Tuesday 3 August 2010

Clayheads on Tour - Algarve 2010 27th July (2)

We continued from Mertola onto Castro Verde, stopping at Alcaria Ruiva where we had nine Griffon Vultures, Booted Eagle, Short-toed Eagle and Black-eared Wheatear.


Next stop was down a dirt track to one of the Great Bustard reserves. We had distance views here of upto 8 Great Bustards. As you can see from the landscape, it was barren, bleak and extremely hot. Here Georg, our excellent guide is scanning the fields.

Here is one of my excellent videos of distant Great Bustards in a heat haze.



We moved on in search of more Great and Little Bustards, stopping at the start of the road down to Joao Serra. Here we had a large gathering of Griffin Vultures, some 38+ birds in all. Here Georg amazed us both by finding an immature Ruppells Vulture circling with 7+ Griffons. A totally unexpected bird and one that was totally unpredicted. There was also a very pale bird in the area, one whose ID has to remain a mystery, but could also have been an adult Ruppells or even a White-backed! Unfortunately, I only managed a picture of GAS watching the Ruppells Vulture.