Portugal - May 2024

Saturday 11th May - Saturday 25 May.

 An annual trip to Portugal, this time with a bit of variation as we started by flying into Porto for 4 nights.

A great city with lots to explore, but it was focussed on tourist activities rather than the birds  an enjoyable 4 days leaving with a wish list to see more, particularly the Douro Valley. I left with a small list of common birds including Crag Martin, Yellow-legged Gulls, Pallid Swift amongst the Common Swifts and Serin.

Views in Porto

On Wednesday we took a train from Porto to Lisbon, which took about 3 hours, a couple of White Storks and Black Kites were seen from the train and then we had 2 nights in the centre of Lisbon again sightseeing, where from an avian interest perhaps Short-toed Treecreeper and Black Redstart were the most notable.

On Friday we had hired a car, which was dropped off at the hotel, and we had booked 2 nights in a AirBnB house in a  very small village called Granja which was about 4 miles from the Spanish border in rolling countryside of vineyards, olive groves and cork forest plantations, we didn't really have a plan in mind when we booked this other than to find somewhere different to stay on the way to the Algarve.

It took about 3 hours to drive but very good roads with little traffic, we only stopped at Lidl on the way to get some provisions, which is a good job we did as there was nothing at all in Granja. The weather start to improve to clearer skies and some sun which was nice.

The house was plenty big enough, it could sleep 10 !!! - It had a cosy courtyard garden which was a bit of a sun trap, but we were happy enough to relax here. I had quite a good view of the sky and a couple of miles away was a extremely large body of water, which we couldn't see from the house but the land seemed to flow down to this from the village. We drove through this area and a Caspian Tern flew over the car as we crossed a bridge and a few Iberian Magpies were being seen on the roadside.

From the terrace in the afternoon I saw local Serin, Hoopoe, Spotless Starling, and Crested Lark. Maybe surprisingly a well coloured light-phase Booted Eagle soared over along with Black Kites. Barn Swallows were nesting in the house next door and the village had a thriving colony of House Martins.

Similarly I was up early the next morning and before we went out spent anther hour or so in the courtyard just scanning the skies. The village had at least 3 White Stork nests, all with young in the nest. As the heat of the morning built up I counted 9 Griffon Vultures drift over, at least one Cinereous Vulture, Booted Eagle, Short-toed Snake Eagle and best of all a sandy-coloured Spanish Imperial Eagle.

We went to explore in the afternoon ending up in the town of Mourao, which had a castle, although the siren went off in town alerting us to the whole area shut down at this time on Saturday until Tuesday morning !. A Bee-eater and some Red-rumped Swallows, Woodchat Shrike, Zitting Cisticola and Turtle Dove were  additions to the list from the excursion.

We had a comfortable meal in the courtyard and decided to leave around 8am the following morning.

Half the courtyard in Granja

The other half of the courtyard

If I stretched over the wall I could just about see this storks nest on the school house

Serins sang from the roof aerials

As did Hoopoes

Booted Eagle

Booted Eagle

White Stork

Griffon Vulture

Black Kite

Cinereous Vulture

On Sunday morning we decamped from Granja around 8am and headed towards the Algarve, but the route was taking us near an area close to Castro Verde which was largely prairie-type grasslands and worth a brief diversion.

We turned off the main road at  village called Entradas and drove very slowly on a narrow road bordered by grasslands, at first just seeing Crested Larks and a Northern Raven. At a high point in the road a Calandra Lark was displaying, but further scans did not pick up much else other than some distant White Storks.

We drove further and plotted a route around a village called Guireirro and soon found a Roller on a wire, before 2 Black-bellied Sandgrouse flew over the car. A singing Quail was heard and Iberian Grey Shrikes were occasionally seen and Spanish Sparrows were found in an area of bushes. We took a gravel track into the grassland area, where some Bee-eaters were hawking from the wires and surprisingly we flushed 2 Little Ringed Plovers. Lesser kestrels were over the grassland and Thekla Larks were displaying with their subtly different songs to the Crested Larks. A scan from another high point picked up 3 Great Bustards, although they were fairly distant. It had turned into a very productive couple of hours and we were soon on our way for the remainder of the journey to the Algarve.

Extensive grasslands near Castro Verde

Calandra Lark

European Roller

European Bee-eater

A fairly distant Great Bustard

The routine in the Algarve was quite relaxed. On the Tuesday we went for a long morning walk in the Quinto de Lago area along the Ludo trail, which heads towards Faro airport, but we did a loop which took us past some Salt Pans and then the large lake at the Southern end of the San Lorenzo golf course, which actually has a bird hide.

Although most migrant passage would have passed through already, I was still able to notch up a fairly decent bird list. Starting with the ubiquitous Sardinian Warbler, Zitting Cistiola and Serin.

The tidal marsh held Redshank and Little Egrets. There were not many waders around but a small group of Dunlin had Ringed Plover and a smart Kentish Plover with them and Black-winged Stilt guarded one of the pools. A group of gulls had a single Audouin's Gull with them before 3 more flew in. As we neared the area of Salt Pans, both Common and Little Terns were seen. The salt pans held over 200 Greater Flamingos with several Eurasian Spoonbill a Purple Heron, Sanderling, Little Stint and a Yellow Wagtail (iberiae).

Around the golf course lake there were a both Common Waxbill and Black-headed Weavers, both introduced species and from the bird hide I had 2 Little Bitterns that flew around chasing each other.

Kentish Plover

Audouin's Gull on right

Audouin's Gull

Black-winged Stilt

Spoonbills and White Stork

Greater Flamingos

Eurasian Spoonbill

Sanderling

Iberian Yellow Wagtail

Hoopoe

Littl eBittern

Little Bittern

Around the resort we were in, a few species seen included Crested Tits, Red-rumped Swallows, Iberian Green Woodpecker, Iberian Magpies, Short-toed Treecreeper and a fly through Alpine Swift.

Apparently one of the best beaches in the world

Wryneck

On Friday morning we went to Lagao dos Salgados for a walk alongside the lagoon and beach. Many more of the same species were seen, with another Audouin's Gull, Purple Heron, Crested Larks, Zitting Cisticola, Cetti's Warbler, Sardinian Warbler, Cattle Egret, Black-winged Stilt, Pochard and 3 Glossy Ibis.

Audouin's Gull

Even though not a birding trip I still ended up with over 100 species which was quite pleasing and to see some of the birds in the grasslands and mid Alentejo was worthwhile.