A brilliantly clear morning and the Atlantic Ocean looking like a sheet of glass from the headland at Ponta Piedade. This is a lovely walk on the high cliffs and a good starting place is around the working lighthouse. A boardwalk has been built to protect the fragile cliff edges and no doubt a few lives, taking you in the direction of Porto de Mos. It was encouraging to see that within the project costs, a fair amount of new tree planting has taken place. The cliffs here are a good place to observe what can be regarded as the true Rock Dove. With many feral pigeons seen in the Algarve, it is worth spending a little time looking at these doves which frequent the cliffs of Western Europe and the Mediterranean areas. The key features on Rock Dove are the two distinct black wing-bars and the white back (rump). It has a dark bill and reddish eye, distinguishing it from a Stock Dove which has a dark eye. On this section of the clifftop walk, a Blue Rock Thrush was seen, along with Black Redstarts, Stonechats and Sardinian Warblers. A small number of Blackbirds were in the larger bushes, with Robins here too. I was surprised not to see a Peregrine on the walk, the only raptor was a smart male Kestrel along the boardwalk which was quite approachable. Another bird which is fairly localised in this area is the Jackdaw, and two were seen flying over the approach road to the lighthouse. Just over this sheer cliff was a rather strange sight, a pair of Red-legged Partridges feeding on the sparse vegetation clinging to the cliff face. A lot of visitors walking the cliffs probably accounted for a fairly quiet birding visit. I'm sure migration times can be much more interesting and even different weather conditions.
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