Until recently I had done very little birding here, we often did not bother hiring a car for the duration as never went anywhere further than on foot or a short taxi ride, using the time to just chill with the girls. Last year I decided to explore a bit more, hiring a car, and did some early morning birding trips and so I decided to do the same this year as there are a few decent coastal sites within about 30 minutes of the resort.
The resort itself is well developed, as well as the main hotel there are lots of apartment buildings on the site, but as the name suggests it is covered in pines an the small golf course provides a decent amount of greenery and yes there are sand cliffs down to a large sandy beach.
Saturday / Easter Sunday 21st - Pine Cliffs
Arrived at Faro late morning, picked up the car (a Renault Clio estate) and were shortly at the resort. Our room was ready around 4pm so we had lunch and just wandered around the place. Birds that greeted us were Red-rumped Swallows, Serin, Iberian Magpies and Hoopoe with Sardinian Warblers and Spotless Starlings giving a Mediterranean feel to the local population.
The sea and beach had Yellow-legged Gulls in abundance and a few Sandwich Terns offshore. A couple of Red-legged Partridge were on the Golf course
Monday 22nd - Vilamoura Reedbeds
A short drive away is an area of reedy pools and mainly scrubby arable fields with a few olive and citrus trees. It is in an area called the Parque Ambiental, so not quite reserve status but has some recognition of a wild place.
As soon as I was out of the car the sound of Nightingales filled the air, there must have been 4 or 5 singing birds in short stretch of the track. A quick look on the raised reservoir had a number of Common Pochard, 2 pairs of Red-crested Pochard, Black-winged Stilts and a Common Sandpiper.
I walked further on this track until a path to the left ends up at a hide overlooking the a pool surrounded by reeds, before I reached the hide I had added added Cetti's Warbler, Reed Warbler, House Martin, Barn Swallow, Common Swift, Corn Bunting, Quail, Serin, Zitting Cisticola and Stonechat. Amongst this good list there were established populations of Black-headed Weaver and Common Waxbill
Last year I had great views of a Little Bittern from this hide and was hoping for the same, but in 45 minutes had not heard or seen a Bittern but there was a Purple Heron just visible in the reeds a Western Swamphen nearby and a Marsh Harrier and White Stork flew over.
As I left the hide a raptor flew towards me and carried on going but I had a decent view and confirmed this as a pale-phase Booted Eagle.
I did a lap of some of the scrubby fields which on one side are bordered by the golf course and the other arable fields (which were full of calling Quail). A Common Snipe was flushed from a ditch and a European Bee-eater flew over calling.
It was a good mornings birding, the rest of the day was spent back around the resort
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| Nightingale |
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| Corn Bunting |
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| Western Swamphen |
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| Purple Heron |
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| Booted Eagle |
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| White Stork |
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| Cetti's Warbler |
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| Zitting Cisticola |
Tuesday 23rd April - Praia dos Salgados
About 30kms to the West is another coastal site in a protected area called Praia dos Salgados, which is marshland and a large lagoon enclosed by Sand dunes to the sea. It also has a boardwalk for about 0.5 mile.
In the first pool which is close to the sea, Dunlin and Kentish Plover were by the edge. several loud Cetti's Warblers and a Reed Warbler were in the reeds and Zitting Cisticolas and Crested Larks were in the dune scrub. There were quite strong winds on the beach and a few large groups of Whimbrel were flying past and some Sandwich Terns.
It was still fairly early and I hadn't reached the end of the boardwalk before a rather surprising Stone Curlew flew past and towards the beach, not a bird I had expected here at all. I could see at the far end of the lagoon a group of Flamingo and walked up the track towards the other end of the lagoon to get closer with the disadvantage being that it was looking directly into the rising sun.
The duck on the lagoon were mainly Common Pochard, with a few Gadwall and plenty of Coot
I estimated 75 Greater Flamingo on view and 5 Spoonbill. This was the end of the lagoon where the wading birds were obviously gathering, although there were not many places to view and a scope would have been handy, I did see 2 Ruff, 10 Black-tailed Godwit, and double figures of Avocet and Black-winged Stilt. Most of the gulls were Yellow-legged Gulls, but a fly-past Gull was a 2nd summer Auduoin's Gull, which I managed to confirm with a picture. A Marsh Harrier was hunting over the reeds and in flight were a Purple Heron and a White Stork
I went a little further on the main track, where several Cattle Egret were foraging and 3 pairs of Bee-eaters were hawking and calling.
I returned towards the car and a single gull was on the edge of the first pool near the car park, after a bit of head-scratching I concluded on a 1st year Slender-billed Gull, which was great as this was an unexpected lifer for me.
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| Stone Curlew |
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| Greater Flamingos |
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| Greater Flamingos |
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| Crested Lark |
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| Audouin's Gull |
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| Black-winged Stilt |
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| European Bee-eater |
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| 2CY Slender-billed Gull |
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| Slender-billed Gull |
The weather today was cold and at times very wet and we had already planned our day around this although our site-seeing trip into Villamoura was a bit disappointing. Not much on the birding front although there was a Crested Tit near our room,
Thursday 25th April - Villamoura Reedbeds
A return to the reedbeds today as I primarily wanted another chance to see a Little Bittern. It was still quite overcast with a little drizzle when I arrived but the main track was still full of singing Nightingales and Cetti's Warblers. A large group of hirundines were low over the track, Barn Swallows, Red-rumped Swallow, House Martins, Common Swift and a few Pallid Swifts.
I entered the hide and scanned the reedbed, only Grey Herons were on view, but a Common Kingfisher flew past as did 3 Glossy Ibis with Western Swamphen and Little Grebe in front of the hide.
2 Booted Eagles were sitting in pines next to the reservoir and several Quail were calling from the fields.
I returned to the hide for a last look on the way back to the car and after a few minutes a male Little Bittern flew across the reeds and went behind the hide, I went out of the hide and luckily the Little Bittern was visible through a gap sitting at the top o the reeds and stayed there for a couple of minutes before flying again. So this was very lucky,
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| Booted Eagle |
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| Little Bittern |
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| Little Bittern |
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| Nightingale |
Friday 26th April - Praia dos Salgados
A morning return to Praia dos Salgados with Sal as she was happy to come to a place with a Boardwalk.
The first pool (where I saw the Slender-billed Gull) had 3 Sanderling and 2 Kentish Plover at the edge.
I followed the same route as Tuesday and saw many of the same birds as well as a Stone Curlew in flight again, but in addition 5 Black Terns, 2 Alpine Swifts and a Yellow Wagtail.
Back at the resort I had a brief Wryneck that was calling away, a Short-toed Treecreeper. and a flock of 16 Glossy Ibis which flew over.
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| Eurasian Spoonbill |
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| Cetti's Warbler |
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| Zitting Cisticola |
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| Greater Flamingo |
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| Greater Flamingos |
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| Alpine Swift |
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| Sanderling |
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| Kentish Plover |
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| Spotless Starling at Pine Cliffs |
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| Red-rumped Swallow |
Saturday 27th - Parque Ambiental Villamoura
The final morning of our trip, we had an early evening flight. This area is the other end of Villamoura Reedbeds and is more scrub and trees without the water.
A few Tree Sparrows were showing on arrival and then a Black-winged Kite was performing . More Blackcaps and Nightingales were in song from thick scrub and Serin, Crested Larks, Corn Buntings and Zitting Cisticolas from the rough ground.
A calling Iberian Green Woodpecker was eventually seen a couple of times in flight. The track went in a loop with mainly taller trees on the outside and a rough scrubby area in the middle. There were 4 Turtle Doves heard with one seen a Quail shot towards me and quickly disappeared and a Hoopoe was also not hanging around a few White Storks breed in the area as some were seen carrying twigs. Sardinian Warblers were the most numerous warbler.
I had seen 95 Species in the week and some lovely southern Europe specialities.
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| Black-winged Kite |
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| Serin |
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| Crested Lark |
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| Track.. with information board |
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| White Stork |
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