Since our last couple of visits when the water level was very high, today we found an extremely low level with water still flowing out to the sea. The huge areas of mud made the lagoon look much more productive, with birds feeding everywhere. Above shows a small part where Lapwing (75+), Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank, Greenshank, Sanderling, Turnstone, Dunlin, Avocet and Black-winged Stilt were all found. Before we look at other birds seen, a most interesting individual was found mid-afternoon, on the upper lagoon. At first glance, a Coot, but then what appeared to be a neck collar was seen - black plastic with white lettering on it 1JN. My thought then was, a Red-knobbed Coot having seen such collars on these birds in Mallorca. Even at long range, we felt the bill colour was more greyish, as in red-knobbed. It wasn't until I was going through my images that, the bird appears to show a pointed black wedge (on both sides of head) in front of the eye - diagnostic of an ordinary Coot! Despite looking at many images of red-knobbed coots, I haven't seen any such prominent markings as on this individual. Additionally, even at greatest computer magnification, there is no sign of any red knobs!! The 'collar' I believe originates from the ringers at Coto Donana, in Spain. I'll be dropping them an email to let them know of this individual at Salgados. Other features of a Red-knobbed Coot would be a flatter back, but that didn't appear very conclusive on a 'paddling' bird. For the moment I'm not sure on the true i.d. of this Coot. Perhaps its age when known, may give a better idea. It turns out that there is a ringing scheme for the European Coot also at Coto Donana. This is one of their birds. A couple of colourful characters of more dubious origin, are the two Muscovy Ducks which seem at home near the viewing screen. At the Eastern end of the lagoon, the shallow water put all the Little Grebes into a feeding group. By the bridge where a normally large expanse of water is found, the gulls rested on the mud. This Mediterranean Gull was among the Black-headed Gulls. I finally added a single Audouin's Gull to my winter list, long overdue with the lockdowns! A nice Bluethroat boosted our species count to around 65 on a really interesting day. While confined to our municipality the other day, I came across a property (fenced) containing not only an Egyptian Goose, but also two smart Barnacle Geese, looking very out of place in the Algarve!!! Comments are closed.
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