Quick trip for 3 day's birding. All 3 days were spent walking the Ria Formosa wetlands. Day 1: Quinta da Lago to Faro airport (10 miles) whilst day 2 was all around Fuseta and then the salt pans outside Faro (9 miles) and the last day a train to Tavira and again, the salt pans before a ferry over to Ilha de Tavira and back (8 miles)
The weather was hot with clear blue skies for most of the time so heat haze was a real problem. I tried to overcome this by a.) getting out on to the first train at 7am and b.) setting the camera to very fast speeds, up to 6400th of a second. To compensate for these speeds I had to increase the ISO which meant a rather grainy image when cropped, or a darker image.
Photos here are 2nds as the really sharp ones will be included in my Portuguese presentation for Nat Hist societies and RSPB groups. Plus, I am planning on writing a pamphlet on birding in The Algarve and I shall use these better ones for that, as well.
Species:
- Mute swan
- Shelduck
- Mallard
- Great crested grebe
- Cormorant
- Cattle egret
- Little egret
- Glossy Ibis
- Spoonbill
- White stork
- Greater flamingo
- Coot
- Avocet
- Black winged stilt
- Ringed plover
- Kentish plover
- Sanderling
- Turnstone
- Dunlin
- Curlew sandpiper
- Common sandpiper
- Redshank
- Black tailed godwit
- Whimbrel
- Slender billed gull
- Yellow legged gull
- Audouin's gull
- Gull billed tern
- Little tern
- Wood pigeon
- Collared dove
- Scops owl (heard)
- Swift
- Pallid swift
- Hoopoe
- Bee eater (heard)
- Great spotted woodpecker (heard)
- Skylark
- Crested Lark
- Swallow
- House martin
- Pied wagtail
- Yellow wagtail ssp iberiae
- Robin
- Stonechat
- Song thrush
- Blackbird
- Sardinian warbler
- Whitethroat (heard)
- Zitting Cisticola
- Cetti's warbler
- Wren
- Great tit
- Blue tit
- Azure winged magpie
- Magpie
- Jay
- Jackdaw
- Starling
- House sparrow
- Chaffinch
- Goldfinch
- Linnet
- Greenfinch
- Serin
- Common waxbill
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| Cactus coming into flower |
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| Serin |
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| Hoopoes |
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| Hoopoes |
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| White stork |
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| Azure winged magpie |
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| Little egret with lunch |
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| Crested Lark |
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| Path over the Ria Formosa to the airport |
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| Black tailed godwit |
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| Black winged stilt |
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| Greater flamingo |
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| Ringed plover chasing a Kentish plover |
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| Spoonbill |
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| Little egret |
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| Little tern |
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| Record shot of Audouin's gull |
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| Shelduck with Sanderling, Dunlin and Redshank |
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| Upper wings of Swallowtail butterfly |
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| Underwings of same insect |
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| Serin |
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| Nesting Black winged stilt |
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| Pleasant reflection |
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| Black winged stilt eggs and nest |
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| Another reflection |
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| Crested Lark |
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| Early morning flamingoes |
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| Flamingoes |
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| Azure winged magpie |
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| Another flowering cactus |
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| Stonechat |
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| Goldfinch |
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| Fuseta landscape |
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| Redshank |
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| Asking me to move on as too near his nest. |
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| Fuseta flamingoes |
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| Slender billed gull |
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| Sardinian warbler |
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| Kentish plover |
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| White stork |
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| Kentish plover |
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| Sanderling |
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| Avocets and a BW Stilt |
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| Greater flamingo |
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| Dunlin |
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| Plenty of Dunlin |
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| One legged dunlin |
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| Linnet |
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| Recently hatched Black winged stilt |
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| Ringed plover |
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| Sanderling |
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| Curlew sandpiper |
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| Fiddler crab |
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| Collared dove |
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| Little egret |
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| Avocet |
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| Curlew sandpiper |
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| Pair of dunlin with 2 Curlew sandpipers |
