{"id":3233,"date":"2018-05-02T14:49:44","date_gmt":"2018-05-02T13:49:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/?p=3233"},"modified":"2018-05-02T16:09:16","modified_gmt":"2018-05-02T15:09:16","slug":"at-last-overseas-and-i-see-some-raptors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/at-last-overseas-and-i-see-some-raptors\/","title":{"rendered":"At last \u2013 overseas and I see some raptors!"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s usually guaranteed when I travel to mainland Europe that I\u2019ll struggle to see even the odd buzzard, kestrel and, if I\u2019m lucky, kite or harrier … but my latest trip (accompanied by my wife Meryl and sister Corinne) was to Portugal and turned out to be something of a raptor-fest.<\/p>\n

Not that raptors were the only birds of interest on my \u2018seen\u2019 list. For the first time in Europe I topped the 100 mark, and notched several \u2018lifers\u2019 which was particularly pleasing.<\/p>\n

We\u2019d been to Portugal two years earlier, using the lovely eastern Algarve town of Tavira as our base, and saw plenty of waders, gulls, herons and other species befitting a coastal area with plenty of marshes and lagoons. In 2016 we made only one sortie inland, as far as Mertola on the edge of the Alentejo region, but realised that this was an equally rich area for birdlife and worth investigating.<\/p>\n

So, this time we followed a week in Tavira with six nights \u2018up country\u2019 \u2013 two in Alcoutim and four in Mertola, both pretty whitewashed towns on the banks of the River Guadiana that for 30-40 miles north of its mouth in the Med represents the border with Spain.<\/p>\n

From Tavira, Corinne and I (Meryl isn\u2019t really interested in birding, so we have to choose our moments!) made two morning trips to specific locations \u2013 the Ria Formosa HQ reserve on the edge of Olhao and the Castro Marim reserve just a few miles from the Spanish border \u2013 the rest of the time footling around the varied coastal highlights around nearby Tavira itself.<\/p>\n

All the old favourites were in the \u2018salinas\u2019 (salt marshes), just a few hundred yards from our apartment \u2013 Greater Flamingo, Black-winged Stilt, Avocet, Black- and Bar-tailed Godwits, Whimbrel, Redshank, Spotted Redshank, Little Stint, Dunlin, Common and Curlew Sandpipers, and Ringed and Grey Plovers \u2013 while Crested Larks, Corn Buntings and Serin were everywhere and Fan-tailed Warblers pinged above our heads.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Yellow Wagtail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Crested Lark<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Whimbrel with Spider Crab<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Colourful Hoopoes were seen most days and wherever there was water combined with tall reeds and compact vegetation, those consummate songsters the Nightingales trotted out their flutey, non-stop signature tunes (I woke up one night and heard one singing at 3.45am!) \u2013 and in Alcoutim it was quite a sight to see 40-50 Bee-eaters swarming over the exact same fields I\u2019d seen them two years earlier.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
European Bee-eaters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Blue Rock Thrush<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A regional specialist is the attractive Azure-winged Magpie, which ironically was one of the most common birds where we explored, along with House and Spanish Sparrows and Collared Doves. Another daily sighting was White Storks: these are impressive birds, often seen soaring high in the sky and mistaken at a glance for raptors. We had seen them regularly enough during the first week, but inland they were on virtually every roadside pole and chimney as well as many precarious rooftop positions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Azure-winged Magpie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Though we didn\u2019t see quite so many birds in total during the second half of the holiday, there were some spectacular sights in the Alentejo, where Corinne and I spent two mornings scouring the rolling, green and often sparsely vegetated planes of this distinctive area.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Woodchat Shrike<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Among the big birding prizes in the Alentejo are Great and Little Bustards, Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Calandra Larks, Spanish Imperial Eagles and Rollers \u2013 none of which we\u2019d seen before our final full day, but all of which we\u2019d notched by the end of it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Great Bustard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our earlier sortie a couple of days before had included Black and Egyptian Vultures, Black Kite, Lesser Kestrel and Montagu\u2019s Harriers, which offered superb close views as they quartered farmland just yards from the road we were travelling along.<\/p>\n

So, along with a Short-toed Eagle and Buzzards and Common Kestrels seen early in the holiday, this late rush raised my raptor total to nine!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
White Stork<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Mertola, a quick stroll to the castle revealed Blue Rock Thrush and occasional short-lived views of Lesser Kestrel, together with smaller birds such as Blue and Great Tits, which are much scarcer in southern Portugal.<\/p>\n

Gosney\u2019s guide to this area was a useful aid to finding the best sites (we\u2019d never have found the Bustards without going to one of his more out-of-the-way suggestions), and it\u2019s always worth reading up other people\u2019s birding reports from similar times of the year. Another informative place was the headquarters of the LPN \u2013 Portugal\u2019s organisation for protecting nature that maintains a number of large reserves in the area \u2013 which is situated a few miles north of Castro Verde (albeit tricky to find!).<\/p>\n

Gary Atkins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s usually guaranteed when I travel to mainland Europe that I\u2019ll struggle to see even the odd buzzard, kestrel and, if I\u2019m lucky, kite or harrier … but my latest trip (accompanied by my wife Meryl and sister Corinne) was to Portugal and turned out to be something of a raptor-fest. Not that raptors were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,287],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-carsington-bird-club","category-member-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3233\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}