Photo Journal: Wanderings

Birding in Portugal

October 2022  |  Portugal

I was planning on being in Portugal for 10 days on a bicycle trip, but was hoping to squeeze in a bit of birding. However, I had no car and didn't know where to go or how to get there. Turning to social media, I found on eBird the Regional Reviewer, Eduardo Realinho, for the municipality that I was going to be in, Guardo, where we would have a down day for biking. I connected with Eduardo on Facebook. I was just hoping he could recommend a birding guide I could hire, but instead he volunteered to take me himself and show me some of his favorite haunts.

We spend the whole day together, he took me to multiple sites, showed me a bit of the natural world in Portugal, and shared a lot of his experience with birding. I ended the day thanks to Eduardo with 25 new species on my life list and a few endemics such as the Iberian Magpie, Spanish Eagle, and the Iberian Green Woodpecker.

Little Owl on the Rock Pile It Likely Calls Home

Little Owl on the Rock Pile It Likely Calls Home

Red Kite soars above the steppe of Portugal
Red Kite soars above the steppe of Portugal

The plains and the steppe of Portugal offered a lot of sky to view. This Red Kite was one of of a half dozen hawks, eagles, and vultures seen that day.

Eurasian and Iberian Magpies Together
Eurasian and Iberian Magpies Together

Iberian Magpie with a Eurasian Magpie. The Iberian Magpie is species #766 on my life list and one of the special endemic birds of the area that Eduardo helped me track down.

Long-Eared Owl
Long-Eared Owl Roosting in Town

Long-eared owls are one of my favorite birds. They're rather rare in Wisconsin where I live, but they're highly predictable and return to the same spot in my hometown year after year. I look forward to seeing them every January.

This one, there actually were two, was in a tree above a sidewalk in the Portuguese town of Castro Verde. People walked literarily right below them and never knew they were there. These owls to apparently return to the same spot every day. They're considered a sensitive species very susceptible to human disturbances, but not this one that chose to roost above a sidewalk.

Posted in Birding.
Next: Perfect Moments in the Lamar Valley →