Watching the birds.

Another year has stealthily slipped by and on the 12th of September I became entitled to yet one more candle on my birthday cake. Thanks to a 5 o'clock flight from Ryanair and permission from my manager to finish a couple of hours early Joan and I flew out on the 10th to spend an extended weekend and celebrate my birthday in Santa Luzia.
In actual fact I returned home on Monday the 13th in order to commence work at 5.30 am on Tuesday, Joan remained in town until the following Sunday, ostensibly to prepare the house for the string of friends who will be visiting over the next month or so.
Whilst we do not rent the house commercially we do regularly allow friends and family the use of the place and it gives us enormous pleasure when they report how much they enjoy Santa Luzia. Over the years that we have known Santa Luzia we have introduced more than sixty people to it's delights, many of them returning on more than one occasion, and we like to think they have all done a little to contribute towards the local economy during their visits.
During the 2 days we were in town I struggled to obtain any fishing bait from either local outlets or the usual places in Tavira. As a consequence the fishing rods remained at home and instead I made a couple of excursions by bicycle to observe the bird life of the Ria Formosa through my newly acquired binoculars. We spent the afternoon of Saturday the 11th at Torre de Ares and on the day of my birthday I set off under a blazing sun and peddled to the Pedras Del Rei entrance to Barril Beach. After tramping several kilometers across the sand dunes of the nature reserve I was rewarded with some excellent views of a flock of about 30 African spoonbills.

Spoonbill on the Ria Formosa.

I also observed Flamingos, willow warblers, Herons, storks, plovers and seabirds galore.

I returned home that afternoon with that feeling of inner peace the splendid isolation of the Ria Formosa reserve provides along with two very sore upper arms due to my wearing a cap sleeved tee shirt in the deceivingly fierce September sun.

The Algarve Tourist association have recently launched an English language brochure promoting the Algarve as a birdwatching destination and Santa Luzia is an ideal location for such a holiday. Many species of waders and sea bird can be observed without even leaving the village and the marshes of Castro Marim and the wetland habitats around Olhao are all less than 20 minutes drive away.