keithyed said:
I am off to portugal on Saturday staying in Portimao.Was hoping that some one could give me some handy directions to some good sites,I have been thro the net and seems one of the best places is formossa near Faro,
but i am sure there are several more worth a visit.Only there for a week and have been told by the boss that this is not a birdwwatching holiday so the better the directions the quicker i can be. I will have a car so travel no real problem.
thanks
keith
I stayed in Praia da Vau just W. of Portimao in April 1999. Alvor, a village just to the W. again, has good little restaurants and bars on the edge of the estuary, so you might see terns (caspian, I saw on my visit) and gulls (audouin's winter there, I've read) and have a good feed, too. It was good for people watching, too! The river mouth at Portimao could be good, too. I saw greenshank and white stork there (remembering wildly - 6 years is a long time!). I also went to the A Rocha place just W across the Alvor river from the village of the same name. There are old salt pans, and I saw lots of different bird species there.
Yes, the area just W of Faro is very good. One species that breeds there and which sounded near mythological at the time but which I dipped on when I was there is the purple gallinule - I've seen them in Catalunya, at the opposite end of the peninsula, since. Castro Marim in the far E of the Algarve sounds impressive in the literature. I saw my only ever spoonbill there. At the opposite end, Cape St. Vincent had peregrine, chough, blue rock thrush and gannets passing. Imagine the seawatching at this time of the year!
I've just re-read your request above and saw the mention of "the boss." Assuming that your employer or work manager does not send you off to the Algarve for a week (now, that would be a great job!), I'm sure that you could combine sightseeing with birdwatching. The cuisine is good. I remember the word "cozinha" (= cuisine) in Alvor. There were little bars along the river at Portimao selling grilled fresh sardines. There is a Visitors' Centre at Castro Marim. It was brand new and not officially open when I was taken there in 1999. My lasting memory of there, apart from the spoonbill and the stork nests on poles stretching towards Spain, was that the people inside gave me a sample of Medronho to drink.
I went to the Algarve all those years ago for a family holiday and saw or heard 100 bird species in 2 weeks, but that included newly arrived spring migrants like woodchat shrike and bee eaters, as well as a lot of waders and other long legged birds (like flamingos) just W of Faro.
Have a good trip.
I just remember some town called Mertola being near to where we saw Great Bustards along a stretch of road with Storks nesting on the pylons and Spanish Sparrows in the nests - is that the same place? I could have swore it was called Castro Verde. Infact I did swear.
