My apologies to all my nature followers out there as it has been over a month since I last shared a birding post. You can thank MrB for this one today as he found for me this week another fabulous book on collective nouns and one of the first I came across was ‘a dissimulation of birds’.
The first gallery were all spotted in a couple of hours in the saltpans near our apartment. These saltpans are a favourite birding location for us because of the ease for visiting, and the range and numbers of birds seen. However the increase in tourists who use it for running and walking is beginning to have a negative impact. For example last winter the number of flamingos visiting dropped significantly because they were continually disturbed by tourists.
The second gallery was taken a day or two later in one of the most popular locations for birders – Lagoa de São Lourenço. Again it only took a couple of hours to see all of these. You can visit anytime, but get here early if you wish to avoid crowds in the hides and have a chance of seeing the Little Bittern or Water Rail. It was late morning by the time we visited, which is why we saw neither on this occasion. For their names simply hover your mouse over the photographs, but to enjoy them in full I recommend clicking on the gallery.
We did actually see more than I have shared here, but the variety and the odd rarity in these photographs I hope gets across why the Ria Formosa is considered a bird-watching hotspot. For more information on bird-watching in the Algarve I’d recommend picking up a copy of this 2012 publication produced by the Algarve tourist board, alternatively do explore my blog as over the past few years I have shared quite a few bird posts!
