Michael´s Sixth Year

[michael-ibk]

238/E238.) Short-Toed Snake Eagle (Circaetus gallicus) / Schlangenadler

 

Sagrés. You´ve all seen @PeterHG´s uber-awesome raptor photos from Spain, right? I hoped to have sightings like that here in Portugal as well. The hill Cabranosa has quite a good reputation for birds of prey - at least that´s what the books say. But that spot turned out to be quite disappointing. The number of birds of prey is very low compared to the hotspots in Spain, mostly juveniles who don´t know the right route yet and wander too far West. And the few birds we saw were just specks high up in the sky. We spent about six hours on the hill over two days but nothing really exciting ever happened unfortunately. Except some well-earned ebcs.

 

 

 

Edited November 6, 2021 by michael-ibk

[michael-ibk]

239/E239.) European Honey Buzzard (Pernis apivorus) / Wespenbussard

 

Sagrés. Also at Cabranosa, also far far up.

 

[michael-ibk]

240/E240.) Spectacled Warbler (Curruca conspicillat) / Brillengrasmücke

 

Sagrés. Cabranosa. Not all in vain here - at least hanging around that hill gave me another lifer.

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

241/E241.) Red-Billed Chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) / Alpenkrähe

 

Sagrés. A specialty of the area. We were lucky to see them in the morning when they were still lazy - I was told they are not that approachable here normally. The German name "Alpine Chough" is quite misleading - we don´t have them here in the Alps.

 

[michael-ibk]

242/E242.) Crested Lark (Galerida cristata) / Haubenlerche

 

Sagrés. Very common pretty much everywhere we went in Portugal. At least I think so because it´s tricky to almost impossible to safely tell them apart from the next bird coming up.

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

243/E43.) Thekla´s Lark (Galerida theklae) / Theklalerche

 

Sagrés. Actually I can only say with certainly that we saw a lot of Larks with crests. Crested and Thekla look almost identical. I feel quite good about this one being a Thekla but could be totally wrong of course. Crest not as long, shortish bill, and more pronounced markings on the breast.

 

 

A few more landscape photos from Sagrés.

 

 

 

 

Some really nice beaches here.

 

 

We had a (self-catering) appartement here - quite a nice place. Sagrés was surprisingly busy, it was almost impossible to get a dinner table in the better restaurants without reservation.

 

 

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

244/E244.) Bar-Tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponic) / Pfuhlschnepfe

 

Fuseta. For our last few days we returned to our point of arrival - Faro. But we did not fancy staying in the city so opted for Fuseta, a nice village just a bit to the East. The Salines here were very productive for waders, hundreds and thousands of them. Not many new ones of course - by this point I had already ticked off most of them occurring in Europe. Bar-Tailed (rarities in my country) and Black-Tailed Godwits were both quite common.

 

 

Comparison photo: Note the much longer bill of the Black-Tailed Godwit and the duller plumage (in their non-breeding stage).

 

 

A few bonus pictures:

 

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

245/E245.) House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) / Haussperling

 

Fuseta. Yeah, I know - really had to go to Portugal to get this one.

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

246/E246.) Slender-Billed Gull (Chroicocephalus genei) / Dünnschnabelmöwe

 

Tavira. Not a rare bird in this area, we saw dozens of them in the Salines of Tavira. Quite an attractive gull.

 

 

A 1st year bird:

 

 

I also enjoyed seeing the Mediterranean Gulls in their non-breeding plumage - very angelic in appearance now.

 

[michael-ibk]

247/E247.) Iberian Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus ibericus) / Iberienzilpzalp

 

Tavira. Well, I hope at least one of them is. We saw a lot of Chiffchaffs during this trip. Problem is, both the Iberian specialty and our common one occur this time of the year. And to make matters worse, both are silent now. To make it even more interesting a lot of Willows are passing through as well.Yellower belly, longer and brighter eyebrow, and longer wings than Common Chiffchaff.

 

 

[michael-ibk]

248/E248.) Sandwich Tern (Thalasseus sandvicensis) / Brandseeschwalbe

 

Santa Luzia. Another saline system which turned out to be wader heaven. And gave us some nice flybies of this species.

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

249/E249.) Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) / Seeregenpfeifer

 

Santa Luzia. Very common in the Ria Formosa area. Still not the easiest subject - not particularly shy but tiny.

 

 

 

Some other birds to test your ID skills:

 

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

250/E250.) Audouin´s Gull (Ichthyaetus audouinii) / Korallenmöwe

 

Santa Luzia. A very attractive and rather rare Gull. Not that easy to get normally but they were delightfully numerous here - a flock of a least 50 of them.

 

 

[michael-ibk]

251/E251.) Western Subalpine Warbler (Curruca iberiae) / Westliche Weißbartgrasmücke

 

Cerro da S. Miguel. Hard to believe but after wading through waders we felt a bid waded out. So decided to try a different habitat. This hill is not far from the Coast, I hoped to get a better shot at a Blue Rock Thrush. Failed totally, glimpsed one for a second but could not even try for a photo. Not much else either. This Subalpine was my consolation price. A lifer for me although I´ve seen Subalpines before - but they´ve been split into Western and Eastern races.

 

 

I had seen some females and juveniles before around the Quinta - took me a while to figure out what they were.

 

 

And found quite an unexpected bird in our garden - a Western Bonelli´s Warbler.

 

 

 

Edited November 6, 2021 by michael-ibk

[Galana]

8 minutes ago, michael-ibk said:

Some other birds to test your ID skills:

Hey. Hang on we ain't done with that Pseudo Sooty/Manxie Shearwater yet.

 

@pedro maiais right, that's no Manxie but I don't buy into Sooty either. Not dark enough. I think your Captain was correct when he included Balearic in his call. My reasons: Balearics can look very dark especially at a distance and heavy cropping does not cure that. (Photoshop might )

Balearics do have darker underparts and their shorter tail causes the feet to protrude rearwards and I think I note that on your photo. Either that or it has grown ambitions to be a Skua when it grows up..

[michael-ibk]

252/E252.) Eurasian Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegu) / Austernfischer.

 

Parque Natural da Ria Formosa. Birding was pretty rubbish this afternoon. For some reason there´s an entrance fee to be paid here (just a few Euros) but the area is in no way more remarkable than pretty much any other saline area. I had wanted to get an Oystercatcher here which was reported on ebird. Success but just far too far away. And we did not fare much better later. But it was still a hugely enjoying trip - we met here with @PeterHGand his lovely wife Jeanette. Had a really good time, and dinner later was even better. We fled the Coast and found a really nice "untouristy" place where nobody really spoke a lot of English and we were not quite sure what we had ordered. But everything was excellent. Did not have any idea what we were paying either - the Lady of the House just rattled on in Portuguese, wrote some numbers on the tablecloth and that was the bill.

 

 

[michael-ibk]

6 minutes ago, Galana said:

that's no Manxie but I don't buy into Sooty either.

 

Thanks @Galana, I´ll go with Balearic then. I´m not familiar with Shearwaters at all but it seems to me the wing shape better fits the illustrations for Balearic in my Collins.

[michael-ibk]

253/E253.) Red Knot (Calidris canutus) / Knut

 

Parque Natural da Ria Formosa. Learnt a lesson here - never go birding with @PeterHG, will only get you ebcs. I´ll blame the quality of this afternoon only on you Peter.

 

 

[pedro maia]

2 minutes ago, michael-ibk said:

 

Thanks @Galana, I´ll go with Balearic then. I´m not familiar with Shearwaters at all but it seems to me the wing shape better fits the illustrations for Balearic in my Collins.

Itmay very well be Balearic, you don’t have any pictures showing it’s underparts, do you?

[michael-ibk]

Just now, pedro maia said:

Itmay very well be Balearic, you don’t have any pictures showing it’s underparts, do you?

 No, unfortunately not - just the one.

[Galana]

27 minutes ago, michael-ibk said:

Some other birds to test your ID skills:

Wrong Forum. I see @pedro maiafollowing. He can go first if he wants. I don't see any trick ones.

[Galana]

4 minutes ago, michael-ibk said:

will only get you ebcs. I´ll blame the quality of this afternoon only on you Peter.

Well if it really IS EBC time then I hope you count the Grey Plovers in the knot of Knots.

[pedro maia]

6 minutes ago, Galana said:

Wrong Forum. I see @pedro maiafollowing. He can go first if he wants. I don't see any trick ones.

I have to leave now, I’ll leave to someone else .

[michael-ibk]

4 minutes ago, Galana said:

Well if it really IS EBC time then I hope you count the Grey Plovers in the knot of Knots.

 

I wish I could but Grey Plovers are already in the count since March. Do take attention Fred. 

[michael-ibk]

254/E254.) Black-Headed Weaver (Ploceus melanocephalu) / Schwarzkopfweber

 

Ria Formoa. Next morning we returned to the gold course just West of Faro. To our surprise Peter and his wife had not yet enough of us so to our delight they joined us for this little trip again.  We had much nicer weather than on our first visit but naturally much less birds. Why is it always like that?

 

The Weavers here are another exotic that has managed to build up a self-sustaining population here. A bit skulky but (kinda) got them in the end.