Portugal,

Day 2, 15th May 2011

A visit to the Castro Marim area today. An excellent area of  marshland with salt pans, pools, scrub and crop fields just north of Vila Real De Santo Antonio on the Spanish/Portuguese border and the River Guadiana. There is a huge visitors centre here but it is closed on Sunday so we did not get a chance to see inside and look closely at the large lagoon it overlooks.The first montagu's harrier of the trip was seen as we arrived on site quickly follwed by red rumped swallow, woodchat and southern grey shrike, hoopoe, bee eaters,pallid swift, zitting cisticola,serin, red legged partridge, azure winged magpie and common magpie and lots of corn buntings,
A good selection of waders were feeding on the saltpans with 3 collared pratincoles, 5 little stints, dunlin, 18 curlew sands with some in full summer plumage, ringed, little ringed and kentish plovers, black winged stilts, avocets,grey plover, a knot,common sandpiper and best of all a nice temmincks stint.
 A montagu's harrier floated over the salt pans and flushed all the waders while little terns plunged in the pools feeding. A short toed eagle appeared above being mobbed by a buzzard with black kites nearby.
   Red crested pochard, gadwall, mallard, coot and moorhen
  An Iberian hare was in the car park as we pulled in and crested larks, zitting cisticolas and stonechat sang in the bushes and a snake of some sort scurried across the road as we drove off.

Portugal and Spain

Portugal

Day 1 Saturday 14th May 2011

We arrived at Faro airport at 3 pm, picked up the hire car and we were off.  My son Andrew and I were on a birding holiday for 4 days in Portugal and 3 days in Spains Donana. We were staying in a hotel in Tavira for 3 nights as a base to our bird watching in Portugal. We had Gosney's 'where to find birds in southern Portugal' and 'where to watch birds in Donana' by Moreno and Gutierrez as reference guides plus plenty of interenet research before we arrived.

 On the way to the hotel we visited the Natural Park of Ria Formosa reserve which is signposted just as you leave Olhao heading towards Tavira on the N125.The park features a visitors centre and varied habitat with woodland, salt pans, pools, salt marsh, dunes and shore. White storks, bee eaters, azure winged magpies, woodchat shrike, spanish wagtail, crested lark, cuckoo, melodious warbler, sardinian warbler, spotless starling. Waders including kentish plover with young, bar tailed godwit, greenshank, grey plover,ringed plover ,lrp, black winged stilt, dunlin,and whimbrel. Yellow-legged gull, little tern and cormorant also. We then headed to the hotel Porta Nova in Tavira and after a quick shower we were watching pallid swifts,common swifts and house martins from the roof top bar before strolling into town for something to eat.

Seaforth NR

I managed to catch the tail end of a good fall of birds at the reserve today. Still 5 yellow wags this evening with one of them being a nice male flava. 12 wheatears with only one male amongst the female greenlands and plenty of white wags still.20 swallows went through

Seaforth NR,

 3 Black terns provided some evening entertainment as they hawked insects very close to the hide. A little owl showed close by.

Seaforth NR and a peek at Plex Moss,
     The first day of May was bright and sunny with a strong easterly blowing. A female whinchat, my first swift of the year, 4 arctic terns, 62 sandwich terns, 200+ common terns, 2 little gulls, and a black swan. A corn bunting made a brave attempt to sing on the topmost branch in the hooley blowing across plex moss. No sign of any dotterel yet.

 Beautiful little gulls but only 2 present today. Just looking back on this blog, on 19th April 2006 there was a count of 530 little gulls over crosby marina. A stunning sight to behold. http://stevesbirding.blogspot.com/2006/04/crosby-marina-beautiful-sunshiney-day.html

 A very showy female whinchat

 Nice streamers on this Arctic tern

Plex moss and Marshside,

   Checked out the mosses to see if any dotterel had dropped in but no sign of any today. They seem to be very early this year. Nice to see the grey partridge, corn bunts and yellowhammers showing well. On to marshside and a drake garganey was a smart bird from nels hide. Still 280 pinkfeet on the marsh today but no sign of the whitefront. Lots of sedgey's and reedy's singing  even though it was very chilly and overcast today.

Seaforth NR,

 A great selection of birds on this Good Friday. A stonking male whinchat was on the long bank with the 20 wheatears and 30 alba wags,and a couple of yellow wags also added to the show. Still a flock of 2000 oystercatchers, always an impressive sight as they take flight. House martins were collecting mud from the pool to make their des res in the nearby suburbs. Lesser whitethroat, whitethroat, blackcap and willow warbler were on site. 4 little gulls were over the marina and 50 arctic terns flew in and out again. Common terns were up to 28 and 15 sandwich terns also

3 lrp's , a spangley female ruff, 2 common sandpipers, 12 whimbrel flew over, 3 knot, 2 turnstone and a few dunlin. A red admiral and brimstone today. 

Seaforth NR

The needle like bill and pale super of the spot red at Seaforth today

Dwyran Anglesey N Wales

The first views of this bird were in flight as it came in and landed near the small pond . We then had excellent views of this adult purple heron as it fed along the edge of the pond. It was feeding well and caught at least 5 fish whilst we watched it. Viewed from the footpath which is about 200 metres away was plenty close enough with a bird this big.  

Called it at Llanfairfechan on the way home. At least 25 red throated divers still, 5 gannets feeding close in  and a dozen sandwich terns. Plenty of auks and great crested grebes also.

Seaforth NR

After yesterdays lapland bunting I thought I would give hide C an hour first. After a heavy rain shower a lapland bunting appeared near the fence at 12.45. A few distant record shots and I alerted others but only Chris Gregson who was nearby managed to see it before it flew off high to the north as the sun came out. We initially assumed it was yesterdays bird but after reviewing photos of each lapland bunting it was clear that they were 2 different lapland buntings.

Another good bird today was a purple sandpiper on the causeway. 30 white wags,4 wheatears, 20 meadow pipits, 3 chiffchaffs and a willow warbler and a swallows and a few sand martins. 

Todays bird

This bottom picture is Chris Gregson's Saturday lapland bunting

Seaforth NR,

  Good numbers of common migrants today with18 white wags,10 wheatears, 12 sand martins,1 swallow, chiffchaff and willow warbler. An adult yellow legged gull and 2 little gulls also. Missed the lapland bunting found earlier today found by Chris Gregson near hide C.