The sun and wind are out in force again this morning but, using the van as a shelter, Jim spends about three hours sea watching. There isn't a great deal of anything in particular, more a steady trickle including five shearwaters at some distance, puffins, gannets, sandwich terns and two skuas, which seem to be small and medium sized but, again, at too great a distance for positive identification.
Ria d'Aveiro
The Ria d'Aveiro comprises a 6,000 ha tidal lagoon and a network of channels, many of them clogged by rushes and eelgrass. Although the lagoon has a large fish population, excessive algal growth prevents it being exploited. Instead, the seaweed itself is harvested for fertiliser and production reached 150,000 tonnes a year in the 1970s. The lagoon is separated from the sea by a long narrow strip of sand, much of which is cultivated, either as small-holdings or maritime pine plantation. Some 700 ha near the southern tip has been designated a nature reserve and includes pine forest with a heronry comprising about 400 little and cattle egret nests.
It is high tide when we arrive in the area, the wind has dropped and the water is like a millpond, inhabited by thousands of gulls. There is only a narrow channel for water to flow out into the ocean and so the tide recedes quite slowly. As mudflats are exposed, waders begin to appear: grey plover and redshank being the noisiest, but also good numbers of godwit, dunlin, etc. The area has lost its importance for other species of waterfowl because of disturbance: hunting pressure is severe in winter.
We find a place to park for the night in an area of mature forest. Crested tits and wrens call in the trees. Blackbirds here seem to have a rather metallic call. A barn owl flies over a couple of times, commuting between farmland and saltmarsh.
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