Just for a change we decided on a non-birding day and headed over to Praia do Bordeira yesterday. A beautiful beach where the Atlantic rolls in, to the delight of the surfing community. At one end of the beach, a high tide may come over and top up a small lagoon. We happened to notice, on our non-birding walk, two Black-tailed Godwits, ten Dunlin, two Redshanks, six Sanderling and a Ringed Plover resting at the lagoon. The juvenile Sanderling looked so colourful in their scaly plumage. The cliffs at Bordeira. This morning we called at the pinhal ceramica ( pottery pinewood) on our way up to Cabranosa. Still a complete lack of small migrants except for 3 Pied Flycatchers and 2 Spotted Flycatchers. Unusually, I found a Turtle Dove which remained stationery long enough to get some nice shots. For the second day running, Sparrowhawks were appearing in double figures. 2 Black Kites, 2 Honey Buzzards and 2 Egyptian Vultures were seen during the morning, with around 9 Booted Eagles. Despite the fact small birds appeared completely absent, Chris cleverly picked out this distant Wryneck, huddled against a tree trunk. Just look how its hind parts and tail virtually disappear into the tree, perfect camouflage. We had been given a tip by Sergio that a European Nightjar was possibly in this part of the wood. A few minutes after the Wryneck sighting, the Nightjar flew up just ahead of us. This was my first record in the Algarve and we saw it twice more in flight as it found somewhere to settle.
Raptors remained in small numbers with more Sparrowhawks and a brief sighting of a juvenile Bonelli's Eagle. As we were about to leave, difficult views of a passing falcon led me think, possibly a 2cy Eleonora's Falcon. Comments are closed.
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