26 July, The Alentejo, Castro Verde region
The Alentejo is a large area of grassland steppe, rolling hills with sparse cork oak plantations and wide open spaces! This was a real change from the coast, more like I imagined Portugal to be like. We set of before sunrise towards Castro Verde following the E1 (and Dave Gosney's directions). On the map you would expect this road to be a motorway, it isn't, it is mostly single carriage way. There are sections with crawler lanes for overtaking. There aren't enough of them, it is a scary stretch of road, my heart was in my mouth most of the time. People seem to be oblivious to oncoming traffic.
Anyway, we made it and I had my first tick of the day on the E1, a Red Kite flew across the road. We reached Castro Verde and drove through the town a couple of times trying to find our way out. We stopped at a small sewage works on the outskirts of town (I take Jane to all the best places). There were many Bee-eaters, Black-winged Stilts, Common Sandpiper and Little Ringed Plover. We also had a good look at Stonechat and Woodchat Shrike here.
We decided to head from Castro Verde towards Sao Marcos de Ataboeira. As we were driving along a bright yellow bird flew in front of the car, Jane managed to see were it landed and I pulled over. After staring at a bush for a couple of minutes a vision appeared- Golden Oriole! This is another bird the books don't do justice to. It was stunning, it would hop to the end of a branch and flycatch or drop to the ground and then return to the bush. We eventually decided it must have been an immature male bird from the bright yellow-green plumage. Whilst we were watching the Oriole a Booted Eagle was soaring in the background. It seemed throughout the day that if you stopped and scanned carefully you would see raptors of some description.
We would turn up small farm tracks that looked promising as we went along. We did have to turn back occasionally- the Punto wasn't up to boulder hopping. On one of the first roads we turned up I saw a Shrike perched on a fence post, I dismissed it as a Woodchat and kept going but when it flew it looked bigger and paler- Southern Grey Shrike. I could have kicked myself it had sat for ages and I hadn't even looked at it! It perched some way off on a power line and I could see the pink blush underneath. We tried to approach it on foot but could get no closer. As we walked back to the car Jane picked out a bird of prey flying low towards the car, a harrier of some kind. It landed in the field behind the car but the sun was behind it and we could not pick out much detail apart from a hint of orange in the breast. As we approached (more like stalked it) it took off and flew past the road and into the field below us- immature Montagu's Harrier. We watched as it flew slowly across the field with the wings held in a V, twisting and dropping occasionally. The immature plumage is quite spectacular but I'd still like to see a male Montagu's.
We stopped at the bridge over the Rio Cobres (about 5 km outside Castro Verde). Bee-eaters were perched on the lines level with the bridge so we had very good views. I flushed about thirty Grey Partridges from underneath the bridge when I looked over! I took a walk up the stream bed which was had occasional pools of water but none flowing. I flushed more Partridge and had a hard time getting a good look at Corn Bunting of which there were at least one hundred. There were a few Cattle Egret and one Little Egret. We stopped in Sao Marcos de Ataboeira and got a couple of much needed drinks, it was starting to get very hot.
On from the bridge we had a flock of five Kestrels flying over the road and Ostrich. They weren't expected, I had eaten some Ostrich a night before (in a rich port sauce) it tasted like a cross between liver and beef. Anyway, they looked as though they belong in the Alentejo.
We were driving through a stretch of road lined by Eucalyptus and stopped to watch four Azure-winged Magpies. Absolutely beautiful birds, and fairly tame. We saw a large number of Griffon Vultures circling in the distance, they seemed to fly closer but then moved off again.
We reached Mertola and headed back towards Castro Verde on the N267. We cut up a minor road and saw a Black-shouldered Kite sitting on a power line (brilliant things power lines). We were able to drive up to about fifteen metres of the bird but as soon as the car stopped it took off and flew down the road. We repeated this four times until it got fed up and flew back up the road! About two kilometres up the road we had our last bird of prey for the day, a Black Kite.
I cannot recommend the Alentejo enough, we had a superb day here. It needs an early start and a full day to cover the area. There are a few shade trees along the road but not enough- a hat is a necessity (and a lot of sun lotion).
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27 July, Lido Farm, Ria Formosa (Faro Marshes)
We had a lie in today so only had a short visit to the marshes (and I didn't have a 'scope which didn't help). There were quite a few White Storks, a couple of Black Kites. A lot of Little Terns were sitting on the small sand banks in the salt pans and a couple of vociferous Kentish Plovers were on the banks. It was too hot and everything was too far away- no fun!
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28 July, Vale de Parra
I was up early again. A van drives past the villa every weekday morning at about 7am, blasting away on his car horn. I have no idea why! I saw him driving a few times when I was out (again on this morning). Either he is doing a civic duty and getting the locals up for work or he doesn't like tourists and is getting his jollies.
No car today so I did my circuit of the fields and golf course and saw much the same as before, although I did get Serin in amongst a flock of Goldfinches and saw another Grey Shrike. This one looked smaller and greyer underneath than the bird on the Alentejo, no pink colouration. It did have the white supercilium though. I assume it was still a L. meridionalis.
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30 July, Vale de Parra
The last day of the holiday :-(
I was up at dawn again and out onto the golf course. I was up and out before it was really light so there was not a lot to be seen. It was amazing though the way in which the sky suddenly fills with Swifts, Alpine Swifts, Swallow and House Martins, they seem the ride the dawn.
I watched a black cat walk out of the reeds with an immature Coot in it's jaws. The cat saw me and scampered off dropping the Coot. I assumed it was dead but when I picked it up it struggled very weakly. I set it on the bank of a ditch and it stumbled, rolled in to the water, seemed to come round and swam off! I think it must have been in shock at escaping twice!
I decided to walk to the coast. In a fig grove were a couple of immature Woodchat Shrikes. I arrived at the beach and had a quick scan along the shore, people where about already so the only shore bird was an Oystercatcher. I settled down to have a scan out to sea, I wasn't really looking for birds but a group of Shearwaters were quite close in. They basically looked like Manx Shearwaters, but larger, mainly dark coloured and white- white belly and underwing with a dark trailing edge to the underwing. The upper wing and body looked dark. Unfortunately, I didn't take the 'scope on this holiday (much wailing and gnashing of teeth), silly of me I know As a result I really can't be sure but I reckon they were Cory's Shearwater.
On the way back from the shore I passed through the fig grove again. There were birds in the bushes but they were hard to pin down. I thought I had a funny Melodious Warbler but when I finally got a good view it had no yellow in the belly or breast and looked light brown above. The structure was much the same as Melodious but not quite right... Olivaceous Warbler! I had another pair of Southern Grey Shrike as I headed back to the villa.
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Trip list
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83 species total
32 new species
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