Return to Lagoon Cottage

It felt a bit like going home. I walked into that cool bedroom with its tiled floor, wooden shutters and wedgewood blue iron bedstead, and it was almost as if I hadn’t left. I was back at Quinta Cerro da Vela [Lagoon Cottage] in Arroteia, southern Portugal for two weeks [20 April - 4 May], and looking forward to seeing some good birds.

My previous visit had been an autumn one [October 2010] so early mornings up on the roof this time were spent watching and listening to a whole new suite of birds in and around the garden – Serins, Bee Eaters, Corn Buntings, Golden Orioles, and Cuckoo.

We packed a lot into every day; up early and off to our favourite birding spots - salt pans, lagoons, woodlands, wetland reserves, tree-covered hills and river gorges, and the plains of the Alentejo region. Arguably some of the best days were those when we crossed the border to Donana National Park, in Andalucia, with the highlight being the fabulous Jose Valverde Centre. Standing in the Visitors Centre you look out over a lagoon that holds a teeming heronry with...

Glossy Ibis




Cattle Egret



Purple Heron



Squacco Heron



Night Heron



and Great Reed Warblers singing from every patch of reeds...



Among the birds seen on drives along the tracks were stunning Montagu's Harriers, a party of Lesser Kestrels, Black and Whiskered Terns skimming over flooded grassland, Collared Pratincoles, a pair of Marbled Teal, and a Temminck's Stint...



But no matter where we went, every day was unforgettable. On visits to the Alentejo we saw displaying Great Bustards – almost turning themselves inside out to impress the females, Little Bustards, White-rumped Swifts, Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Roller...

Black-eared Wheatear...

and - possibly the bird of the trip - a Short-toed Eagle circling just above us, eating a snake that it held in its talons.

We called in at Odiel Marsh in Spain for this Coot with curlers...

Red-knobbed Coot



In reed beds around the lake at Quinto da Lago golf course lived this little gem of a bird...

Black-headed Weaver

– actually an African species but established in Portugal from escaped captive birds.



One bird found just about everywhere was the Corn Bunting, nearly always belting out its jangling song - but not this one, which was presumably collecting food for its young...

And not just birds. This Tortoise was making its way across the track at Vilamoura. I’m not sure that there are any native tortoises in Portugal so it may have been an abandoned/ escaped pet – I’ll have to look it up. But whatever, it was interesting to see. We decided to put it back into vegetation by the side of the track as it was in danger of being run over, but Paul wasn’t sure the tortoise would be too pleased about that. He reckoned it had probably taken it a couple of weeks to get that far.

This snake, however, was definitely a wild one.

I think it’s a Viperine snake - a relatively common European water snake (but again - more research is needed). That would certainly fit with where we found it - slithering down a concrete water course near a water treatment plant.

Even at the end of each day the birding didn’t stop. Most evenings, after eating at a local restaurant, we’d stop along the narrow roads home to try to pick out from amongst the chorus of cicadas and frogs, the strange calls of Red-necked Nightjar.  One evening we were lucky enough to see one on the road in front of the car. And during the night we had our own garden Little Owls. They’re noisy little devils and often disturbed my sleep, but I didn’t mind – in fact I loved lying in the dark listening to their screeching calls and eerie little song. So to close, here’s one of them in daylight - using the cottage gate post as a sheltered resting place...