Our first venue is the Castro Marim nature reserve in the far east of the Algarve on the border with Spain, where early birds on the salt marsh include Redshank, Spotted Redshank, Greenshank, Kentish Plover, leggy Black-winged Stilts, tiny Little Stints and 65 Avocets, some of whom are full of the joys of spring, as are a couple of White Storks on their nearby bulky nest. On the dry land there are handsome Stonechats, Iberian Grey and Woodchat Shrikes, plus Crested Lark, Zitting Cisticola, a Scandinavian blue-headed Yellow Wagtail, several Marsh Harriers and a couple of vocal flighty Great Spotted Cuckoos. Back at the visitor centre a pair of Sardinian Warblers put on an unbeatably fabulous display at point blank range. In the afternoon, the salt pans produce Spoonbill, Greater Flamingo, Collared Pratincole, Yellow-legged Gull, Whimbrel, Ruff, Curlew Sandpiper and a flotilla of fifteen Black-necked Grebes, while two restless Great Spotted Cuckoos chase one another as a third poses on a nearby fence post.
Today we go north, to the craggy limestone scenery of Rocha de Pena, where the flowering scrub is full of scolding Sardinian Warblers, and we scope a singing Serin. Further up the track, as we sit down for a picnic lunch, a Blue Rock Thrush sings in mid air. After lunch the only Red-rumped Swallow of the trip flies over and we finally nail the lovely male Blue Rock Thrush, with a head as blue as the sky up above, perching on rocks and dead tree branches above us. Lower down, we watch a Short-toed Treecreeper singing on a tree trunk.
To the west along the coast, Pera marsh is choc-full of birds including Avocets galore, and numerous Black-winged Stilts, Black-tailed Godwits, Flamingos, and Sanderlings, plus Spoonbill, Purple Gallinule, Glossy Ibis, Wood Sandpiper, Snipe, Kentish and Little Ringed Plovers, Audouin’s, Yellow-legged and Mediterranean Gulls and Caspian Terns. Beyond the dunes, a brief seawatch produces Gannets and six Common Scoters, and in the adjacent scrub, dotted with Cattle Egrets and Zitting Cisticolas, we find numerous Hoopoes and Woodchat Shrikes at close range, as well as a flock of Short-toed Larks, seven stalking White Storks, Iberian and British Yellow Wagtails, and a very smart male dark-throated Black-eared Wheatear. Not a bad outcome for such a windy day.
Today we meet up with local expert Georg Schreier, for a trip to Cabo São Vicente at the westernmost tip of the Algarve, where we find Peregrine, wild Rock Dove, Black Redstart and Raven, and enjoy cracking views of a singing Blue Rock Thrush and three Alpine Accentors! A little way inland the air is buzzing with hundreds and hundreds of Pallid Swifts and a few much larger Alpine Swifts, while the grassland swarms with Spotless Starlings, Choughs, Thekla Larks and Corn Buntings. A closer look also produces great views of Little Owl, Tawny Pipit, Spectacled and Subalpine Warblers and several male Little Bustards with striking black and white necks, while nearby pinewoods are full of Blackcaps. In these woods we also hear Golden Oriole and Crested Tit and then Georg spots an incredibly well camouflaged Wryneck sitting motionless in a tangle of dead branches, even though it looks just like a “scabby old piece of bark”! Our last foray into more woods also turns up a roosting Black-crowned night Heron.
Near the coast at Quinta do Lago, we find two Green Woodpeckers, and then two Sacred Ibis circle above us! On the golf course, the fourteenth green is covered with a foraging flock of Serins and Common Waxbills, while a Common Sandpiper and numerous Azure-winged Magpies adorn the fairway. At the famous golf course pool, home to Moorhens, Coots and Purple Gallinules, we also see pairs of Little Bittern, Red-crested Pochard and even Black-headed Weaver! The adjacent estuary offers Whimbrel, Bar-tailed Godwit, Kentish, Ringed and Grey Plovers and a mixed group of Dunlin, Sanderling and Little Stint at very close range. Soaring above Ludo Farm, we pick out Marsh Harrier, Black Kite and light phase Booted Eagles, and on the way ‘home’ we make an emergency stop for multicoloured Bee-eaters lined up on a wire.
Leaving ‘home’ this morning, we stop for a Great Spotted Woodpecker, drumming resonantly on a street lampshade! This is our last day in the field, in the extensive rolling grassland of the Alentejo region to the north of the Algarve, and as soon as we arrive we have cock Little and Great Bustards displaying in the same scope view! At this first stop we count five male Little Bustards and nineteen Great Bustards, plus a hovering Black-shouldered Kite, and a passing Marsh Harrier, while Calandra Larks sing overhead and invisible Quail call from the long grass. Further along the same track we find two more male Little Bustards and another two Great Bustard cocks with bristling neck feathers and combined harems of eight females, while a hunting male Montagu’s Harrier drifts across the track and a Red Kite floats by. All this is great but the next track is even better! Starting with a Black Kite posing on a rock, followed by Spanish Sparrows nesting with the White Storks, a scan of the area produces twenty five Great Bustards, including four majestic males which have turned themselves into great fluffy white balls, by erecting all their white under feathers, while sitting down, lowering their wings, inflating their rich rufous necks over their backs and shaking all over. As we watch this remarkable performance, which culminates in mating with the attendant hens, a pair of Stone Curlews join the orgy by mating in the same scope view as one of the stonking bonking Great Bustards! All this while Calandra Larks and Corn Buntings are singing all around. What a fabulous show.
It’s time for lunch on a hill top overlooking these dramatic plains, with a superb male pale-throated Black-eared Wheatear playing ‘King of the Castle’ on a hill top pillar, while seven Montagu’s Harriers patrol the meadow down below. Moving on we bump into a beautiful Black-shouldered Kite sitting on a roadside wire, and watch in the scope as it obligingly hunts by hovering. At an idyllic spot with a bridge over a small river, we add Crag Martin to our list which completes the set of five European Hirundines. With most of our targets now seen superbly well, including about fifty Great Bustards, we head for Mértola, where the castle that looks down on the river below offers the chance to compare Common and Lesser Kestrels sitting on the same medieval bridge and so we enjoy brilliant views of a male Lesser Kestrel with white talons and lovely apricot underparts. What a fabulous time we have had in southern Portugal, with so many top birds in a list of 143 species seen.
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