Algarve Birding

I have been away in Portugal for the last couple of weeks with the family, but also managed to get some birding in including a bird tour through Simon (The Algarve Birdman), So here goes, I got no less than 17 lifers, including:


• Southern Grey Shrike (20+)
• Caspian Tern (4)
• Little Bittern (5) (Big Target)
• Common Waxbill (Common!)
• Black-Headed Weaver (Common at Quinta Do Lago)
• Cory's Shearwater (seen Scopoli's before but spent hours watching Cory's yesterday for East Coast experience! Also got a lot of experience on Balearic Shearwaters and saw over 300 in 2 hours)
• Black Kite (3)
• Honey Buzzard (3)
• Little Bustard (6, big target of the trip)
• Red-Necked Nightjar (another target species, sitting in the middle of the road at dusk)
• Thekla Lark (everywhere)
• Woodlark
• Short-Toed Lark (3)
• Spectacled Warbler (3)
• Melodious Warbler (4)
• Western Bonelli's Warbler
 • EAGLE OWL (fantastic looking bird! Spent hours waiting when it finally flew across and landed on the opposite cliff where it posed for 2 hours!)
• Roller

Also got endless numbers of Woodchat Shrikes, Blue Rock Thrushes and Black Redstarts. Red-Rumped Swallows were fantastic as well and spent a long time attempting to photograph them.

 Azure-Winged Magpie

 Black-Headed Weaver

 Common Waxbill

 Little Bittern

 Little Bustard

 Melodious Warbler

 Red-Rumped Swallow

Thekla Lark

Eagle Owl