A year's rarities in one morning - Birdwatching Lisbon

D#1 and D#4 wanted a short break in Lisbon. I went along too and negotiated a morning off from parental duties. A quick google, a couple of emails, and at 7:30 am on Wed 30th May Rui from Birdwatching Lisbon was outside my hotel to whisk me off for a few hours birding. Would there be much worth seeing so close to a capital city?

We drove across the Tagus river and shortly after turned off the highway down a rough track to an area of rough land with a patchwork of lagoons near Bracieira. Straight out of the car there was Black Redstart singing, Zitting Cisticolas, and a flock of 100+ Swifts. Rui pointed out the more relaxed flight, paler throat and scale appearance of Pallid Swift distinguishing to from the more nervous Common Swift. A Black-Winged Kite sat atop a pole looking for prey, a Black Kite flew through, a Hoopoe Flew cross, then some Flamingoes flew past. We saw more of these pre-historic looking creatures during the day, easily visible from a long way off including a flock of c250 out by the estuary and some wading much closer. 7 Black-Tailed Godwits flew over, then 3 Black-winged Stilts flew in to a lagoon, A quick scan revealed a Squacco Heron on the bank of a lagoon - apparently a rarity at this site, and a Spoonbill in full breeding kit feeding in a lagoon. A distant building had Spotless Starlings - the local variety but new to me - and a pair of Sardinian Warblers flitted through some bushes.

Mention should be made of the first escaped bird established here - Waxbill. A male with a very nice raspberry-red breast appeared close to, but other ones were around.

We drove on to our second location, some (dry) rice fields and dykes with reeds. A couple of Little Owls were around a farm building, then in a ditch the second of our escaped local birds - Yellow Crowned Bishop. The males had just come into full summer plumage and were chasing the females. They looked like slow-moving luminous tennis balls. A really vivid and beautiful bird. Three soaring raptors turned out to be Black Kite and two pale-phase Booted Eagles. A Crested Lark called from a field and flew briefly. We moved on to a reed-filled dyke alive with the sound of Great Reed Warblers. We had a brief view of a bird flying along the back, then an Iberian Yellow Wagtail perched close by enabling the white throat and eyestripe to be clearly seen. The song of the Serin is a constant accompaniment in this area, and was finally made flesh as a male did a song flight and sat in a tree next to the car. Rui picked up a Red-Rumped Swallow amongst local Barn Swallows and we watch this for a while admiring this spectacular hirundine with its seemingly stuck-on tail. There were Corn Buntings and a pair of Marsh Harriers, and then onto the next and final stop

The final location was a road moving north parallel to the estuary with farmland to the left and open cork woodland with bulls and cattle to the right. At the first stop a Nightingale flew past and a Crested Tit moved through a pine tree - a bird that had simply not been on my radar as occurring here. Then at the next stop Rui could here Rock Sparrow. A pair briefly appeared on a tree stump but I missed these as I was looking at a Western Bonelli's Warbler as it sang in a tree. A distinctive "prutt prutt" call got us searching and a pair of Bee-eaters flew into a nearby tree with fantastic scope-filling views. We spent some time here and had Short-toed Treecreeper and Nuthatch. Another Booted Eagle appeared, this time quite near and low giving great views of the head and back instead of the usual under-wing views. As we moved on another raptor appeared low over the trees. It was a species I have been looking to renew my acquaintance with for a few years now, often wondering whether I was watching this or the common variety, but as so often happens when the real thing turns up, I instantly knew we were looking at a Honey Buzzard, apparently not a regular bird here. As we watched, it circled round giving spectacular views, then floated away on flat wings giving a view of its brown back and greyish head.

Shortly afterwards another raptor came over. Large, cruising slowly, as it came near we could see the deep-russet brown head and breast and speckled white underwing and body of a Short-Toed Eagle. This happened as we were watching a singing male Melodious Warbler, Rui pointing out its mimicry and also the start of the song sounding like an engine slowly getting into gear.

Then 8 Cattle Egrets in breeding plumage amongst cattle, a fly-thru Cuckoo, and then the final stop by some electricity pylons where White Storks were nesting on special nesting platforms, the bill-clattering and black-billed youngsters made for quite a site. Just time for one last bird - Cirl Bunting singing in a bush, then back to Lisbon.

I don't know about you but I'm quietly amazed at such a list. The countryside is much-less intensively managed, and correspondingly full of birds. It goes without saying that Rui did a fantastic job and was a pleasure to spend time with. Most of the birds gave excellent views and I'm still feeling a warm glow from the trip. If you find yourself in Lisbon with half a day to spare, you know what to do.

Short-Toed Eagle overhead - photo taken by Rui