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Whilst on a quick visit to Portugal I had an opportunity to spend three hours at the Herdade dos Salgados next to Gale on the Algarve. This small reserve is a real gem and consists of shallow freshwater pools with sand beaches and marginal reedbeds. These are bordered on the North and East by the ubiquitous Portuguese golf course, on the West by barren dry scrub and the South by vegetated dunes beyond which is the Atlantic. There is a wooden walkway along the Southern side, to protect the dunes, which provides a raised viewing facility with an open hide, which has a roof platform accessed by a ladder.
Seen in the 3 hrs:
Little Grebe
Gannet - off the beach
Cormorant
Cattle Egret – lots
Little Egret
Great White Egret
Grey Heron
White Stork
Spoonbill
Greater Flamingo
Mute Swan
Mallard
Shoveler
Pochard
Tufted Duck
Buzzard
Marsh Harrier
Peregrine
Kestrel
Lesser Kestrel
Moorhen
Purple Gallinule
Coot
Oystercatcher
Black winged Stilt
Avocet
Kentish Plover
Ringed Plover
Golden Plover
Lapwing
Sanderling
Greenshank
Curlew
BH Gull
GBB Gull
LBB Gull
Audouin’s Gull
YL Gull
Caspian Tern
Common Tern
Cockatiel – dead, escapee?
Hoopoe
Thekla Lark
Barn Swallow
Meadow Pipit
White Wagtail
Grey Wagtail
Wren
Robin
Bluethroat
Redstart
Black Redstart
Whinchat
Stonechat
Blackbird
Songthrush
Grasshopper Warbler
Cetti’s Warbler
Chiffchaff – at least 40!
Blackcap
Sardinian Warbler
Common Waxbill
Greenfinch
Goldfinch
Serin
Siskin
Linnet
A veritable avian feast – 67 species in less than 3 hours! Should be good during spring and autumn migrations. A site well worth a visit if you are down that way, plenty of parking either end of the walkway.
David
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