Today the weather has unfortunately deteriorated to almost constant drizzle with a brisk Westerly wind. The light was extremely poor for photography too. Yesterday, we were on the outskirts of Lagoa, looking at Glossy Ibis. Following a report of a flock of Rock Sparrows further on from there, we chose to return to that area again. There are quite a few wet fields East of Lagoa which had good numbers of White Stork, Spoonbills, both Egrets and Grey Herons. We found the Glossy Ibis yesterday numbering around 200 in a single flock. Today we found them at our new site a couple of kilometres further East. On the other side of the track we were driving down, were orange orchards, olive trees and general woodland. Small birds were numerous with flocks of Corn Buntings, Linnets, Chaffinches and I felt hopeful for my first Rock Sparrow. The only sparrow I seemed to find was Spanish Sparrow in groups of around twenty birds. (Male and female below). I kept one eye on the fields, which was just as well as a cracking male Hen Harrier flew through very quickly. Two Marsh Harriers were also hunting the fields and a circling Peregrine had the Ibises departing to another field. An addition to the trip list of species (now 105) came in the form of a noisy Jay and other birds seen included Black Redstart, a Green Sandpiper flew over twice, calling and a Red-legged Partridge was seen, climbing a tree!! There was no sign of a flock of Rock Sparrows in the area we searched, which was a pity. Back in Alvor, on the sea in front of our apartment, many Gannets fly West each day. Mostly juveniles like the one below. A couple of Great Skuas have been seen on most days too, usually far out. A search of the boardwalk on the dunes revealed one Bluethroat which was very reluctant to show, keeping hidden in the vegetation.
Comments are closed.
|
|