23 Jan 1989 - towards the Algarve

There is a slight frost this morning but the sun soon burns that off. We walk around the camp­site and see similar birds to yesterday. A stonechat sitting on top of a bush singing. The dis­tinctive calls of hoopoes provide an unusual background noise, and we track them down to three birds engaged in some sort of display of pecking order or pairing up, almost camouflaged against an orange-red roof. As male and female are almost identical it is difficult to work out who is doing what to who. After about five minutes they disperse.

Moving on south towards the Algarve, we pass huge rolling fields of cultivation, or sparse grass and cattle. It looks ideal habitat for bustards, sandgrouse, and stone curlew; we stop a few times to look for them but with no luck. Lapwing are more in evidence than anything else, but where there are trees or scrub we find blue and great tit, finches, thrushes, etc.

There is space to park next to a bridge across the Rega do Torgal, and we look down into the valley where blackcaps, chiffchaffs and tits are busy. On alder trees near the bridge a flock of siskins are attacking last year's cones, their movements shaking pollen off the nearby catkins to blow about onto this year's cones.

The Algarve

Although we have been driving along a major route, the road was no better, and often worse, than a 'C' road in Britain, with very little traffic. However, along the coast of the Algarve, west of Lagos, it turns into a major highway with a smooth surface and lots of cars. We head for the Praia da Rocha, near Portimao, where we had been told of a cheap campsite, but the town is more like a building site of hotels and the campsite is even less impressive. We also have the address of an 'ornitho‑religious centre' called A Rocha, so we thought we would try it for local birding information and perhaps they would know of a campsite.

After asking a few times we find the place and are made most welcome by Peter Harris who runs the centre, the only educational residen­tial centre for natural history in Portugal. There were Pem­brokeshire connections too, for Peter had been on Skokholm and spent time at 'the Hookses' on Dale airfield, and his wife Miranda is from Newport, Pembs. They have four children ‑ Bethan, Elspeth, Jeremy and Jo.