A new venue for today found us at a fresh water lagoon, behind the beach of Praia do Loule Vehlo. This turned out to be a most interesting site, as not only was there the lagoon with reedbed behind, but also the sea area and an extensive woodland of 'stone pines'. First impressions from the car park (shown) were that a good number of wildfowl were present and of varying species. Crested Lark in the car park. A first count was made with 4 Shoveler, 26 Gadwall, 12 Teal, 2 Glossy Ibis, 2 Purple Gallinule, 2 Black-winged Stilt, 6 Snipe, 4 Sanderling, 1 Kentish Plover, 10 Coot and 2 Grey Heron. Whilst counting among the Teal, I was very surprised to see a male Garganey with them. This was a first for my Algarve list and I'm not at all sure what the status of Garganey is, particularly in February. Anyway, it was a cracking bird. Garganey with male Shoveler stretching! 12 Red-crested Pochards flew in and straight out again and a Lesser Black-backed Gull came in to bathe. A Marsh Harrier flew over the reed-beds, as did a Black-shouldered Kite. In the nearby reeds, Cetti's Warblers and Sardinian Warblers were calling constantly. Behind the car park is the woodland , comprising mainly of stone pines. Once inside, the wood is quite thin and lets in plenty of daylight, that is of course, until you try and photograph a Crested Tit, in the tangle of pine branches! Also in the wood were two Short-toed Treecreepers, a Firecrest, Jay, Great-spotted Woodpecker, 2 Serins and a few Chaffinches.
An excellent venue and a great day! Comments are closed.
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