Delighted to be back in Portugal, we landed at Faro brandishing our newly acquired visas and set off on the now familiar route to Sagres. We are settling in at the Sagres Time apartments, recommended to us by friends Steve and Alyson and yesterday afternoon I had a couple of hours on the Atalaia headland after collecting 'Ellie the dog' from her long road journey. The rain which had fallen in the morning was clearing away nicely and blue skies returned once more. Bird migration is getting underway and this headland is always a good indicator of what species are on passage. Pied and Spotted Flycatchers are early arrivals, around six of each species soon found in the bushes. 1w Pied Flycatcher. Pied Flycatcher leaving its perch to catch food. I was expecting Willow Warblers to be seen quickly but instead it was a Melodious Warbler which became my first warbler sighting. The flat crown and sloping forehead of the Melodious Warbler shows well. More expected warblers - Sardinian, Fan-tailed and Common Whitethroat were found along with a Reed Warbler, below. The sky was quiet birdwise after the rain, with no raptors moving yet. Only four Red-rumped Swallows and a Common Swift passed over the headland. This morning I visited the headland again, shortly after sunrise and in time to watch the fog roll in from the sea!! Looking for birds was very limited in the poor visibility, I almost tripped on this juvenile Woodchat Shrike feeding on the ground in front of me. I found a single Nightingale and this Whinchat in the gloom before heading home for breakfast. The fog lasted less than an hour and we were soon on our way to our first day at Cabranosa, with Chris and Sue. The recent rain meant that raptors would be very few if any but, it provided a great opportunity to concentrate on all the small migrants, of which there were plenty to see. Flycatchers made up the majority of migrants seen while Chris and I set about locating a Western Orphean Warbler, present for some days around the watchpoint. We did find the Orphean Warbler before lunch, seeing it well but only briefly before becoming very elusive again. Only the second sighting for both Chris and myself so we were both pleased. Among the Common Whitethroats, we did find more than one 1w Spectacled Warbler, looking much brighter and uniform in colour. Two or three Common Redstarts were seen including a nice male, moulting its black head. In the pines we separated Linnets, Greenfinches and came across two superb Ortolon Buntings. Close to where the Orphean Warbler was found, a group of four Garden Warblers made an interesting sighting. I mentioned earlier that raptors would be few and the only arrivals seen were - a Black Stork, the first of Autumn accompanied for a while by a Honey Buzzard and, two Booted Eagles with a single one just before we left for the day.
An excellent start today, as the rain clears in the North we can expect many more birds arriving. Comments are closed.
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