Pedro´s Rookie Year

[michael-ibk]

Congratulations on your first 100 species Pedro, great job. Beeeaters are of course a perfect choice for a milestone like that. I enjoy seeing all those "specials" down South. 

[Galana]

10 hours ago, pedro maia said:

The problem with the swifts is that tey are lightning fast.

Very swift indeed.

[pedro maia]

This one I was trying to see it for quite a while with no success, yesterday I was having a rather frustrating afternoon, it´s getting harder to spot new species and the heat wasn´t helping, we are now well over 30ª, but then I got lucky:

 

#111, 11/5, Common Waxbill, Pancas Area

 

 

[pedro maia]

And now i have to check larks and sparrows and stuff like that to see if I have something else new...

[pedro maia]

A couple of birds from yesterday, a very pleasant afternoon acting as @michael-ibk driver .

 

#112, 17/5, Kentish Plover, Lezíria de Vila Franca de Xira/EVOA

 

 

#113, 17/5, Sand Martin, Lezíria de Vila Franca de Xira/EVOA

 

 

I might have one or two more but they are still in the ID stage...

[pedro maia]

3 cropped pictures of swifts (1 and 2 I´m pretty sure it´s the same bird):

 

 

 

 

In the Portuguese bird forum the ID for pictures 1 and 2 was Common Swift and they have more doubts regarding picture 3, any thoughts?

[pedro maia]

The other day I said I was seeing less Pied Avocets around here but Friday afternoon we had some good sightings and they are indeed beautiful birds:

 

[michael-ibk]

Pedro, the pleasure was all mine, thanks so much again. Good job with the Sand Martin! 

[Galana]

5 hours ago, pedro maia said:

they have more doubts regarding picture 3, any thoughts?

I can see your friends idea but backgrounds can distort impressions of any bird. I would mark #3 as a Common also.

[pedro maia]

@Galana, I had the pallid one so for me it would be enough another opinion for common in any of the pictures, so, with what you say,

 

#114 17/5, Common Swift, Lezíria de Vila Franca de Xira/EVOA

 

 

Edited May 19, 2019 by pedro maia

[pedro maia]

My wife is right now in Copenhagen, or somewhere nearby, she was talking to me on the phone and suddenly she said wait, a huge bird is staring at me, I’m going to take a picture to send you, I could listen to the bird and here it is, I can’t count it since I wasn’t there, it’ a Hooded Crow (not that huge, of course) I don’t know if this species can be seen from @mvecht‘s sofa.

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

Cool, your wife is getting into the Big Year spirit as well!

[mvecht]

@pedro maia 

nice sighting by your wife. 

They are very common in Denmark and I see it several times a day from the sofa. 

However they are quite shy so actually not easy to photograph in the countryside. Typically much easier to get close to them in the city 

in the city they can be bad news as they might attack their mirror picture in car windows. When they do that they cling onto the car with their claws and can make quite some scratches. This happened to me a few years ago

 

[pedro maia]

A good day at the office (although not literally).

 

Last Tuesday I had a meeting about 300km to the center/north of the country, I knew it would end before lunch so I took my camera and I had a plan that went on perfectly, I finished the meeting. head back and made a small 10km detour on the highway to Vila Velha de Rodão, where I had lunch.

 

Vila Velha de Rodão isn´t the prettiest village of Portugal but if you go further on, right after it´s limits things change and you have a spot by the Tejo river called Portas (Doors) de Rodão, a very beautiful setting you can see in this phone picture:

 

 

You can´t get closer by road but there´s a small road that leads up to the castle (that small tower in the right up  corner of the picture) from where you have great views of the river, I took that road and it didn´t take long before I started seeing what I was looking for, or so I thought because the first sighting was of a pair of Bonelli´s Eagles, a very pleasant surprise, they occur in other places, even close to where I live, but aren´t common and it´s very difficult to spot them, but not there:

 

#115, 21/5, Bonnelli´s Eagle, Castelo/Portas de Rodão

 

 

 

And right after I had a first sighting of what I went there for:

 

#116, 21/5, Eurasian Griffon, Castelo/Portas de Rodão

 

Vultures are common sighting in safari, in Africa or in other places, one even tends to overlook them, but I had never seen them before in Europe, this is one of the best places to see them in Portugal (Egyptian Vulture also occur there but are scarcer) and it didn´t disappoint.

 

Best moment was form the castle, where there´s a platform over the river, I could see some 6/8 Griffons down there, when one of them started to climb taking profit of the warm air currents until it was at my eye level, it was absolutely fascinating and I don´t resist to put a sequence of the circle it made right in front of me:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Galana]

As you say. A good day not at the office.

[Peter Connan]

Even an excellent day not at the office...

[pedro maia]

#117, 24/5, Rock Sparrow, Pancas area

[PeterHG]

Splendid sightings from the castle! Bonelli's Eagle is really special and soaring vultures are always so impressive. Good choice to go there!

[michael-ibk]

Agreed, two species I'd love to see! 

[pedro maia]

1 hour ago, michael-ibk said:

Agreed, two species I'd love to see! 

 

If I had more time I think I would have other additions to my count, there seemed to be some other interesting birds in the area .

 

[mvecht]

Nice Sardinian warbler

[pedro maia]

#118, 31/5, Collared Pratincole, Lezíria Vila Franca de Xira

 

 

Edited June 3, 2019 by pedro maia

[pedro maia]

#119, 31/5, Yellow-crowned Bishop, Lezíria Vila Franca de Xira

 

Edited June 11, 2019 by pedro maia

[pedro maia]

A few duplicates with better pictures than the first ones:

 

Zitting Cisticola

 

 

Strange pose for this crow

 

I also like Hoopoes, pity that this one wasn´t in the sun

 

This partridge was crossing the road with two chicks close to my house, I could only picture it with one of the chicks, incredible how they blend with the terrain

Edited June 2, 2019 by pedro maia

[michael-ibk]

Ah, you found the Bishop.