There were literally hundreds of gulls in the harbour today as the fishing boats busily unloaded their catches onto the quayside. I've never seen so many and it seemed a good opportunity to look for an early Iceland or Glaucous Gull among the swirling masses. It was a case of working through the birds on the water, those resting on the quays and, not forgetting the many birds sitting atop the roofs of all the fish warehouses. I thought this was an interesting Gull and reckon it to be a 3w Lesser Black-backed Gull. Most of the Gulls were Yellow-legged or Lesser Black-backs of various ages and I checked hundreds of them. There was no sign of the rare Common or Mew Gull which had been seen yesterday. Having exhausted myself with gulls, I went on to the breakwater at the seaward end of Portimao harbour (Praia do Mohle side). The tide was receding slowly and I began picking out waders among the rocks. Turnstones were the first waders I came across - 14 along the length of the breakwater. Sanderlings were present too - 12 in all. One bird is ringed and I am hoping to get the ring details from my photos. At the very end of the breakwater I found the small wader I was looking for - Purple Sandpiper, an Algarve rarity. A Whimbrel flew in and landed nearby. The Great Northern Diver remains in the outer harbour but was quite elusive, diving and moving long distances. A Grey Wagtail and a flyover Kingfisher were unusual also.
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