The floodgates open at Sagres

It all kicked off today as migrants flooded in to south west Portugal. I started at Ponta da Atalaia in Sagres where there had clearly been an overnight fall of passerines, especially whinchats and willow warblers and then excitedly went to the raptor watch point at Carbonosa to see if there might have been an improvement in bird of prey numbers. There had!

Total raptor numbers today across both sites (but mainly at Carbonosa) included minimums of 30 booted eagles, 10 short-toed eagles, 4 Bonelli's eagles, 14 honey buzzards, 2 goshawks, 4 sparrowhawks, 2 black kites, 3 peregrines, 2 common buzzards and 1 red-footed falcon, plus 5 black storks, while passerines included 83 whinchats, 60 willow warblers, 12 redstarts, 10 garden warblers, 15 northern wheatears, 3 whitethroats, 2 woodchat shrikes, 5 blackcaps, 5 western subalpine warblers, 1 pied flycatcher and 1 spotted flycatcher. Resident species seen included 25 azure-winged magpies, 10 Thekla larks, 4 Audouin's gulls, 15 Sardinian warblers, 2 black redstarts, 2 chough and 20 spotless starlings. A breathtaking and very tiring day!

The raptors here are almost all juveniles which are inexperienced and have become disorientated and missed the short crossing to Africa at Gibraltar. When they reach Sagres they find that they have run out of land on the very edge of Europe and are forced to reorientate. On warm sunny days from about mid-morning they start to climb high on the thermals and head back east towards the Rock. Sometimes they can be low and give excellent views, but on most other occasions they are very high. The photos above and below are short-toed eagles.

The individual highlight of the day was this juvenile red-footed falcon at Ponta da Atalaia, which flew right past me low down, providing excellent views including its "Zorro mask" contrasting with it's paler, rusty looking crown. Sadly I was too slow with the camera, again, but maybe it was for the best since I am left with a great memory of this wonderful bird. Time was when I didn't need a photograph in order to enjoy a great birding experience. Imagine that!

One of at least 23 booted eagles. Almost all are pale phase like this bird.

Juvenile honey buzzard.

Five black storks flew over in groups of three and two, presumably having made the same mistake as the raptors.

Common buzzard.

Four booted eagles, a black kite (bottom bird) and a honey buzzard (righthand bird).

There were amazing numbers of whinchats, with a minimum of 83 seen.

One of 10 garden warblers.

Redstart.

Spotted flycatcher.

Juvenile turtle dove.

One of many willow warblers.

Woodchat shrike.

Blue rock thrush.

Choughs at Ponta da Atalaia.

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