Day 8 And home

A pre-dawn start with minibuses loaded and off back to Faro with just a brief comfort stop en route. Sadly, the poshly bagged picnic breakfast from the hotel was mostly binned.

I must have been bone tired because I've no recollection of the baggage drop, passport control and security!! After some confusion about which gate the flight was from we eventually boarded the Easyjet flight back to Gatwick which, like the in bound flight, was smooth, fault-free and slightly early.

It was nice to look out and see the coastline of home, Southampton Water, Hayling, Thorney and West Wittering below and, just a little later, a well-flooded Pulborough Brooks.

Apart from the usual hike back to baggage reclaim the journey through Gatwick was very swift. A shuttle bus was waiting so it was a reasonably quick trip back to the car.

Headed home via M23, Pulborough village and then the A29/A27 just like a normal day at PB.

Day 2 - Christmas Eve

 

Day 1 Gatwick to Faro, meet-up and first birds.

(All bird photos in this post and and up to Day 7 courtesy and copyright Neil McMahon).

Up early and onto the shuttle to north Terminal then through baggage drop with helpful Easyjet staff. Zipped through security and was sat down in Weatherspoons soon after 4am!! Used the app to order scrambled eggs on toast plus free-refill tea/coffee. By the time I'd finished it was filling up with the first drinkers of the day - beer at 4:30am!!

Then it was just the tedious delay in waiting for a departure gate at 06:25.

The boarding was efficient using front and rear steps and we were soon on our way.

Had a brief chat with one of last Xmases Naturetrekers who was heading to Portugal on a walking tour.

Journey to Faro flew past as I chatted to MG   - luckily we had an empty seat between his window and my aisle.

Landed slightly early but passport control was tedious (not just UK but all passengers).

Eventually got through and met up with other members of the group plus NM. We got to introduce ourselves whilst he and RM went to get the vans. 

Once loaded we visited our first birding site not far from the airport. First birds were Caspian Terns, Osprey, Spoonbills, some zip-through Waxbills and the first Zitting Cisticola. 

Lunch was a very pleasant affair at Mar y Sol restaurant; just a light prawn omelette for me plus some wine. 

Then on to Quinta do Lago where the birding was easy with Littie Bittern and Western Swamphen the best but lots of ducks, Chiffchaffs, White Wagtails and Crag Martin's plus the first of many Iberian Magpies and Sardinian Warblers.

Finally, off to Quinta do Marco hotel for check in, quick wash and an evening meal before retiring after a long day. 

My 'bird of the day' was Little Bittern.

And off to Portugal...Day 0

The journey to Gatwick was hindered greatly by a gentleman who clearly didn't understand the role petrol plays in the combustion engine as he had run out of fuel in a trade-plated Peugeot right on the Farlington traffic lights. A police car and cones were out and so by the time everyone had crawled by I'd already been on the road half an hour. I headed across country and was passing Pulborough after nearly 85 minutes of travelling and so popped in to use the facilities and have a pasty for a late lunch.

The rest of the journey into South Terminal Long Stay was uneventful apart from numerous middle-lane hoggers on the A24 pootling along at under 60mph!

The shuttle bus was ready to go once I'd unpacked and locked the car and its wasn't long into the terminal and the Bloc Hotel- check in was swift. 

Poor lighting, no tea and coffee making facilities, no chair and, my pet hate, a wet-room ensured I wont be staying there again!!

A coffee at Cafe Nero and later a M&S meal deal saw out the day.

WWT again

As yesterday was a fine looking day with plenty of sunshine and, for the most part, just light winds a few hours birding was called for and, feeling lazy, WWT was an easy choice. In the event of weather change or absence of birds it's a nice place to sit and catch up on a massive backlog of reading matter and coffee. 

As it was the weather played ball and there were even a few birds, enough to justify a Bird Track entry (see below).

The Goosander was still present earlier but no-one I spoke to had seen it so either well tucked in or out on the river.

The male Peregrine flew in and perched high up on the hanger and didn't move for about two hours; the female was harder to find being in the largest tree to break the skyline that they sometimes favour.

Different species from last week were Glossy Ibis (1), Cattle Egrets (c25), Lesser Redpoll(2), Sparrowhawk and heard only Water Rail.

The ibis was day-roosting with Egrets and almost impossible to see whilst looking into the low winter sun but eventually did a nice anticlockwise circuit of the pond before alighting on an island.

Two Kingfishers were very noisy but didn't sit up on show like last week. 

Again, like last week, no chance of harriers etc with a 2pm departure - maybe one of the January late opening days will be an opportunity for them.

Chiffchaffs were obvious and noisy and I'm sure there were more onsite than I recorded.

Still plenty of wasp activity with a queen being relocated out of the restaurant by another visitor and others buzzing around the hides. A Common Darter was a surprise and, I'm certain, my latest ever.

https://app.bto.org/birdtrack/pubcon/shared?subId=SUB50963269

The view from Lapwing hide and the impressive success of the Sand Martin holes.

Health check

Thursday saw a brief walk at QECP after a finance 'check' at the bank and bookended by a coffee and a rainbow-inducing rain shower. Little on offer bar a flyover kite, a close but unseen Firecrest and a flyover Lesser Redpoll.

A visit to Chichester LCE saw a Sparrowhawk over Via Ravenna and a Kestrel on the way back into town. Nice to try out the new stabilised Swarovski scope. A good size but noticeably heavy (a kilo and a half - heavier than my old ATS!!). As with the ATC no chance of a stay-on case, no extendable hood and no-one present could confirm, or otherwise, whether the threaded barrel would take a filter although it was suggested one fitted might degrade the image - not sure about that though.

Locally, just six Shoveler and at least one Chiffchaff, the vegetation being too overgrown to look for Water Rail although no sounds as yet. Last year one was here from mid- November onwards so maybe there's one or more skulking away in there somewhere.