Birding report: November – December 2008

Manfred and Anne Schleuning, Germany

Having read several reports about Casa Rosa on the internet we decided to go there on our first visit to the Algarve.
It was a great choice – Kjersti and Jan are excellent hosts.

Casa Rosa was an ideal base for our 10 day birdwatching trip. In the garden and the surroundings – a nice track starts directly at Casa Rosa – we often saw Little Owl, Hoopoe, a flock of 20+ Azure-winged Magpies, Spotless Starling, Sardinian Warbler, Zitting Cisticola and a flock of Common Waxbills.

Most sites we visited were within a 10-30 minutes drive of Casa Rosa:

Quinta do Marim (Ria Formosa Natural Park) – twice
Best birds: Greater Flamingo, Spoonbill, Mediterranean Gull, Purple Swamphen, Water Rail, Dartford Warbler, Penduline Tit, Common Waxbill – and lots of waders.

Castro Marim (at the border with Spain) - twice
Best birds: Caspian Tern, Little Tern (15!), Southern Grey-Shrike, Calandra Lark, Crag Martin, Bluethroat, Water Pipit, Dartford Warbler

Quinta do Lago – Ludo Farm (Ria Formosa Natural Park)

Glossy Ibis, Little Gull, Purple Swamphen, Red-crested Pochard, Cetti’s Warbler

It is a 90 minutes drive to Cabo de Sao Vicente. `
Though birds were not numerous on our visit we managed to find most of our target species: Gannet, Shag, Osprey, Peregrine, Thekla Lark, Blue Rock Thrush, Alpine Accentor.
Nearby Vale Santo had Peregrine, Golden Plover and about 30 Lesser Short-toed Larks.

Our best day was December 1st when we drove up to the Alentejo region between Castro Verde and Mertola.
Peter and June – “Algarve Birders” – were a full day out with us and with their help we hoped to find our target species: Little Bustard.
On our way to the Alentejo I counted some 250 Red-legged Partridges and 100 Azure-winged Magpies.
Up there we had excellent views of Great Bustards – about 250 birds, with some of them close to the road – but only distant views of two flocks of Little Bustards.
It was great to see an immature Spanish Imperial Eagle and a juvenile Black Vulture on the ground. A Booted Eagle passed overhead. 3 Black-winged Kites, some 30 Red Kites, Hen Harrier and Common Buzzard were other raptors we saw.
3 Black-bellied Sandgrouse flew by and 20 Cranes were in a field.
But what about Little Bustard?
Peter and June knew another spot. We drove back to the Algarve, to Castro Marim and after some searching we found a flock of 15 Little Bustards. Fantastic! Many thanks to Peter and June again. We recommend Peter and June for a half day or a full day out.
See their website http://www.algarvebirders.com/index.html

On our last day in Portugal we drove up to the Alentejo again where we spotted 6 Little Bustards close by.

We didn’t go birding from dawn to dusk. But at the end of our trip there were 132 species on our list.

We’ll come back to Casa Rosa in spring – to look for those birds that were in Africa in December and to go to Coto Donana, too.