My morning visits to Atalaia continue and my first Richard's Pipit there was a nice find yesterday. A Pied Flycatcher was hanging on while most small migrants have left now. A very plain Garden Warbler required a few moments closer looking. The resident Wryneck shows well every morning. This time, feeding in a shady area behind the hedge. A female Black Redstart. Many more are being seen in all kinds of locations, as a common Winter bird. Driving up into the hills after breakfast, we only waited a short time before the resting Vulture flock took to the air again. The flock which stayed overnight contained around 700 Griffons, 4 Egyptian Vultures and 3 Ruppell's Vultures. At least one of the Ruppell's Vultures was 'tagged' as a chick in Africa. Here is the one Ruppell's Vulture I found, flying down to Cabranosa. A lovely close Common Buzzard.
I'll begin with a reminder or update for our friends who, for one reason or another couldn't join us this Autumn, sharing the migration spectacle. Carl's pond continues to receive regular maintenance from himself and an almost constant supply of birds are attending. The small pools which provide so much fresh water contain a healthy number of frogs and mammals such as the red fox have been seen here. At the Eastern end of the watchpoint hill, the trig point remains where views as far away as Monchique allow sightings of incoming birds. Lastly of course is the observers' position, scopes trained towards the sky where all the observations are made from and data collected. I am in my sixth week here, the area is litter-free, undisturbed and highly valued by all birders who come to Cabranosa. So today was one of the magical days when Griffon Vultures arrive in huge numbers and whirl about in the sky overhead, before making their way back out from Sagres. A first flock arrived late morning, I counted 208 Griffons. With the flock were 2 Black Storks, a Booted Eagle and a Common Buzzard. They had been gone about an hour when a huge flock moved towards us, numbering around 1000 Griffon Vultures. Standing at the watchpoint, the arrival is quite awesome taking in the sheer number of birds and the amount of sky they soon occupy. As I've explained before, coming to Sagres is a mistake made by the juvenile vultures, Gibraltar being the preferred crossing point to Africa. The decision-making process can be seen in varying stages of success! Movement can look accurate and almost regimental at times. A degree of uncertainty can set in! .....and confusion reigns on a massive scale. Other species were seen with the vultures. Here, one of two Black Storks flying close to a Griffon. Just one of the passing Griffon Vultures which fortunately flew a little lower than most! Finally, the Crossbill irruption is still providing sightings daily. This small flock of six birds was at Cabranosa a few days ago, containing at least one red male. Cabranosa, a wonderful place!
That turbine doesn't really lean!! We are into the Griffon Vulture migration now. This can be a testing time for the organisations monitoring the raptors and controlling a number of turbines which they are able to do. Yesterday afternoon was a case in point where a number of factors put the incoming flocks at risk. There were around 360 Griffons approaching Raposeira, a brisk wind was blowing which was tiring the vultures and, late in the afternoon the temperature was falling which would put an end to thermal currents. After wheeling around until after 1600hrs, the Griffons finally made a landing before reaching the wind farm, resting for the night around one kilometre away. This morning around 1030hrs and a new day, I was able to see at long distance, the Griffons taking to the air again, assembling initially in a large flock and drifting West towards Sagres. Apart from the main flock, around a dozen birds had come down in the forest where I was. These birds flew over me, gaining height and re-joining the main flock. The wind was from a different direction today, a light Northerly which allowed the Griffons to gain much height quickly. They remained on the peninsula, coming and going for a few hours before leaving the area at a safe height. Unfortunately, one Griffon was lost yesterday at an adjacent wind farm, when it made contact with a turbine blade. Few other raptors were seen apart from increasing numbers of wintering Common Buzzards. Not always well received by the local Sparrowhawks.
Once again, the bushes on Atalaia headland was the venue for a most difficult birding find. An unusual finch/sparrow type of species was seen among a small flock of Linnets. At first I hoped it was a Trumpeter Finch, but there were some clear differences. I put a request for identification on Facebook and the favourite candidate at the moment is - a female Pin-tailed Whyder. I looked at the possibility of a Red-billed Quelea though the tail on my bird appears too long, in general. Almost certainly an escape bird, it would be useful to have a confirmed identification if at all possible with the images I was able to take. UPDATE 20/10/2021.
The above bird is a juv male Pin-tailed Whydah, a species introduced in Portugal in small numbers to the North around Lisbon. This is the first record of the species in the Algarve region. Having experienced some quiet raptor days recently, we had not been at Cabranosa long before I detected a distant swirl of vultures in the East. There was definitely a significant number of birds, estimated at 320-350 and moving steadily towards us. We had prior knowledge from other watchers that a Black Vulture was in the flock and before long, we saw the huge Black Vulture leading all the Griffons towards us. I don't know whether such majestic birds like the Black Vulture suffer extreme embarrassment, but faced with the ocean to the West and to the South, it had no option but to turn around and the reluctant Griffons duly followed. After the Griffons had left, the sky remained quiet for a long time. The only significant sighting was a pale juvenile Bonelli's Eagle circling the area. The Bonelli's was soon harassed by a very brave Buzzard, constantly flying at the Bonelli's, which appeared to ignore it completely. Other sightings from this week include:- A Peregrine from around Vale Santo. A few of the many Choughs at Vale Santo. A juvenile Black Stork at Cabranosa. A Common Buzzard at Vale Santo. A Great Black-backed Gull at Porto do Baleeira. A Golden Plover high over Atalaia.
An interesting day in which we were joined by John and Pat, making our team up to six though still missing other friends who can't get out here just yet. On arriving, two Black Storks were overhead. A further three and a single came through in the afternoon. The wind was from the South-East which was tending to keep birds North of us and, for a time approximately 100 Griffon Vultures were seen in the distance. They didn't reach Cabranosa, turning back in the direction they had come, maybe tomorrow! An Osprey appeared from nowhere, flying down to the coast. A small number of Booted Eagles passed through, as did 3 Egyptian Vultures, a Black Kite, Common and Honey Buzzard. 9 Red Kites came from the North, having travelled down the West coast. A distant juvenile Bonelli's Eagle was seen and a Hobby dashed about the area in the afternoon. It is impossible to understand birds without appreciating all the other aspects of nature which surround us and them. A real treat today was being shown the caterpillars of the Death's Head Hawk Moth (Acherontia atropos). Firstly a picture of the moth itself (courtesy of Wikipedia). The skull pattern on its head gives the moth its name. We found the caterpillars on the 'apple of Sodom' bushes, a very toxic plant but not apparently, to the caterpillar which happily strips and eats the leaves. These amazingly marked creatures were as long as my fore-finger and can reach 125 mm in length. I have never seen such enormous caterpillars, they come in green, yellow and brown forms. Finally, some of the twenty Crossbills which dropped into Pinhal Ceramica.
You never know what the day will bring when you set out on a birding trip. Three years ago this week, I found a Red-breasted Flycatcher in the Pinhal Ceramica (pine wood).
This morning on Atalaia, there was little sign of any fresh migrants in the bushes. Apart from the resident pair of Sardinian Warblers, I was struggling to find any birds until a flycatcher emerged into the early sunlight. I immediately noticed this flycatcher lacked any wing bars, as in Pied and lacked any breast streaks for a Spotted Flycatcher. With wings dipped down, tail lifted and a pinkish tinge to the flanks, I knew this was a Red-breasted Flycatcher. This species should be heading for Western Asia and is completely out of place in SW Europe. The flycatcher has remained all day but is very mobile and difficult to track down. I am pleased other observers have been able to catch a sight of this rare vagrant to Portugal. A delightful encounter on Atalaia was listening to a male Blue Rock Thrush singing to its partner, as if it was a Spring morning. The male on the right and female to left. The final day of the Sagres Bird Festival and a much better show at Cabranosa, with a wide range of raptor species for the visitors to observe. Our team noted - 1 Egyptian Vulture, 14 Booted Eagle, 6 Short-toed Eagle, 2 juv and one 2cy Bonelli's Eagle, 2 Black Kite, 2 Common Buzzard, 1 Marsh Harrier, 1 Peregrine, 1 Hobby, 3 Kestrel. 4+8 Black Storks accompanied the raptors. Of particular interest were - A juvenile Egyptian Vulture. The adult Bonelli's Eagle. The juv (left) and 2cy Bonelli's Eagle. 2cy Bonelli's Eagle. Juv Bonelli's Eagle. With very few birds on the ground all day, a most interesting find was a distant Ring Ouzel perched in a pine tree, late afternoon. A notably pale 1st Winter type Ring Ouzel and my first Winter thrush of the Autumn.
Each year, the festival organisers produce an event programme to which anyone can register and join in. Such events range from bird ringing demonstrations, sea watching and pelagic trips to lectures and activities for families and youngsters. A particular event which held our interest was a 'night' visit to Cabranosa, where we spend the days raptor watching. The itinerary of the visit was to include - listening for owls, moth trapping, encounters with bat species and looking for nocturnal scorpions. We assembled as planned, at the designated time. Our guide and instructor, Mario, soon concluded that the weather conditions were far from ideal. The evening was cool and a brisk wind was blowing. Our chances of owls, bats and moths were virtually non-existent sadly. With the use of visual aids and equipment required, Mario was able to show us some of the nocturnal species in this area, giving us a fascinating insight into nightlife at Cabranosa. What he was able to show us were the scorpions on the ground, all around where we were standing. With the aid of an ultra-violet lamp, the scorpions glow white and stand out remarkably well. When approached, they can quickly disappear down a burrow and out of sight. Aside from the event itself, the hill at Cabranosa is a wonderful place to look at the night sky. With no moon visible, this was the first time I had seen the Milky Way clearly and many constellations, in a long, long time. The headquarters for the Festival is situated in the grounds of the Forte do Beliche, on the way to the Cape. From the Forte on the cliff edge, a magnificent view of the surrounding cliffs and out to sea. Black Redstart, Blue Rock Thrush and Peregrine are frequently seen here. This morning (Sunday), I took part in another event which was my fifth pelagic trip to see the sea birds and probably dolphins also. Booked with Cape Cruisers this time, we set off at 0830am in not the best of weather. Sitting on a RIB, one metre above sea level with waves of one and a half metres forecast shortly was going to be interesting! On top of that, rain was also forecast which met us about an hour out, running into it at twenty knots. Despite becoming wetter by the minute, we found the seabirds - Cory's Shearwaters being the first to show and flying around the boat, almost in reaching distance. Small rafts of these shearwaters were located in places. While 'chumming' for any nearby Petrel species, Great Skuas appeared and joined a few Yellow-legged Gulls in eating the prepared fish meal. We did have some luck attracting Storm Petrels, with around six birds in total. Very hard to photograph in the conditions but equally good to be able to observe these small deep sea birds once again. By far the star bird seen was a Grey Phalarope sitting on the sea, before flying away and not seen again. A possible distant Sooty Shearwater, 3 Balearic Shearwaters and an Osprey close to Sagres made an excellent variety of birds on this short cruise.
Throughout the last few weeks there have been many reports of Common Crossbill in the Algarve. A bird species not normally found in Portugal but from countries much further North in Europe. On my days out I have either heard or seen two or three birds in flight, usually high up and flying at some speed. This morning I was very lucky indeed! On my visit to the pinewood (Pinhal Ceramica) in Sagres, I had found a single Pied Flycatcher and five Blackbirds. Undeterred, I remained there and soon heard an approaching flock of Crossbills. The flock circled the pinewood several times with the birds calling loudly. In flight, I could make out the red males and the green females amongst them. They flew a good bit lower and I hoped they would do the right thing and land in the pines around me! For no more than one minute, the Crossbill flock landed, spread out through the trees and I was lucky to record the moment. A male and female were in a tree not too far away.
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