The Bigg Bird Forum

[Snowy]

We did two trips to Portugal in 2013 one the end of July & one at the beginning of December both trips were for five days. We stopped at the Real Marina Hotel in Olhão which is on the Algarve it's a large fishing port with excellent restaurants. Just to the left of the hotel about 300 metres away is scrub land & salt pans there are lots of birds to be seen here e.g. Little Stint, Pied Avocet, Curlew Sandpiper, Black-winged Stilt, Little Stint, Grey Plover, little Ringed Plover, Kentish Plover, Yellow-legged Gull, Mediterranean Gull, Little Tern, Black Tern, Greater Flamingo, Black Redstart, Spotless Starling, Crested Lark & Zitting Cisticola. These are just the ones that were lifers for me, there are numerous other birds mainly waders. Beyond the port is the Ria Formosa which is a large area of salt marsh, sand banks & at low tide mud flats where you can see White Storks, Eurasian Spoonbills & Black-necked Grebes & more. We also had a guide called Georg Schreier for a days bird watching, Georg is a professional guide & will take you to fine what is on your wish list, if its there Georg can usually find it. We visited a lot of birding places with Georg, far to many to list here but the birds that we was were all lifers for me apart from, Little Owl. Levaillant's Woodpecker, Pallid Swift, Little Bustard, Common Crane, Purple Swamphen, Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Griffon Vulture, Montagu's Harrier, Spanish imperial Eagle, Bonelli's Eagle, Little Bittern, Iberian Grey Shrike, Azure-winged Magpie, Blue Rock-Thrush, Eurasian Crag-Martin, Red-rumped Swallow, Cetti's Warbler, Dartford Warbler, Thekla Lark, Hawfinch & Corn Bunting. If you want to look I have uploaded photo's in to Album Birding Outings. If anyone would like any further info Contact me. Snowy