Scott of the Marsh: Portugal report

I've been away in the Algarve ringing birds with Brewood Ringers for nearly two weeks at the Parque Ambientle near Vilamoura (hard life I know). There've been some great birds, great weather and great company. Here is my brief take on the events and star birds, I'll post a link to the full report when its out.

We arrived on 30th September and around the apartments there were some great birds, most of them seen or heard from the balcony. Azure-winged magpies, red-rumped swallows, hoopoe, cetti's warbler and sardinian warblers. On our walk to the restaurant we also encountered several flocks of cattle egret going into roost, a glossy ibis and a calling tawny owl.

A great start
Day 1 kicked off well with over 100 birds ringed including a 2 western bonelli's warblers (right photo below), but star of the show was a paddy field warbler (left photo below). Check in Collins Bird Guide (other field guides are available) to see how far off course this bird was. We believe it is the 5th record for Portugal.

Paddyfield warbler (left) and western bonelli's warbler (right)

'The V'

On an afternoon off I decided to walk around the local area to try and get some photos of the large number of cattle egret and hoopoe we'd seen along the road verges on our travels between the apartment and the nature reserve where we were ringing.

As well as a few awful photos I discovered an amazing place for birds, a seemingly bird-less manicured path between two apartment blocks. Little did I know it would produce some great birds including crested larks, azure-winged magpies, several wheatears, a pied flycatcher and three, yes three wrynecks!

Later that week a few members of the team set out to ring a few of the birds present, and succeeded in catching a wryneck and a cattle egret amongst a few other birds.

Bird of the trip, a humble blackcap

With some great species ringed, including a 5th for Portugal in the paddyfield warbler, it might seem surprising that a blackcap was the star bird of the trip. However, hear the story and you'll soon know why.

A few days into the trip, Dave pulled out another blackcap from the net and noticed it was already ringed. Checking the ring he saw it was a British ring, not that unusual as we'd already caught reed warblers from Holland and Sweden, but close inspection and Dave thought he recognised the ring number. A quick phone call home to his wife revealed that it was a bird that he originally ringed back in Staffordshire at Blithfield Reservoir less than a month earlier. Amazing to think that the two of them were in the same place at the same time after 3 weeks and over 1000 miles travelled!

Out into the dark

Along with ringers from Brewood Ringers we were joined by three great guys from Shropshire, Paul, Kevin and Martin. Paul had bought along a spot light and hand net in the hope of heading out at night to catch red-necked nightjar. The evening was great and we succeeded in catching one bird (on the second attempt), along with a crested lark.

Red-necked nightjar

Crested lark

And finally...

At the end of our 10 day trip we caught and ringed 930 birds of 49 species, not one of the highest totals of individuals but a great mix of species to make up for it. Collectively the group recorded 106 species, including those ringed. They were:

Gadwall, shoveler, mallard, ferruginous duck, pochard, red-legged partridge, little grebe, gannet, cormorant, little bittern, cattle egret, little egret, squacco heron, great white egret, grey heron, white stork, glossy ibis, greater flamingo, short-toed eagle, booted eagle, black-winged kite, marsh harrier, kestrel, montagu's harrier, buzzard, water rail, moorhen, coot, purple swamphen, little ringed plover, lapwing, sanderling, turnstone, green sandpiper, common sandpiper, greenshank, whimbrel, snipe, arctic skua, black-headed gull, lesser black-backed gull, yellow-legged gull, mediterranean gull, feral pigeon, collared dove, little owl, tawny owl, barn owl, short-eared owl, red-necked nightjar, swift, kingfisher, hoopoe, green woodpecker, great spotted woodpecker, wryneck, crested lark, thekla's lark, swallow, sand martin, red-rumped swallow, house martin, yellow wagtail, white/pied wagtail, grey wagtail, bluethroat, redstart, stonechat, whinchat, wheatear, song thrush, mistle thrush, blackbird, zitting cisticola, garden warbler, blackcap, whitethroat, sardinian warbler, subalpine warbler, sedge warbler, reed warbler, cetti's warbler, paddyfield warbler, grasshopper warbler, melodious warbler, willow warbler, chiffchaff, western bonelli's warbler, spotted flycatcher, pied flycatcher, great tit, crested tit, penduline tit, short-toed treecreeper, azure-winged magpie, jay, spotless starling, spanish sparrow, house sparrow, linnet, goldfinch, greenfinch, serin, common waxbill, black-headed weaver, corn bunting.