... just sometimes ...

Kingfisher 6407

... the settings are right and it just works!

Grebe 3523

Weaver 3515

Melodious 3416

Migration season and it's tough to find a second to spare to write anything here at all - so I thought I'd post a few pictures from the last week to give an idea of what's around at the moment ...

Red Legged Partridge 2 2

Red-legged Partridges are ubiquitous, and this one escaped the Bonelli's Eagle we saw yesterday evening - which its mate did not ...

 

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Bee-eaters seem to be everywhere with the onset of some nice warm weather.

 

Bee eater 2 3

Trying to capture them in flight though is tricky, especially head-on!

 

Great Bustard 2 4

Another tricky shot is a decent Great Bustard; they're very wary and we take pains not to spook them, so it helps to know where to look.

 

Little Bustard 2931

Easier to find at this time of year are Little Bustards as the males establish a limited territory to which they are faithful week after week - once found they can be re-found - but to catch them in mid-call is not so easy.

 

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Another species that is faithful to a fairly limited territory is Eurasian Wryneck, but a shot of one in the open like this usually takes hours of patience.

 

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 Usually one spends hours staring into a jungle of twigs or leaves like this - and I only include this picture as there're two Wrynecks here if one looks carefully.

 

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Of course other species are a good deal easier to see, like this Audouin's Gull - one just has to be ready!

 

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Having the sun behind one helps, and Hoopoe's make an excellent subject.

 

Great Spotted Woodpecker 2

Great Spotted Cuckoos are also a favourite subject ...

 

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... and it's even better if they're enjoying themselves as well!

 

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Being prepared and ready for that chance in a million is the key, whether the shot is of colourful Rollers ...

 

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... or simply a flock of thousands of "boringly brown" Spanish Sparrows!

Next time you phone and can't get through to us ...

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... this might be the reason why!

Spec Warb April 19 5645

To say we're chuffed would be an understatement - we're over the moon!

We give a lot to charity one way and another, (at least £500 every year to the Birdfair in Rutland for example), but we've just excelled ourselves and are pretty pleased. This time it's not only to a charity of which we're particularly fond, but it's also one that contributes to the furthering of science and birds as well, the British Trust for Ornithology, the thinking man's RSPB.

At the end of last year we offered them a week's holiday here at the Quinta as the first prize in a raffle that they run every year; they accepted and ran the raffle over the last few months.

Yesterday they got in touch and thanked us for raising with them the princely sum of over £34,000.

Yes, £34,000!!!!

Time for a glass of champagne I think.

Oh yes, we got some lovely shots of a Spectacled Warbler, (above), and this Sardinian Warbler gorging on some emerging flying ants - a red-letter day if ever there was one!

Sard Warb April 19 5693

 

Birding in Portugal

Quinta do Barranco da Estrada
7665-880 Santa Clara a Velha
Portugal

Email :
Phone : (+351) 283 933 065
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Whatsapp : (+351) 938 386 326
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