Another visit to one of my favourite wetland haunts along the Algarve coast. The water level has been increased and waders were in short supply due to this. A flock of Lapwings has gathered here for the winter and three Golden Plover were seen with them. Black-winged Stilts accounted for the majority of waders but there were plenty of Spoonbills, Glossy Ibis and a few Flamingos to watch too. Passing White Storks often drop in here. I spent a good while assessing all the gulls in the roost which were mainly Yellow-legged, Lesser Black-backed and Black-headed Gulls. There was no sign of any Audouin's Gulls today but a nice adult Mediterranean Gull dropped in. In the course of counting the gulls, six Sandwich Terns were noted and two Caspian Terns. The Caspian Tern is a beautiful large tern with its stout crimson bill. At the Northern end of the marsh, around 60 Crag Martins were feeding over the reedbeds and I studied them for a while, in case a Little Swift or similar was with them - unfortunately not! Most of the wildfowl prefer this end of the wetland and there were numbers of Mallard, Teal, Gadwall and Shoveler. I only saw two pair of Pintails but more will arrive before too long. Drake Pintail with Gadwall pair in front. In the fields around the wetland, White Wagtails and Meadow Pipits were plentiful with no sign of a Richard's Pipit here yet. The odd Hoopoe and a Eurasian Magpie were seen, along with a male Marsh Harrier and a pale Booted Eagle. A Bluethroat was heard in part song and Fan-tailed Warblers were flitting about in the reeds, A fairly quiet few hours spent on this precious wetland today.
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