5 Jan 1989 - Alcochete salt pans

At the village of Alcochete we take a right turn hop­ing to get closer to the estuary. The road turns into a dirt track after about a kilometre. We park, and have lunch, then take a walk.

Dense saltmarsh vegeta­tion grows between saltpans of varying stages of evaporation. The track crosses a muddy channel and from the bridge I idly looked at a small thrush flick­ing its tail, expecting it to be a song thrush. After a few seconds it turns my way, showing off a blue throat and breast with a white spot, then flies off. We search the muddy sides of the channel hoping it would return. A robin appears with its back to us, I dismiss it being smaller than the previous bird, but make a mental note to check on robins with orange undertail coverts. The bird turns, then flies off when it sees us but not before Jim sees its blue­throat. I had obviously misjudged its size the first time, and the orange flashes were actua­lly patches at the base of its tail ‑ a useful identification character when the bird is not seen properly.

After that we examine closely any 'robin' in the bottom of channels and dryish saltpans, and get one more brief sighting. Bluethroats gen­erally prefer moist or wet situations with ample cover so saltmarsh is ideal. Outside the breeding season they are generally unobtrusive and skulk­ing, moving about furtively in thick cover and slinking away when alarmed. When flushed they fly off low and quickly drop back into cover.

There are people with guns out by the estuary so we stay in the marshes, surrounded by fan-tailed, sardinian and Cetti's warblers, and chiff-chaffs, as well as serins and other finches. Whenever shots are fired, a cloud of waders move along the estuary together with egrets and a white stork.

As he checks another saltpan for blue­throat, Jim notices a strange wader between a couple of dun­lin on the far side. The bird is squatting down showing a large expanse of white chest and belly, brown upperparts, short dark bill and dark eye­stripe with pale supercilium meeting above the lores. When the bird eventually becomes active it shows dark legs and short brown lapels of a kent­ish plover. Its feeding technique seems to con­sist of paddling its feet then running to pick up whatever had come to the surface in response to the mini-earthquake.

Several chiff‑chaffs hawk for insects over the saltpans, one or two seemed to have dark faces and breast patches but otherwise are the same as all the others. Probably they have dipped their faces in the water as they pick prey off the water surface, then wipe their bill on their breast and left a wet mark there.

A couple of times small birds zoom past with a peculiar buzzing call, diving into the bushes as soon as we get the binoculars on them. Eventually some do show themselves on the top of the bush and are identified as wax­bills, Jim has renamed them as 'buzz-bombs'.

A sound like a curlew being strangled, announces the arrival of water rail, two of them, in the bottom of a channel. They seem to face up to each other, with some sort of head pumping dis­play, then moving a few steps back and forth as each tries to gain dominance. After a couple of minutes one flies into the vegetation at the top of the channel, closely followed by the other. They may be contesting feeding places. As we head back towards the van, we hear the strangled cries again.

After last night's disturbances we look for a more sheltered place to use as a campsite. There seems to be nothing suitable so we dare again to use the AA book which lists a cheap site in the town of Setubal (which we discovered is pronounced Sh'tu­bal). We spend what seems like an eternity trying to find our way out of a one‑horse village, the name of which is already forgotten. Then another eternity driving in circles around Setubal trying to decide which road might take us to the campsite. Eventually we see a sign which said 'English Institute', so we stopped and asked there. Fortunately one of the English teachers knows where the campsite is, and we are soon installed in a cheap but adequate site next to the Sado Estuary.