PORTUGAL 24 - 26th FEBRUARY 2009

 by John Rayner

  

This whistle-stop visit to Portugal trip came together for a number of reasons.

 

1. The avid Western Palearctic listers in the party wanted try for the various countable ‘Category C’ introductions that occur near Lisbon.

2. There was the intriguing possibility of locating a long staying Ruppell’s Vulture, which was first found some 6 years ago at Portas do Rodaos.

3. The airfare was ridiculously cheap, only £10 return, including fees and taxes, from East Midlands Airport to Faro with RyanAir, although to take advantage of this only 2 days birding were possible.

4. The weather was bound to be an improvement on some fairy dismal English weather.

5. Add to this the prospect of excellent birding, good company, sampling the local food, a few beers and a little vino. Where do I sign?

 

24^th February.

A party of 5, Tony Armstrong, Neil Marshall, John Rayner, Doug Smith and Fred Wake, gathered at East Midlands Airport and, after a short flight, arrived in Faro at 19.00. The pre-arranged 9-seater VW Caravelle (£21 each from Eurocar) was quickly sorted and we were on the motorway for the short 19k journey to Loule, staying at the excellent Loule Jardim Hotel. The equally excellent Restaurant Angolana was just around the corner serving pork kebabs, Superbok lagers, litres of house red plus some complimentary local fire water - this was good already and I hadn’t seen any birds yet.

 

25^th February.

On the road for 06.15 and the temperature was a chilly 3 deg. We had decided travel first to the farthest point on our itinerary and faced a 4 hour drive north of some 440k. As dawn broke we were already well north on the A2 motorway and a fine sunny day was in prospect.

Birds typical of the area were noted en route: Red and Black Kites, many parties of roadside Cattle Egrets, Southern Grey Shrikes hunting from fence posts, a couple of Azure-winged Magpies over and a Montagu’s Harrier. During a brief leg stretch we found 2 Little-ringed Plovers and Crested Larks holding territory on a service station car park. Rapid travel was possible as our route was on a continuously linked motorway system (A2, A13, A10, A23) straight to our destination of Vila Vilha Rodao, and the temperature had climbed to a pleasant 23 degrees.

We reached Vila Vilha at 10.15 and stopped at an ancient olive grove on the outskirts of the village to get our bearings and also seeing Hoopoe, Crag Martins, Black Redstart, Serins, 3 Redwings plus commoner birds. Soon we found our way to Portas do Rodao, a magnificent setting viewed from a wooden platform, adjacent to a hilltop hermitage, which afforded full 360 degree views. Here we could overlook the vulture colony at Portas do Rodao, a huge rock portal on the opposite bank of the River Tagus.

 

 Portas Do Rodao

 

Griffon Vultures flew by at eye level and a single Black Vulture passed low overhead but the main target remained elusive. A long wait ensued but birding continued with Sardinian Warbler, Subalpine Warbler in the surrounding scrub, Woodlarks in song flight, a Rock Bunting on the approach road and a Black Stork on the river.

A Portuguese birder arrived briefly to monitor vulture nesting and confirmed that the Ruppell’s Vulture had been seen a couple of days earlier. It is over-wintering at the colony and was even seen nest building in 2008 but can occasionally go missing for a few days. He thought late afternoon was our best chance when more birds would come in to roost. Sure enough, at 15.15, we picked out the Ruppell’s Vulture, first in flight, then perched on a ledge where it preened (arrow).

         

Above: Left, Ruppells Vulture preening and right, Griffon Vulture

 

Some distant photographs were taken but we were now behind schedule so we departed at 15.45 for the journey back southwest to our second site, Carcavelos, just west of Lisbon.

On arrival at Carcavelos 2 Crested Mynas immediately flew across the road past our vehicle and landed in a ditch. Unfortunately some of the party didn’t get good views of this well established introduction and, although we searched the area till dusk, there were no further sightings. After some difficulty negotiating road works we eventually found Hotel Geres in the Baixa district of Lisbon. Not quite as nice as Loule but not a bad price for a capital city. After sampling local fish dishes we found a lively street bar and, caught up in the atmosphere, stayed out a little too late and didn’t get to bed till midnight.

 

26^th February

Another pre-dawn start and we were on the road at 06.25, drove straight back to Carcavelos and arrived just after dawn. The Crested Mynas, so difficult the night before, now gave themselves up easily as a flock of 14 fed in the car park by San Juliao da Barra Fort. The light was poor so only poor photographs were possible.

 

Above: Crested Mynas

 

Wary of rush hour traffic we used the outer motorway ring system and whilst crossing the Vasco da Gama Bridge noted a small party of 8 Greater Flamingos in roadside floods. The site at Barocca d’Alva consists of flooded rice paddies surrounded by ditches (see photo) and a bit of a birding frenzy ensued with an assortment of waders, ducks, Spoonbills, Marsh and Hen Harriers, Spotless Starlings, Greater Short-toed Larks, abundant Cetti’s Warblers, Zitting Cisticolas, Blue-headed Wagtail, larger numbers of Greater Flamingos and White Storks, a Lesser Kestrel and a superb light phase Booted Eagle all added to a growing list. Two more category C introductions, Common Waxbill and Black-headed Weaver, were easily found in the ditches but the third remained elusive.

Above: Barocca d’Alva

 

 Above: Black-headed Weavers

Conscious of the time we moved to another site at Rilvas, only 10 minutes away, and searched some overgrown allotments. White Storks were bill-snapping and displaying from every available pylon and 23 were counted in the immediate area. It took nearly an hour but eventually we found 3 Black-headed Munias, another category C species, which were loosely associating with a flock of 25-30 Common Waxbills.

 

White Stork on pylon

 

Back to Barocca and luckily we quickly found our fourth and last category C species, a party at least 12 Yellow-crowned Bishops. However, time was slipping by, it was now 13.55 and we had one more site to visit. 

Heading south on the A2 we turned east onto the IP2, exited Castro Verde on the N123, parked just beyond San Marcos da Ataboeira and, at 15.45, began to scan the plains. We could not believe our eyes when we immediately scoped what appeared to be a fairly distant flock of ‘sheep’ near a derelict farm, which proved to be a large winter flock of 76 Great Bustards. They seemed to be everywhere and more appeared behind us giving extraordinarily close flight views. We then drove off the N123 onto a red dirt track into the reserve proper (turning south at a small stand of eucalyptus exactly 1.4k east of a signpost for Salto) and eventually found a water hole where we parked, just before a metal gate at the reserve entrance (see photo).

Above: Bustard Reserve - San Marcos da Ataboeira

Above: Great Bustards