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.
Wendy
4/10/2021 08:16:54 am
Wonderful photos and very interesting to read your blog. Thank you! I’ve only just discovered the Sagres festival. We’re in Ferragudo till Saturday and are wondering whether to come over today, as not normally here this time of the year i’ll look further into how to register for info and which area is best for viewing storks etc preparing to migrate. Comments are closed.
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