The Lincolnshire Bird Club

We have just returned home after a week on the Algarve at Cabanas in Portugal. This is a small attractive fishing village that seems to have a large quantity of timeshare properties, penthouses or apartments to rent. The village is situated about 5 miles east of the extremely attractive town of Tavira

Cabanas is separated from the sea by sand dunes stretching as far as the eye can see. On the land side of these dunes is a tidal lagoon. Sun-worshipers wishing to use the beach on the sea-side of the dunes have to be ferried across the lagoon. No wider than a cricket pitch at low tide this soon becomes wide and deep when the tide rises its maximum. It must rise about 15 feet.

This area is attractive to birds, dog walkers, fishermen tourists and people digging for cockles. All seem to live in harmony.

Imagine our delight, when stepping out on to our balcony, we discovered we had a view of all this. My telescope was soon set up

On the western edge of the village is a river that separates the area from the Salt Pans, which are the eastern end of Ria Formosa National Park

In the end I recorded 71 species of bird all on foot, without really going much more than a mile or so from my bed. This wasn’t a birding holiday though Ann complained that I didn’t do much else other than consume alcohol

Anyway to the birds

Two lifers
Common Waxbill – a flock of about 16 on three occasions and always in the same place. Introduced from South Africa I understand
Gull Billed Tern – on the Salt Pans

Eleven Birds that I hadn’t seen for some years
Hoopoe – on 7 out of the 8 days we were there
Red Rumped Swallow – every day in good numbers
White Stork – one fed out on the mudflats on a couple of occasions once the tide had dropped
Kentish Plover – in small numbers on the mud and Salt Pans
Sardinian, Olivaceous & Melodious Warblers – in small numbers
Crested Lark – in good numbers but not very confiding
Fan Tailed Warbler (Zitting Cisticola) – one or two of these from time to time in the scrub
Bluethroat (White Spotted) - one dropped onto some scrub just in front of me. It had me reaching for my camera but, oh no, that was in my room. The bird soon flew off and landed on some dead bamboo about 50 yards away. It stayed there for a few minutes before dropping into a gully and didn’t reappear. The following day the camera was soon set up but alas to no avail. On reflection, that wasn’t surprising considering the height of the high tide. This was only my second ever, the first being a well watched individual at Spurn about 15 years ago

There were lots of other birds well worth noting and in no particular order

Cattle Egret - up to about 10 regularly seen
Little Egret - small numbers, this was a surprise
Grey Heron - again small numbers for this prime location
Greater Flamingo - up to 17 always on the Salt Pans
Avocet - 10/20 on the Salt Pans only
Black Tailed Godwit - good numbers on the Salt Pans (100+)
Bar Tailed Godwit - singles seen twice
Black Winged Stilt - usually 10/20 on the Salt Pans
Common Sandpiper - common
Little Stint - just one
Ruff - just one
Ringed Plover - common
Curlew - small numbers
Whimbrel - more common than Curlew
Greenshank - Seen just twice - single one day and then two
Turnstone - very common
Sanderling - very common
Redshank - very common
Spotted Redshank - just one seen
Oystercatcher - scarce – two being the maximum
Grey Plover - very common
Dunlin - in reasonable numbers (c100 maximum)
Spoonbill - up to 20 regular on Salt Pans or mudflats
Sandwich Tern - small numbers seen most days
Little Tern - 2 seen on one occasion
Wheatear - on two occasions, 2 one day
Kingfisher - 2 once, the first being the second for me this year
Spotted Flycatcher - common (seen more than Freddy now)
Pied Flycatcher - one seen
Black Redstart - 2 seen one day and three the next
Common Redstart - one briefly in a bush outside our room
Willow Warbler - common initially
Chiffchaff - common initially
Stonechat - my first this year
Jay - 2 seen once
Corn Bunting - good flock seen on first full morning
Rock Sparrow - two singles seen
Gulls in a bewildering array of plumages
mainly yellow legged, lesser black backed & the odd great black back, two med gulls once and one common gull
Magpie
Swallow
House Martin
House Sparrow
Goldfinch
Starling
Blackbird
Red Legged Partridge
Cormorant
Great Tit
Feral Pigeon
Raptors - nil, not one, zilch

Chris,

There's no doubt about it.....the Algarve really does deliver a super list of birds, with so many of them being scarce/rare/mega in the UK......very satisfying, especially considering how quickly one arrives on site after leaving the UK airport. Cabanas sounds a great birding spot, plus there was clearly no need to bother about hiring a car for the week. My brother-in-law and sister (again car-less) have stayed in nearby Tavira where their hotel was only a short walk away from some great birdwatching salt pans.

You were fortunate to get the Gull-billed Tern on passage; the White Stork which should have left for Africa; and an early Bluethroat which is essentially a wintering bird on the Algarve. Apparently, the Common Waxbills were initially released in Obidos, a small town just north of Lisbon but they seem to have found the Algarve very much to their liking. I had a small, regular group in Vilamoura in May/June 2009, plus that other African exotic, the Masked Weaver.

Finally, Spotted Flycatcher ("common -seen more than Freddy, now") seems to be a very numerous bird in Cabanas, especially for you to have seen over 130 ( presumed different) in just one week ......my own total this summer (excluding young in the nest but including juveniles and all the group birds from the 6 post-breeding/pre-migration sites).

Freddy
PS. you really had me reaching for my binoculars and car keys with your spoof pm saying that you had lots of Spotted Flycatchers appearing outside your bedroom window - ........ Doddington Park, LINCOLN (as opposed to Cabanas, THE ALGARVE) being only a 10 minute drive away from BBH.

Hi Freddy, That was our first visit to the Algarve and was impressed even though our accommodation was sub standard other than the magnificent outlook
I had every intention of hiring a car before I left home but couldn't be bothered once we were there
Tavira was a beautiful little town - full of interesting architecture. It would have rewarded a much longer stay as round every corner there seemed to be something interesting to see
I'm afraid I couldn't resist the e-mail. I could just picture you dashing away from your computer. Still they say RyanAir is pretty cheap and I could have offered you a glass of wine or two
You're right about the spotted flycatchers - I didn't see anywhere near 130 - just jesting
I did find the birds to be very skittish which was disappointing as I was hoping for a few more decent photos than I got
Off my original post I did miss a moustached warbler - again outside the room in the same tree as the spotted flycatcher
Thanks for your comments regarding the tern, bluethroat, stork and waxbills

Hi Chris,

Did you not see Azure-winged Magpies? Generally widespread in the Algarve.

_________________
Regards,

Andy.

Plenty of common magpies that is all but as I said in the report I didn't wander to far
They were one of my targets before I left home
Next time perhaps