No more than a couple of hours spent at Salgados this afternoon, but at least two sightings were worthy of documentation here. It was also an opportunity to meet again with fellow birders Francisco and Rui. A general view of the upper lagoon shows the variety of wintering birds, mainly ducks that gather in large numbers. The image above, of a very small area, contains Grey Heron, Cormorant, Shoveler, Gadwall, Pintail, Teal and Avocet to illustrate the variety of species. This image takes a look at seabirds resting together and contains - Black-headed Gulls, juvenile and adult Mediterranean Gulls, an adult Audouin's Gull and two out of six Caspian Terns (at the top). The 'out of focus' birds in the foreground are a mix of Sanderlings and Golden Plovers. The first notable bird was an adult Kittiwake which I saw resting on an island. Although looking very smart, I felt it was lethargic and suspect it is not in the best of health. I would have preferred to have seen it flying out at sea. I let Francisco know of my sighting and he in turn, had found something interesting for me to see in the other direction. We walked to where we could see over the nearby reedbed and out on the lagoon were a pair of migrant Garganey ducks. In the image below and to the right of a fine male Pintail is the female Garganey, with brown mottled plumage and appearing quite normal. To the left of the Pintail is the male Garganey. We concluded this male is still in 'eclipse' plumage, before attaining its summer or breeding plumage. The chest is undoubtedly brown as it should be but the flanks are not fully grey yet and, the white head stripe feathers have not developed either. At the moment, there are fairly regular sightings of a young Goshawk around Salgados which may be wintering here. Perhaps with luck I may come across it in the near future.
Comments are closed.
|
|