A week with Bob and Jenny Wright at their luxury timeshare on the Algarve sounded perfect. The location promised some great birding, and so it proved as we recorded over 100 species. A full report and list can be seen on Bob´s "Birding Axarquia" blog, here are just some of the photographs and highlights from the trip.
69 Vilar do Golf, Quinta do Lago.
This was our home for the week, a comfortable villa in a golf resort on the Algarve. More importantly for us however was that it is right next to the Ria Formosa Estuary, a designated Natural Park of over 170 km² and a stopping place for hundreds of different birds during the spring and autumn migratory periods.
We did not have to go far to see the first birds. The garden was host to a number of species including Azure-Winged Magpie, Hoopoe, Meadow Pipit and Common Waxbill.
Here is an Azure-winged Magpie sampling berries from one of the garden trees.
Here is an Azure-winged Magpie sampling berries from one of the garden trees.
Azure-winged Magpie - cyanopica cyanus
Common Waxbill - astrilda astrild
The Common Waxbill is a colourful little bird native to Africa but which is now widespread in Portugal and is spreading through Spain. In Portugal they actually breed into November and we watched them collecting nesting materials as well as feeding on seeds from tall grass stems. They could be attracted into the garden by putting out seeds.
Common Waxbill - astrilda astrild
Meadow Pipit - anthus pretensis
Meadow or Tree Pipit? I initially thought this bird was a tree pipit as it liked to perch in the highest branches of a tree. Meadow pipits usually creep through the grass like mice and keep low to the ground. Close examination however shows the bird has the more slender bill and very long, quite straight toe of a Meadow Pipit, so it is just behaving like it´s tree-dwelling cousin.
Hoopoe - upupa epops
Hoopoes are abundant around the gardens, finding rich pickings in the well watered lawns and shrubberies of the estate. They also love golf courses and are a common sight on fairways and greens, probing for worms and grubs in the short grass and soft soil.
 Sardinian Warbler - sylvia melanocephala  |  Zitting Cisticola - juncidis juncidis The Zitting Cisticola is often quite approachable as it flits about in low scrub and open bushes, whereas the Sardinian Warbler usually hides away in denser foilage and is more skittish by nature. We spotted this Bluethroat on a walk along the estuary bank. They are rarely seen far from water and this one was no exception. |
Gadwall - anas strepara
The fringes of the estuary hold a number of shallow freshwater ponds and small lakes which are rich in wildfowl such as these Gadwall, Tufted Duck and Shoveler. I would like to be here in Spring or earlier in the Autumn as there would undoubtedly be close views of many migratory species from the hides.
 Tufted Duck - aythya fuligula |  Shoveler - anas clypeata |
Glossy Ibis - plegadis falcinellus, and Mallard
Dusk is a good time at the ponds to watch flights of wading birds coming in to roost for the night. This Glossy Ibis has just arrived to share a reed platform with the Mallard,
Purple Swamphen - porphyrio porphyrio
Purple Swamphens are quite numerous on the freshwater ponds and could be seen frequently picking up tender plants in their "Hands" to eat.
In Portugal this species declined greatly in the 19th and 20th centuries, but has increased more recently thanks to protection and reintroduction schemes, although it remains rare and has a fragmented distribution.
In Portugal this species declined greatly in the 19th and 20th centuries, but has increased more recently thanks to protection and reintroduction schemes, although it remains rare and has a fragmented distribution.
There are plenty of waders to be seen on the mud flats but none of the rarer varieties. Redshank are prolific, lots of Whimbrel, Ringed Plover, Turnstone and Black-tailed Godwits also Black winged Stilt, Oystercatcher, Dunlin and, Curlew, too many to post photos of here. Strangely there were no Greenshank or Sanderlings.
 Whimbrel - numenius phaeopus  Turnstone - arenaria interpres |  Ringed Plover - charadrius hiaticula  Black-tailed Godwit - limosa limosa |
Bob, Jenny and Elena on the boat.
A boat trip from Olhao around the Estuary was well worth it, if not for the birding but for the excellent and reasonably priced lunch of freshly caught fish in an excellent restaurant in the fishing village of Culatra, on the Island of the same name.
