Yesterday got off to a fairly early start, despite some thick fog around Alvor. I wanted to be at Salgados whilst it was quiet to check the margins for any Jack Snipe and other waders. Carl joined me a few minutes after I'd arrived and we soon found the margin of the lake, busy with Bluethroats. At least two males were out in the open and a female was seen singing from a tree in the shallow water. The water levels remain very high which suits the waterfowl if nothing else. Duck numbers are increasing each week and an unusual sighting here was a pair of Red-crested Pochard which quickly disappeared behind an island. Pintail are showing very well with this pair being a good example. The whole length of the boardwalk produced very few sightings, with Shoveler and Gadwall ducks present on the small islands. Lapwings, a few Snipe and a Black-tailed Godwit were the only waders along this part of the lake. We came across the (white-faced) Crested Lark which I have photographed on some occasions. This lark must be a good four years old now, by my records! The Marsh Harriers were hunting the reedbeds and although they put all the ducks in flight, I didn't see any interesting waders flying from the marsh. We decided to spend the afternoon at Estombar on the ricefields. My previous visit had turned up huge numbers of Waxbills and now, decent flocks of the Scaly-breasted Munia were joining the Waxbills. A couple of fields of rice have been harvested recently, by an old harvester I'd seen at the farm and thought it was some relic from days gone by. The farmer gave us a cheery wave as his tractor coughed and spluttered past us, the tractor manufactured by - Lamborghini!! The rice grains attract large numbers of sparrows and some smart male Spanish Sparrows can be seen here. One of the fields contains a great deal of water and has attracted Green Sandpipers, Common Snipe and Greenshank. A fair way across this field I noticed another wader and it was only with the aid of my camera lens, I found it to be a juvenile Wood Sandpiper. Standing between and behind those reeds gave me loads of problems focussing at long distance but I was pleased with a Wood Sandpiper sighting here. In the same pool and equally unusual were my first Flamingos at the ricefields. Quite what they were finding to eat I don't know but four very young Flamingos had settled here. One individual was colour-ringed (2ZTS), denoting it was ringed in Andalucia, Spain last year or this one. There is invariably something interesting going on here, each time I visit. The White Storks and Spoonbills feed placidly if you walk quietly and at a slow pace along the tracks. ** ** ** I had around an hour's drive this morning to take me over to the West coast and the spectacular headlands at Carrapateira. For at least a week now, big seas have been pushing against this coast and have been bringing with them, large numbers of seabirds which would normally remain further out to sea. Huge waves breaking on Carrapateira beach. I checked out a suitable place to observe the sea from and immediately noticed I was being watched, someone else had the same idea! I let the Peregrine have that cliff and moved away to another good view out to sea. As there was a real possibility of some interesting gulls and a good auk passage, I had asked Chris and Sue to join me for a morning's seawatch - in relative comfort! As you can see, it's a long way down to the sea but our 'bins turned out to be perfectly adequate most of the time and we were in for a brilliant few hours. Razorbills were passing at regular intervals, sometimes a single bird though more likely, flocks of between five and fifteen auks at a time. We were to see a couple of hundred Razorbills in all. A fascinating sight in itself, not being used to seeing auk species on migration. All winter plumage birds, flying low and fast in a southerly direction. A much hoped for species, the Kittiwake appeared for the first time, a distant adult. Unmistakeable with a grey back and solid black wing tips. The next image shows a hint of a trailing dark leg. An addition to the Portugal list for both Chris and myself and as we congratulated ourselves, the Peregrine was not amused at all. Now we had got our eyes in, it wasn't long before a juvenile Kittiwake showed up with its clearly marked upperwings. We continued watching the lines of passing Razorbills when one small flock attracted some attention. There was another auk ahead of the flock which looked a little different to the Razorbills (upper left in picture). Both Chris and I were pretty sure we were looking at a Puffin and a hasty look at the camera confirmed that there was a single Puffin flying with the group of Razorbills. The enlarged view shows the dark underwing which Razorbill does not have. There is a complete dark breastband behind the head and the large bill is rather discoloured as it should be in winter. So another species had found its way onto our lists and we had achieved what we had set out to see, in the most beautiful coastal location.
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