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Portugal - a short autumn break Friday 28 September to Tuesday 2 October 2012 with James Lidster and João Jara as leaders
Cost: £1250 (2012) The tour begins at 13.00hrs on Day 1, and ends at around 14.00hrs on Day 5, at Lisbon International airport (also known as Lisbon Portela Airport) thereby allowing participants to take advantage of the various ways of getting there - budget airlines, ferry, train etc. - or to take time before or after the tour to visit other places on their own. Note that if you travel by air the recommended check-in time is 2½ hours before departure for European flights, and 3 hours before departure for inter-continental flights. This means that the earliest time you can fly from Lisbon International Airport on Day 5 is 16.30. The website http://www.seat61.com has useful information about getting to Portugal by means other than flying. Maximum group size: 14 with 2 leaders. |
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Lying at the western side of the Iberian peninsula, Portugal has a remarkably rich birdlife. This short tour will focus on seeing some of the regions special birds and, as the tour coincides with the main migration period, we hope to encounter a nice mix of migrants along the way. We begin by exploring the varied habitats around the Tagus Estuary. These include rice fields, pasture, salt pans, inter-tidal mudflats, salt marsh, reed beds, and lush cork oak woodlands. We then move inland to the vast steppe-like habitat around Castro Verde, home to one of the largest flying birds in the world, the Great Bustard before returning to Lisbon via the Sado Estuary. Day 1: The tour begins at 13.00hrs at Lisbon airport. From there we’ll travel to our hotel in the heart of the Tagus Estuary and then begin our exploration of this region. Our first birds in this extensive wetland should include a variety of herons, egrets, waders, gulls, and terns and highlights could include Greater Flamingo, Glossy Ibis, Pied Avocet, Black-winged Stilts, Mediterranean Gull, Crested Lark, and Cetti’s, Fan-tailed, and Sardinian Warblers. Night near Alochete. Day 2: We’ll devote today to birdwatching on the estuary and in the surrounding cork woodland. Species we’ll be looking out for include Woodlark, Hoopoe, Short-toed Treecreeper, Rock Sparrow, Serin, and Cirl Bunting. We should also have our first encounter with some of the Iberian specialities such as Black-shouldered Kite, Azure-winged Magpie, and Spotless Starling. Farmland and salt marshes at the northern end of the estuary could hold groups of Little Bustard as well as Short-toed lark, Tawny Pipit, and Bluethroat. Night near Alochete. Days 3-4: Leaving the coast we travel to the Alentejo region. Here we’ll spend two days amidst the wonderful landscape of rolling plains and hills of the great Castro Verde plains and Pulo do Lobo. The focus of our attention here will be Great Bustard and with a healthy population in the area we have a good chance of seeing several of these magnificent creatures. We also have a good chance of finding some secretive Black-bellied Sandgrouse. These open plains are a great place for raptors and we’ll be looking out for Griffon Vulture, Short-toed Eagle, Hen Harrier, Lesser Kestrel, and Red Kite. Any rocky areas could produce Little Owl or Thekla Lark, while the stony fields are good places to look for Stone-curlew. Overhead there may be Crag Martins or Red-rumped Swallows hawking for insects and we may find a Southern Grey Shrike perched on the scattered bushes. The autumn migration could produce almost anything and we can expect flocks of Yellow Wagtails feeding amongst the flocks of sheep and goats, while any stand of trees may contain a Wryneck, Pied Flycatcher, or Melodious Warbler. Night in Alentejo region. Day 5: We begin our return to Lisbon visiting the Sado Estuary enroute. We’ll stop on the way to look for migrants and perhaps find a Dartford or Spectacled Warbler in the process. We cross the Sado river by ferry where we may see small pods of Bottle-nosed Dolphins and there should be time to explore some of the wetland habitats around the river for birds such as Purple Swamphen or Squacco Heron before we continue to Lisbon airport where the tour ends at around 14.00hrs.
E-mail or phone +44 (0)1767 262522 for availability.
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