I got this lovely shot while Daniela and I were waiting to put Carolina on her school bus this morning; yesterday we had an Osprey circling overhead, this morning it was this Blackcap and i took quite a few of this particular chap while he darted in and out of the flowers grabbing nectar, but this shot stood out from the crowd. Look at his head and imagine he’s facing right instead of left …. see it? What a wonderful piece of camouflage!
A juvenile Ring-necked duck got my heart racing when I was on Porto Santo. An American species, this is sometimes recorded in Macaronesia, the islands in the Atlantic off the coast of northern Africa and southern Europe, but it certainly wasn’t expected …
One of Porto Santo’s specialities and a species I’ve been chasing unsuccessfully on the mainland for more years than I care to remember …
I’m escaping all this cold weather and am visiting Madeira, so thought I’d post this iconic image I took yesterday on Porto Santo, a beautiful little island just off the coast and better from the birding point of view I think than Madeira itself.
Dipper-20090908, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.
I had a break with Daniela at the beginning of the week and we decided to go north and grab ourselves a Dipper; thanks to a very informative offer from Rui Marcão we were able to do just that and the above is the result. We were looking for some other species as well but sadly we blew out on all of them - not surprising really as the temperature was well over 40ºC/105ºF and it was a tad warm even for us.
I’ve been asked by several people for a copy of the talk I gave at the Birding fair in Rutland last week, and I said that I would post it up here …. but even a précis goes on for ever, and on a blog that’s normally made up of snippets it’ll look wildly untidy, so please, if you’re waiting for it to appear, wait no longer as it ain’t going to happen! Just email me through this site and I’ll send it to you.
Thanks to everyone who came to hear me; some of you traveled immense distances and your efforts of support were much appreciated; next time you’re out here, the drinks, (wine of course), are on me!
OK, for everyone who reads this blog or who may stumble upon it by accident please note that I’m going to be in the UK next week, principally at the British Birdwatching Fair. I’m going to have the same stand as always, Marquee 4 Stand 97, and sincerely hope to see you there!
I’m also going to be giving a lecture on the Threat to the Montados and what we can all do to save it, (Sunday 23rd August 15.30, Lecture Marquee 2), so I also hope that some of you will be able to make it to that also! I haven’t posted a picture of this as there’re plenty on this blog already, but please come along and have a chat at the Birdfair; see you there!
House-Martin-(Delichon-urbica)-20090507, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.
During these hot summer months there sometimes seems to be very little new going on - and then something changes your perception of what’s going on around you and you see that Nature’s always changing, always on the move and there’s very little that’s static about it.
I came in this evening from taking my daughter Alexandra water-skiing on the lake and was walking off the pontoon when one of those moments woke me out of a normal day and brought home to me once again how lucky I am to be able to live here.
Of course I realise I’m lucky every day - I mean it’s not everyone who has the good fortune to live in such a wonderful place and wake up every morning to the view we have here - but this was something extra special.
I looked up and noticed, (of all the trivial things to set one’s heart racing), a House Martin …. and then another …. and then another, and another and another.
I’ll tell you why a House Martin’s special for me later, but as I was looking at them swooping low over the garden all around me, I noticed too an ordinary Barn Swallow, and then a Red-rumped Swallow and then a Common swift and then a pair of Alpine Swifts - all of them hawking in the early evening in MY garden! What a sight!
But, as I said, funnily enough the thing that really got me going was the House Martins! OK, so a House Martin’s not so special, why the interest? Why not double the excitement over something much more special like the Red-rumped Swallows or the Alpine Swifts? After all they’re both a good deal rarer than the House Martins, so why all the fuss?
Well, it goes back a long way - a very long way!
When I started to build this Quinta and its gardens, I purposefully built it as much as possible with the Birds and Wildlife in mind; I wanted the place to blend in with the countryside, to be an asset to it and not an eyesore, and I judge my success by the species I have dropping in and using it. Now it might surprise you that during the last 23 years I have NEVER seen a House Martin here. They’re common nearby, they nest in their hundreds in Santa Clara only four kms away as the - well - House Martin flies, but they’re communal nesters and very site specific, raraely changing their sites, rarely changing their preferred hunting grounds, and I’ve never seen them here, so to see a bunch of them flitting in and out between the trees was, for me, a thrilling sight and one that I’ll treasure for a long time.
Something so simple; something so profound. You never know, this time next year we might have them nesting here; now that WOULD be a success!
A-White-Stork-20090506_4133, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.
These birds are so symbolic of the Alentejo that I can’t resist talking about them. They normally winter in tropical africa (down to south africa ) and across in India, but increasing numbers are electing to forego the tiring migration and over-winter in Europe. Though I’ve talked about these before, the ones in this picture are a bit special as they’re the only ones in the world to nest at sea - or rather they nest on some rock stacks just off the west coast near the Quinta.
