Some notes from our recent (8-19 September 2019) 11 day holiday to Sagres in SW Portugal.
This was a family holiday with my wife and our 16 month old son, with birding limited accordingly. That said the resort we stayed at (Martinhal Beach & Family Resort) and the surrounding area provided excellent incidental and short-spells of birding. If like me you are looking for somewhere in Europe that caters for a young child and non-birding partner, and that will provide interesting birding in the limited time you can fit in, hopefully this can help.
Our search criteria for this holiday were a resort that provided crèche facilities for an under 2 year old (which rapidly narrows options), ideally babysitting, and the suite of kit needed to look after a small child (cot, baby bath, stair gates etc etc), less than a 3 hour flight from London, decent weather and a family friendly atmosphere. Oh and some decent birding.
Anyway top of the list was the Martinhal Beach & Family Resort near Sagres in Southwest Portugal. This is an expensive place to stay, but the facilities and attention to the needs of small children and their parents are excellent, and I recommend it if this is what you need. On balance I would not recommend it if you aren’t going with children – you are paying a lot for facilities you won’t use.
Timing is quite important in terms of visiting this area, it is an excellent location during autumn migration for passerines, seabirds and birds of prey. Our mid-September visit was well timed for passerine migration, but a bit early for birds of prey, and this year also for seabirds. Personal highlights included a lifer Wilson’s Petrel, 10 species of birds of prey (and somehow I didn’t see Common Buzzard or any harriers), and regular views of Hoopoe, Wryneck, Nightingale and assorted warblers, flycatchers and chats from our villa balcony.
I logged my sightings on e-bird and won’t repeat day-by-day lists here, but provide some notes on specific sites and the pelagic I went on. The sites are all described in the useful booklet ‘Birding hotspots in the Algarve – Sagres and the west coast’ by Goncalo Elias.
This was a family holiday with my wife and our 16 month old son, with birding limited accordingly. That said the resort we stayed at (Martinhal Beach & Family Resort) and the surrounding area provided excellent incidental and short-spells of birding. If like me you are looking for somewhere in Europe that caters for a young child and non-birding partner, and that will provide interesting birding in the limited time you can fit in, hopefully this can help.
Our search criteria for this holiday were a resort that provided crèche facilities for an under 2 year old (which rapidly narrows options), ideally babysitting, and the suite of kit needed to look after a small child (cot, baby bath, stair gates etc etc), less than a 3 hour flight from London, decent weather and a family friendly atmosphere. Oh and some decent birding.
Anyway top of the list was the Martinhal Beach & Family Resort near Sagres in Southwest Portugal. This is an expensive place to stay, but the facilities and attention to the needs of small children and their parents are excellent, and I recommend it if this is what you need. On balance I would not recommend it if you aren’t going with children – you are paying a lot for facilities you won’t use.
Timing is quite important in terms of visiting this area, it is an excellent location during autumn migration for passerines, seabirds and birds of prey. Our mid-September visit was well timed for passerine migration, but a bit early for birds of prey, and this year also for seabirds. Personal highlights included a lifer Wilson’s Petrel, 10 species of birds of prey (and somehow I didn’t see Common Buzzard or any harriers), and regular views of Hoopoe, Wryneck, Nightingale and assorted warblers, flycatchers and chats from our villa balcony.
I logged my sightings on e-bird and won’t repeat day-by-day lists here, but provide some notes on specific sites and the pelagic I went on. The sites are all described in the useful booklet ‘Birding hotspots in the Algarve – Sagres and the west coast’ by Goncalo Elias.