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Pedro´s Rookie Year


pedro maia

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#246/PT186, 9/11, Water Pipit, Lezíria Vila Franca de Xira

1119789740_BYPetinhaRibeirinha.jpg.907bd8f2b51c602d21ee36af182656f0.jpg

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#247/PT187, 9/11, Eurasian Wigeon, Sapal de Coina

796052159_BYPiadeira.jpg.3a5166038961f93e61acb1b1b950e50f.jpg

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Some duplicates now, Saturday was very good for raptors, no new additions but nice sightings, first one was this Osprey:

 

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This one I think it´s a Common Buzzard:

 

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Until a couple of weeks ago I hadn´t seen a Peregrine Falcon, Saturday I saw two, this one:

 

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And this other, in good company:

 

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But the best was a Black-winged Kite, they are quite common and Saturday I saw maybe five, but this one allowed me to stop the car a couple of meters from it and posed for quite a while:

 

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Stunning close-ups of the kite Pedro!

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wow on the close-up of the black-winged kite! I've always admired these handsome birds with those intense eyes - kinda like cheetah of the birds. 

 

 

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One bird had eluded me for the last couple months, the Mediterranean Gull, it occurs in many places, also in the beaches nearby, I´m sure I saw it a few times amongst other gull but having missed it when it has it´s black hood (wasn´t even looking for it by that time) all my recent attempts ended up with photos of Black-headed Gulls, so my frustration with this gulls was increasing (by the way, in Portuguese the Mediterranean Gull is called black-headed gull).

 

Today was raining and I wasn´t thinking about get out but at around 11:30 the weather improved for a while and it was low tide time so I made a very brief visit to a beach 10m from home that has lots of rocks and it didn´t take long before I saw a group of gulls that looked good, I approached and finally got it.

 

#248/PT188, 17/11, Mediterranean Gull, Praia das Avencas, Parede

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I got close to them to make them fly so I could confirm that the wings were all white with no black tips.

 

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Rewinding to yesterday,  I went to the area of the Sado river estuary, I had a few targets but I got none of them, as a matter of fagtc, I didn´t get any new species in that area.

 

However, when I left home it was very early and I thought I might go and try to find the Little Bittern in the place where @michael-ibk saw one, I go there some times but until now I wasn´t lucky and once again the Little Bittern eluded me, but the detour wasn´t in vain, this was a very nice addition, and also a very difficult one because this specie wasn´t supposed to be here by now.

 

#249/PT189, 16/11, European Turtle Dove, Barroca d´Alva

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But before of the Dove I was very lucky at the exact spot I was looking for the Little Bittern and even though the pictures aren´t good (it was a bit before sunrise and the place isn´t exposed even with good light) I think it´s a great choice for my 250th species, a number I never even dreamed of when I started my BY.

 

#250/PT190, 16/11, Squacco Heron, Barroca d´Alva

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It got even better when another one moved to the middle of the small stream, and also closer, and stayed there allowing me to take a few pictures:

 

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And only 10 to go for my Portuguese target...

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An impressive number, indeed!

 

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Dave Williams

Very envious of your Black-winged Kite encounter Pedro.

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Well done on reaching 250, and very close to your Portugal target!

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20 hours ago, Dave Williams said:

Very envious of your Black-winged Kite encounter Pedro.

 

I had a feeling that you would have liked that sighting.

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This week I had only one addition, one bird I was trying to fond for quite a while, it was only a pity that the light was fading as it was very close to sunset time and also it was a bit distan so the pictures are bad and I had to crop them a bit.

 

#251/PT191, 21/11, Northern Goshawk, Estação Agronómica de Oeiras

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It was hunting and caught a bird

 

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With better light, better gear and a better photographer it could have been a nice sequence-

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Yesterday was disappointing, I went to the Lezíria and spent most of the day there but for my Big Year it was a Big Zero...

 

I was looking for ducks, hoping to find Pintails, but it didn´t happen so I had to settle for Red-crested Pochards

 

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Mallards

 

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and Teals, if anyone here needs a Teal just help yourself

 

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Best sightings of the day were this Peregrine Falcon

 

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And the Little Bustards

 

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And I found this fellow, I don´t know if he was chasing a tortoise...

 

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Darn, I should be there, as above would give me 2 BY birds :)

 

Have you also spotted a Tortoise, or the Hare was only chasing its own shade??

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6 hours ago, xelas said:

Darn, I should be there, as above would give me 2 BY birds :)

 

Have you also spotted a Tortoise, or the Hare was only chasing its own shade??

 

Probably more than 2 with other species that were present, but none for me...

 

No Tortoises on sight so the Hare might be on a wild goose chase ;).

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I think the Tortoise was in London this weekend. Lost his voice!

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15 hours ago, Galana said:

Lost his voice!

If not, than there will be more opportunities ahead :D!

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  • 2 weeks later...

In this south corner of Europe there are still many species to find, and that´s what I´ve been trying to do in order to reach my ultimate goal for this BY, 200 in Portugal, even if the image quality isn´t always as good as I would like, but EBC´s are even more welcome right now.

 

This one I had missed it in the EVOA but there´s a place near Coimbra where it can be found, although there isn´t an access for a closer sighting.

 

#252/PT192, Northern Pintail, 26/11, Paul do Taipal

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A very elegant duck, in my opinion.

 

1215349594_BYArrbio2.jpg.7fadb8d1047cd97a0701a4beee63b5ca.jpg

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Now one that´s not easy to photograph, it´s small, doesn´t stay still and it gets even more difficult with bad light, maybe next year I´ll try to take a better shot but not for now.

 

#253/PT193, Common Firecrest, 28/11, Estação Agronómica de Oeiras

555377901_BYEstrelinha1.jpg.62c48527723b7160308f651ba15d7b73.jpg

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Every now and then there´s a bird that allows some nice shots and it was the case of next one, an uncommon one in these latitudes.

 

#254/PT194, Glaucus Gull, 29/11, Praia da Fonte da Telha

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I know it´s a bit childish but I couldn´t resist to force it to take off to get some in flights shots.

 

781018273_BYGlaucus3.jpg.a9142911e32f3582a63315a787d6bc59.jpg

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Things are easier when I get help from guys who really know about birding and I had a day at the Lezíria with some guys from the Portuguese forum, they were looking for rare ducks amongst Greylag Geese, it helped looking through their telescope, in the middle of the bunch they found what they were looking for and all I had to do was to take some Hail Mary shots and hope to have the right goose in the pictures.

 

#255/PT105, Greater White-fronted Goose, 30/11, Lezíria Vila Franca de Xira

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