Early in the week, a visit to Salgados revealed the water was continuing to run into the sea, albeit very slowly. There is barely any water left in the lagoon, other than a mid-channel. Whilst some wading birds such as the flamingos have moved on, the small waders are doing well. It was noticeable that species such as Sanderling and Turnstone, normally found on the seashore, were taking advantage of the large swathes of mud. An interesting visitor was this winter plumaged Ruff. A Caspian Tern, often seen here, was resting with gulls near the bridge. There were many gulls preening and resting on the mud banks including Yellow-legged, Lesser Black-backed, Black-headed and good numbers of Mediterranean Gulls. This 1st winter Greater Black-backed Gull towered over the Yellow-legged Gulls which are normally the largest gull here. With very little human activity on the boardwalk, we were able to see Bluethroats working along the saltmarsh, close to us. Yesterday we went around to Alvor marsh (Praia d'Rocha) and along the approach road was an Osprey. He had clearly made a 'catch' and was about to start feeding on a freshly caught fish. Repair work is underway to plug the breaches in the estuary wall where the incoming tide has been flooding this area for over a year now. I have no doubt this work needs to be done as, not only does the road become covered in water but it also runs into nearby private land. When I first saw the effects of this flooding, I could see the vegetation was beginning to die down and the area looked really messy. At the back of my mind, I thought nature would have a solution and it would simply become a different habitat and not the devastation it looked at first. On our visit today, I found large areas where the vegetation has gone completely, leaving either shallow pools or large areas of mud. These pools were frequented by all the wader species normally seen here and the birds were actively feeding. Whilst saltmarsh is a valuable habitat for roosting waders, I can't help but think the way this ground is re-forming, it could be very beneficial to water birds. Compare this to the huge saltmarsh at Abicada where, apart from a few resting herons, there is very little going on (in my opinion), with all birds being on the estuary edges. Water Pipit on one of the new bare areas. On the estuary above Alvor harbour, a flock of 40 Cormorants had been driving fish into the shallower water. Here they were joined by Little Egrets, 2 Spoonbills and even Sandwich Terns, all joining in a sudden feeding session.
Comments are closed.
|
|