation complex.
This charitable organization's complex is normally open to the public for talks on ringing and other natural history topics, on Thursdays.
Useful links:
Alvor location:
http://www.riadealvor.org/ria-en/location.html

http://www.arocha.org/pt-en/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rocha

http://www.riadealvor.org/ria-en/index.html

Donations are of course greatfully accepted.
Identification opinions on picture number 5 would be appreciated - this is the best picture that I have, unfortunately it is not very good.

Nice to read your report and to see the pictures. Sounds like a good trip.

I have enjoyed reading the report of your holiday Mick! We may have passed each other on occasions as I was on holiday there from the 25th Sept to the 9th Oct! We stayed in Galé so not far to travel for a daily visit to Lagoa dos Salgados (Pera Marsh). I must say I was initially rather taken aback at the amount of ploughed land on the western side of the lagoon but on each visit it became clear the reason for the ploughing. With the amount of traffic the boardwalk alongside the lagoon now generates ie: walkers, joggers, cyclists and Uncle Tom Cobley and all, it does seem the right thing to have done to seperate the lagoon from at least some of the human disturbance especially so in the breeding season. I didn't feel it badly affected views of shoreline waders, Godwits, Ringed Plovers, Stilts, Sandpipers etc were seen on or close to the shoreline on most visits. Bluethroats were also seen in the patches of reeds on the shoreline in front of the parking area, the first time I have seen them on this area so maybe the traffic on the boardwalk is moving them further afield. The new Water Treatment Station is now finished and with the two overflow pipes at the bridge/beach end of the lagoon in position I feel things are looking good for the lagoon and hopefully a drained lagoon will be a thing of the past. I was told by a 'British' local resident that a lot of work had been done over the Winter. Hopefully the wildlife will now and in the future reap the benefits. I hope you do not mind me attaching a photo that I took to show my daughter on my return home of the ploughed area, anyone familiar with the area will then see what has taken place. We connected with the Sacred Ibis albeit it for five minutes! It came out of the reeds on the far side of the lagoon and fed for awhile then disappeared again! We also checked the marshes earlier in the morning to no avail so I was pleased with the sighting. I have added a 'very record' photo of the Sacred Ibis.

You name some great raptor species seen over several days. I didn't see a single Vulture on my visit to Vale Do Bispo & the Cape but Booted Eagles were aplenty! A Honey Buzzard was a first for me and what a beauty they are to see in the sunshine and backed by a clear blue sky! Bonelli's and Short-toed Eagle, Hen Harrier, Black-winged Kite, Black Stork, Chough, Raven, Mistle Thrush and Skylark were the other species seen on our visit.

Your photo's are a pleasure to view and compliment your report. I am afraid I have no idea what your mystery bird is, perhaps put it on the ID forum to try and solve the mystery!

Thanks for a great read and I am glad you had as I did myself a brill holiday in the Algarve!

Evening Mick and Pam,

I hope it was not ploughed up alongside the boardwalk at Lagoa dos Salgados as that lakeside margin is excellent for Water Pipits, Bluethroats and Fan-tailed Warblers in winter?

Cheers,
Andrew.

Good evening Andrew,

Alongside the boardwalk is still 'Au naturale'! Fortunately!! However I must say I did not see as many Fan-tailed Warblers or Crested Larks there as per usual. I do wonder if the at times 'heavy traffic' is having a detrimental affect on the birds in this area. I much preferred it 'before boardwalk'...less people and more birds!

Yes Pam, I did prefer it before the boardwalk where I could wander through the margins without getting too close to the water and be pretty concealed seeing lots of good birds. Now it is looking down on them from high up and birds flying off as soon as you clock them from the boardwalk.

WESTERN ALGARVE – 04 OCT TO 17OCT 2010 –PART 3
Thanks Pam for the water treatment update at Lagoa dos Salgados (Pera Marsh), which we were unaware of.
03 Herons & Storks
As mentioned earlier (and as stated by Pam), good numbers of Black Stork were seen passing over Vale Do Bispo & the Cape raptor watch point, unfortunately we missed these ourselves. Spoonbill were to be seen at Quinta du Lago and Salgados, a confiding single little bittern at du Lago, along with a single glossy ibis. Apparently a squacco was also in residence there at the time but never showed whilst we were there. Of course cattle, little egret, white stork,greater flamingo and grey heron were common at most locations.
We were lucky enough to see a great heron on the low tide at Silves consuming a huge fish, as pictured below.
Thanks again Pam & Andrew for your kind comments.

Western Algarve – 04 Oct To 17oct 2010 – Part 4

WESTERN ALGARVE – 04 OCT TO 17OCT 2010 – PART 4

04. Gulls, Terns,Waders etc
Two caspian terns were present both at Salgados on 08/10 and
QDL on 15/10.
At high tide on the afternoon of Friday 8th Oct, a gale lashed Alvor.
Having started to walk around the “dykes” in sunshine, whilst Tina sat in the comfort of the car reading a book, I was half way around when the wind picked up and the weather turned nasty. Fortunately my concern for the camera and lense proved unfounded, whilst the difficult conditions paid off in terms of good views of unfortunate storm petrol, struggling against the tide, near the sea walls.
Common waders seen included whimbrel, kentish plover, oyster catcher,little stint,sanderling, grey plover,godwit,spotted and common redshank and dunlin were supplemented by a unusual common curlew at QDL on 15/10.
Black winged stilts, avocet and lapwing were present at Pera.

Western Algarve – 04 Oct To 17oct 2010 – Part 5

WESTERN ALGARVE – 04 OCT TO 17OCT 2010 – PART 5
Birding List


So many of the birds that we see on visits to the Algarve are quite common, leading to the conclusion that there is little point in being over descriptive about, where we saw them, lovely birds though they are.

Bird Species Where Seen
Red-legged Partridge Common on scrub/agricultural
Common Quail 1 dead on path at Alvor07/10/10
Northern Shoveler Common at QDL/Pera
Mallard Common at QDL/Pera
Gadwall Common at QDL
Common Pochard Common at QDL
Eurasian Hoopoe Common at QDL/Alvor
Common Kingfisher Common at QDL/Alvor
Common Swift several hawking over cliffs 03/10/10
Little Owl Pera 03/10, C.St.V. 14/10/10
Rock Dove Capo do St.Vincent 14/10/10
Eurasian Collared-Dove Common
Common Coot Common at QDL/Alvor
Common Moorhen Common at QDL/Alvor
Purple Swamphen Common at QDL/Alvor
Common Sandpiper Common at QDL/Alvor
Ruddy Turnstone Common at QDL/Alvor
Sanderling Common at QDL/Alvor
Dunlin Common at QDL/Alvor
Little Stint 1 @ Alvor 14/10/10 1@QDL 06/10
Common Snipe 6 @ Pera Marsh 08/10
Bar-tailed Godwit Common at QDL/Alvor
Black-tailed Godwit Common at QDL/Alvor
Eurasian Curlew Common at QDL/Alvor
Whimbrel Common at QDL/Alvor
Spotted Redshank Common at QDL/Alvor
Common Greenshank Common at QDL/Alvor
Green Sandpiper 4 @ Pera Marsh 08/10
Common Redshank Common at QDL/Alvor
Stone - Curlew Up to 17 resident at Alvor
Kentish Plover Common at QDL/Alvor
Common Ringed Plover Common at QDL/Alvor
Eurasian Oystercatcher Common at QDL/Alvor
Black-winged Stilt Common at QDL/Alvor
Grey Plover Common at QDL/Alvor
Pied Avocet Common at Salgados
Northern Lapwing Common at Salgados
Yellow-legged Gull Common
Lesser Black-backed Gull Common
Great Black-backed Gull Common
Black-headed Gull Common
Caspian Tern '2@Pera 08/10 + 2 @ QDL 14/10
Sandwich Tern Common @ Alvor
Common Buzzard C.St.V 2 on 11/10 + 3 on 14/10
Honey Buzzard 1 @ C.St.V 04/10
Western Marsh-Harrier 1 @ Alvor 13/10/10
Montagu's Harrier 1 @ C.St.V 11/10
Short-toed Eagle Regular @ C.St.V
Booted Eagle Common @ CSV,also seen Alvor & QDL
Osprey 1 @ Alvor 14/10/10
Peregrine Falcon 1 @ Alvor 14/10/10
Eurasian Hobby 1 @ C.St.V 04/10
Black Winged Kite 1 seen regularly at Alvor
Common Kestrel Common
Griffon Vulture 3 @ CSV 14/10
Egyptian Vulture 2 each day 11/10&14/10 C.St>v
Great Crested Grebe Common at QDL/Pera
Little Grebe Common at QDL/Pera?Alvoe
Northern Gannet Common at coastal cliffs, CVS
European Shag 1 near Bergua
Great Cormorant Common
Grey Heron Common
Cattle Egret Common
Little Egret Common
Little Bittern 1 @ QDL 06/10/10
Greater Flamingo Common @ QDL & Pera
White Stork Common, particularly around Silves
Southern Grey Shrike Common at CSV & Alvor
Common Raven 3 @ CSV 14/10
Carion Crowe Common at Alvor
Eurasian Jackdaw Six seen daily @ Espiche
Azure-winged Magpie Common
Eurasian Jay 1 @ Foia 10/10
Black-billed Magpie 2 @ Pera 08/10
Red-billed Chough Common @ CSV - 25 counted 09/10
European Robin Common in gardens
European Pied Flycatcher Common @ QDL + seen @ CSV
Common Nightingale 1 @ QDL 15/10/10
Bluethroat 1 @ Alvor 13/10/10
Rock-Thrush 1 juvenile @ Foia 12/10/10
Blue Rock-Thrush 1 @ CSV 04/10/10
Spotted Flycatcher 1 @ CSV 14/10/10 + seen @QDL
Northern Wheatear Common
Black Redstart Common @ CSV
Common Redstart 1 @ CSV 14/10/10 + seen @QDL
Common Stonechat Common
Whinchat 1 @ Alvor 13/10/10
Eurasian Blackbird Common
Spotless Starling Common @ CSV
Short-toed Tree-Creeper 1 @ QDL 06/10/10
Wren Common @ Foia
European Blue Tit Common near Monchique
Crested Tit 2 @ CSV 09/10
Great Tit common @QDL
Northern House-Martin common over Espiche first week Oct
Barn Swallow six seen daily in West.Algarve
Sand Martin 4 hawking over QDL lagoon 10/10
Firecrest 1 @ CSV 14/10/10
Zitting Cisticola Common
Cetti's Warbler Common but confiding QDL
Eurasian Chiffchaff Common
Willow Warbler Common
Blackcap singing in garden daily @ V.Kimbo
Subalpine Warbler 1 @ QDL 06/10/10
Sardinian Warbler Common
Dartford Warbler common @ Foia
Crested Lark common
Thekla Lark Regular @ C.St.V
Meadow Pipit 1 @ Foia 16/10
White Wagtail 1 @ CSV 14/10/10
Grey Wagtail 2 in centre Lagos 05/10/10
Yellow Wagtail Common @ Val du Bispo 2nd wk Oct
House Sparrow Common
Tree Sparrow 2 @ QDL 06/10/10
Spanish Sparrow Common @ Alvor
Chaffinch 1 @ Foia 12/10/10
Goldfinch Common
Greenfinch Common
Linnet Common
Serin Common
Corn bunting Common @ CSV
Rock bunting 3 @ Foia 12/10/10
Waxbill Regular @ Alvor,QDL
Village Weaver Male @ Fem regular @ QDL

Western Algarve – 04 Oct To 17oct 2010

Attached below are a few more record shots from our Algarve holiday.

Hi Mick/tina,
Great Report And Photos As Usual No Idea About The Warbler Though You Will Have To Do A Bit Of Work On It On The Computer.
Thanks For The Great Evening/morning,food To A High Standard As Usual 10/10.
Steve/di.

Really enjoyed your report & photos Mick. Never been to that part of the world.
Best to Tina

Sandra

Mick

That's quite an impressive bird list from the Algarve!

However, a couple of points:-

The birds at Quinta do Lago that you have identified as Village Weavers are likely to have been Black-headed Weavers, also sometimes called Yellow-backed Weavers. The scientific name is Ploceus melanocephalus. This is the only regularly occurring weaver species in the Algarve.

Also, you describe Great Black-backed Gull as 'common' whereas this species is in fact quite a rarity in Portugal and certainly so in the Algarve. There was an adult at Quarteira in February this year but mostly we see immatures here and then only occasional single birds from November to February.

A good reference for details of the status of birds in Portugal is www.avesdeportugal.info

I'm also surprised that you have seen Carrion Crows at Alvor as this is also a species that occurs only irregularly in the Algarve.

But these are details! Isn't it a great place to be birding?

All the best

Peter & June
www.algarvebirders.com

Cracking report there Mick/Tina and I thoroughly enjoyed the read. Great photo's and thanks for sharing.

Happy Birding

Dean:t:

carpentera said:

Mick

That's quite an impressive bird list from the Algarve!

However, a couple of points:-

The birds at Quinta do Lago that you have identified as Village Weavers are likely to have been Black-headed Weavers, also sometimes called Yellow-backed Weavers. The scientific name is Ploceus melanocephalus. This is the only regularly occurring weaver species in the Algarve.

Click to expand...

In East Africa Black-Headed or Village Weaver (Ploceus cucullatus) and Yellow-Backed Weaver (Ploceus melanocephalus) are two totally different species. If I had of realized last week that the Weavers in the Algarve were actually Yellow-Backed Weaver, I would have made more of an effort to find one at Quinta do Lago.

I have enjoyed reading the additional posts of your report Mick!

I saw a few fleeting views of the Black-headed Weaver at Quinta Do Lago, a bit like a Kingfisher aren't they blink and you miss them! I was told that they/it are escapees! I was also told by another person that someone breeds them locally, whatever, they are a super looking bird!

I must mention that as we drove away from the car park at Alvor Estuary we saw what we thought were 3 Carrion Crows flying in the distance. We commented that they were the first we had seen in the Algarve, maybe they were Ravens? Difficult to get your bins on a distant bird from a moving car and they didn't hang around for us to check them out!
Also worth a mention are the 3 Common Magpie pica pica seen at Pera Marsh, they were all perched in one tree! I have only seen a single one on previous holidays over the last couple of years.

You have a great species list Mick! The Algarve never fails to please birdwise does it!

Thanks for sharing your super photo's and birding highlights!

Mike, I enjoyed your report, you certainly managed a longer list than I normally do in the Algarve - but I am still learning

Re Pera, the "ploughing" was done early in the year (it was already there at Easter when I went out) and I think is a good thing, especially in the breeding season, and it is still possible to get close enough to the Western shore.

Someone commented as to whether the board walk was having an effect on the crested larks. I have frequently seen these in the car park where they seem to like taking sand baths so I don't think the walkway makes much difference in that regard. However, it does mean there are a lot more people about and a lot of them seem to be dog walkers.

Re Weavers, I took this photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/alan-photos/4688112910/ of one in April as I didn't have a clue what it was, they do seem to be escapees and breeding if you read the various reports on the net.