Bird watching Algarve Portugal CASA ROSA  Villa Apartment Holidays

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October 25-31.10.09

We are a middle-aged couple from Finland, interested in nature. We had not visited continental Portugal before, but we had made one very nice trip to Madeira. We have been occasional bird-watchers for a long time, but now was the time for our first guided bird-watching tour. This time the dates of our holiday were determined by a congress in Lisbon, but the timing of the holiday turned out to be excellent. Not only for bird-watching, but also because the tourist season was over, and the beaches and trails were almost empty, and so were the roads particularly during the weekends. When planning the trip, we  googled “bird-watching Portugal”, and Casa Rosa was right there. After browsing some of the other sites it was not difficult to make our choice – Casa Rosa was the place we were looking for, and after the week we can say that all our expectations were met or exceeded. We were warmly welcomed by Kjersti and Jan-Ketil. Casa Rosa is located in peaceful surroundings, with its large garden. The rooms were spacious, and there was a nice view from our apartment that was on the upper floor. The garden of Casa Rosa was full of collared doves, and the hoopoe and a family heard of azure-winged magpies arrived now and then, the latter moving so quickly that it was impossible to take a photo. When jogging on the nearby roads in the morning before sunrise, both a little owl and a scops owl were sitting on telephone poles.

Kjersti and Jan-Ketil kindly advised to contact our bird-watching guide Georg Schreier, who already started the guiding via e-mail and  later by phone. From his website we downloaded and printed a list of all birds in continental Portugal, with names in English, Latin, and Portuguese. Together with the famous guidebook by Mullarney, Svensson and Zetterström, this was an excellent way of preparing for the trip.

We had our flight to Lisbon, stayed overnight at an airport hotel, hired a car and started our trip southwards on Saturday morning over the magnificent Vasco da Gama bridge. Flocks of birds were visible on the marches near the southern end of the bridge. The road was almost empty, and right after noon we were at Castro Verde where we decided to have a stop as Kjersti and Jan-Ketil had asked whether we would like to make a trip there. Georg was not available on that day, so we went on our own to a spot which we had found on the web to be a birdwatching area. We took the E802 from Castro Verde to Entradas, a nice rural village, and chose a very small, bumpy ravel road (of which there were more than one) southwards over the small, almost barren hills with some cork oaks. All the ground vegetation was brown and gone as the Autumn rains had not started. Crested larks were abundant, and we spotted one red kite. After driving about one km we saw several little bustards at a close distance, and after driving one km further four great bustards were flying over the hills, and finally landed on a pasture on a more distant hill. We stopped at Ribeira de Cobres where the road became too challenging. On the way back a herd of 12 griffon vultures glided over us. We took the road 2 via Almodovar to Sao Bras de Alportel – a winding road through green, hilly scenery. Case Rosa was not difficult to find when approaching from Moncarapacho.

The next trip we made from the village of Santa Lucia to Praia Barril on Ilha de Tavira. There was a walk path (and a tourist “railway”) over an elevated path and across the swamp. There were egrets, plovers, redshanks and grey plovers. The Barril beach was very clean and all white sand – the best sandy beach on our trip.

Georg had advised us to go to Castro Marim, just on the Spanish border north of the city of Vila Real. From the motorway we took the last exit before the border, and turned left under the motorway, and then took the first road to the right, with the sign Reserva Natural, Visitors’ Centre. The Visitors’ Centre, which was a huge, new building, with a photo gallery of the birds and other fauna of the area, with not much else to see. Caterpillars were doing some construction work just outside the scenic window, with nothing to see from there at this time of the year. A guidebook of the nature reserve was only available in Portuguese. We returned and parked our car on the ramp over the road leading to a fortress (visible at a long distance), and took a walk passing first some pigeon huts, between the saltpans. There were a number of black-winged stilts, curlew sandpipers, grey plovers, black-tailed godwits, redshanks, plovers, and egrets. Audouin’s gull did not show itself this time.

On the day before our guided tour, Georg had advised us to take the road from Faro Airport to Faro beach, that crosses the Ria. Right at the end of the runway at the place where the Ria comes visible, we parked our car on the roadside (where many other cars had been parked), and went on a path leading to the right between the lagoons and saltpans, ignoring the “do not enter” sign as all the other people walking, jogging or cycling on the path also did. The path provided good views to the shallow lagoons, with several spoonbills, white storks, and small waddlers. The place was good for plane spotters as well – the landing aeroplanes were sometimes only 100 m above us.

On the day of the guided tour Georg came to Casa Rosa right after sunrise.
We started our day trip near the Faro Airport, taking the road to Faro beach from the airport roundabout, and then a side road towards the golf courses. Our first stop was a small hill with pinewood, with a fine view over a wet march. Georg immediately spotted a black-winged kite, and after some time three were visible at the same time. In a few minutes, a booted eagle was hovering high, with typical colour pattern on the wings. A very familiar sight was the osprey (rather abundant at home in Finland).
We then drove past huge piles of salt towards the golf course. The ponds along the way were abundant with coots and moorhens. The first purple gallinule was sitting in a bush, and a kingfisher was in sight for a moment. The best species on that day was the purple heron. A large number of black-tailed godwits and a few avocets were waddling belly-deep in the saltpan. A couple of Mediterranean gulls were found, and Caspian terns were on flight. We proceeded through a small forest and entered the rim of the golf course. There is a birdwatching tower that yielded a very good view over the pond.  A purple gallinule posed for some good pictures, and so did  a glossy ibis, Little grebes, gadwalls, shovelers, wigeons, mallards, and a pintail were visible at a close distance. Georg heard the voice of a little bittern which we did not manage to see. The path went forward to another brand-new bird-watching tower that looked over the Ria. New species at this point were the bar-tailed godwit and spotted redshank.

In the afternoon we went to an estuary close to Pera (west of Albufeira). A number of herons, white storks and spoonbills, a heard of more than 10 glossy ibis, a Montagu’s harrier, Kentish plovers, and a black-necked grebe in winter plumage, but with read eyes that revealed its identity. Of smaller birds, a bluethroat (a nesting species in Finnish Lapland), meadow pipits, and fan-tailed warblers were seen. Georg’s best species that day was the common gull. This species is the most abundant gull at home in Finland, the nearest couple nesting just 300 m from my house.

During the rest of the days,  we also went to the beaches of the rocky Algarve, of which Praia d. Dona Ana at Lagos was the best for snorkelling (the waters was clear because of rocky bottom). The sceneries were fine at many of the beaches with limestone formations, like Praia d. Sao Rafael, and Praia d. Senhora da Rocha. Of the birds on these cliffs, the stonechat and crag martins were new species for us. We did not visit much of the inland – we just did some walking on the mountains north of Sao Bras de Alportel. There were plenty of peaceful walking routes.

On the last day of our stay we took the regular boat from Olhao to Ilha da Culatra and went on the beach, where there was also a nature path over the dunes. The several kilometres long beach was almost empty – finally there were only the two of us. The beach was in a more natural condition than the other beaches, with some weed, and even a carcass of a young dolphin. Gannets and balearic shearwaters were flying over the sea frequently, and sanderlings made their extremely quick rushes following the retreating waves. When watching the gannets, a small herd of dolphins came into sight. One of the dolphins came pretty close to the shore. On return trip the sea had largely disappeared during the low tide, revealing feeding “grounds” for a number of waddlers.

During one week, thanks to Georg, we saw much more than we expected, and during the one day of the guided tour, learned a lot of the birds and habitats of the area. We warmly recommend him and Casa Rosa for bird-watchers – including those with little bird-watching experience before.

Ilkka and Merja Kunnamo, Karstula, Finland