Andorinhas return to the streets of Aveiro

September 29, 2017: 38 birds present at the known roost site in the PM. As if they never left. Discovered there by Davina & Daniel, on a big night out...

Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) in Aveiro, Portugal

These migrants saw the American election results coming and left their continent? I noticed several of these in and around Aveiro daily for the past few weeks, always difficult to photograph.

Andorinhas return

Aveiro, Portugal, October 16, 2016, 20:30.

Dead Razorbills

The Razorbill (Alca torda) is a colonial seabird that only comes to land in order to breed. Or after it died. On February 16 2016, we noticed no fewer than 7 fresh Razorbill carcasses on just under 3 kilometers of tide line at the height of Praia Poço da Cruz and Areao (Aveiro, Portugal). I suspect a period of stormy weather that occurred here a few days ago took its toll and the birds affected were local wintering individuals that reside there not far offshore. I wonder what the situation is on other Portuguese beaches.

Merry christmas and a happy climatic change

The day a new apartment in the centre of Aveiro (Portugal) got occupied (December 1, 2015), a large pre-roost gathering of Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) got noticed there, high up in the sky. Barn Swallows are a species assumed to spend the winter in Africa....

Today some big folks signed some deal that would help us all with taking care of climatic change...

Today also, we managed to find the exact roost of the swallows. A total of 150 Barn Swallows was counted, roosting on some small street corner in the centre of Aveiro. On December 12, 2015. A record for Portugal for December? While all other birders in the area were driving around in their cars looking for rarities... None of them recorded a single Barn Swallow this day (or this month?) it seemed...

Merry Christmas and a happy Climatic Change to everybody, anyway...


Tim



Photo by Fabi











Photo by Fabi




Photo by Fabi

Another chopped up dolphin, @ Costa Nova, Portugal (November 13, 2015)

Striped dolphin Stenella coeruleoalba ?? Cause of death unknown. Reported to CRAMQ.

Big Brown Bird

 

A 1st calender year Great Reed Warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus. Caught, ringed, measured and released today in the wetlands of Salreu (Portugal).

The São Jacinto pack

During the past years I had a few close encounters with the pack of stray dogs that roams the dunes of São Jacinto. The presence of these dogs is likely causing problems for local wildlife, but as a dog owner I’m biased and must admit I’ve gotten fascinated by them. Here are reports of some of those encounters.






September 4, 2012 - In summer, when the water level of the ponds is lowest, the pack hunts on moulting ducks (which at that time are unable to fly), as well as any nesting waterbirds. The ducks try to find a safe place at the deepest part of the pond. The second dog from the right is the suspected alpha female.




March 7, 2014 – A confrontation with the alpha female and two of her pups in the dunes.








January 23, 2015 – At the beach, where they find and eat whatever ends up on the tide line (in particular beached animals). I assume the first black individual is one of the pups seen in 2014. Whether the other two on the first photo originate from the same litter remains unknown. On the second photo the suspected alpha male and female.






July 14, 2015 – The family patrols the pond again. A life any short-living Portuguese asylum dog would dream of? In the front the alpha male and female, in the back at least one of the youngest generation.

Two rare gulls for Portugal

Iceland gull Larus glaucoides, second winter. Still residing near Murtosa today. I was informed it’s the American subspecies L. g. kumlieni, and it’s the second winter the bird appears at the cow dung rich meadow.




Caspian gull Larus cachinnans, first winter. Seen on two dates in January in the Aveiro region. Possibly the first record of this species for that area. Found by Pedro Moreira.

Survey of beached birds and mammals: São Jacinto – Torreira, Portugal. March 27, 2014

British-ringed Atlantic Puffin

Yet unidentified dolphin

Picking up Puffins on the first beached bird and mammal survey between Sao Jacinto and Torreira

On March 14 2014, a survey of beached birds and mammals was conducted along a 10 km long transect between Sao Jacinto and Torreira, by Pedro Moreira and me. The transect included 5 km of closed off beach belonging to the Sao Jacinto reserve, who gave us permission for this survey. The idea was to get an impression of what species and their numbers had been washing up on the beach along the northwestern coastline of Portugal during the previous months. None of this 10 km of beach gets regularly cleaned, making it a very suitable length of coastline for this study.

Another motivation for this activity had been the reports of large numbers of dead seabirds that washed up on beaches in France and Spain, after the ‘wreck’ that occurred earlier in the year in the Bay of Biscay due to continuing bad weather conditions (See http://www.sott.net/article/274701-Update-Tens-of-thousands-of-dead-seabirds-have-now-washed-up-in-Bay-of-Biscay and http://www.timvannus.blogspot.nl/2014/03/dead-british-seabirds-are-finding-their.html).

 The 10 km transect we walked from Sao Jacinto to Torreira.

Results

Which of these birds died in the wreck that occurred in the beginning of the year remains difficult to determine, with the absence of earlier survey results. We suspect this had been the case with all of the puffins that were found. Even the few of those that we found on the recent tide lines showed signs these had been floating in the ocean for a while. All of the Lesser Black-backed Gulls had died recently and these were probably all local birds. Also the Common Guillemot and one or two Razorbills appeared a bit too fresh to have come all the way from the Bay of Biscay.

Beached Atlantic Puffins.

 

 Three Lesser Black-backed Gulls and two Razorbills.

 Great Northern Loon.

Unidentified Seahorse...

...and a coconut.

Dead British seabirds are finding their way to Portuguese beaches?

A survey of stranded seabirds on the Atlantic coast of France has found more than 21,000 of their corpses washed up on shores between Brittany and Spain.

A co-ordinated count that took place last weekend (22-23 February) from Finistère to the Spanish border resulted in 21,341 dead birds begin retrieved, along with and another 2,784 brought to veterinary centres to aid recovery. Several thousand dead seabirds were already counted earlier in the month and fishermen and other boat users reported that there were "carpets of dead birds" still floating at sea.

See http://www.sott.net/article/274701-Update-Tens-of-thousands-of-dead-seabirds-have-now-washed-up-in-Bay-of-Biscay

Today on only a short walk on the beach near Praya de Mira (< 1 km) we found these two Puffins Fratercula arctica and one Black-legged Kittiwake Rissa tridactyla.

Fratercula arctica; but where did its wing feathers go to? I assume it has not been marked by someone.

 Rissa tridactyla.

And now for something completely different?

While walking in Parque da Fontenova in Aveiro (Portugal) on February 25, my I caught a somewhat strange white bird among several Black-headed Gulls that were foraging on the grass. At closer inspection it appeared it was also a Black-headed Gull, but with a colouring defect in its wings (http://observado.org/waarneming/view/81965799). Unfortunately, I wasn’t carrying a camera. Today March 1 the dogs got a walk in the same park and also the gull appeared there again. Coincidentally I ran into Pedro Moreira, who luckily brought his camera with him as he was already on the lookout for this particular bird. Pedro sent me the following photos.

Partially leucistic Black headed Gull Parque da Fontenova in Aveiro, Portugal. March 1, 2013 (photos by Pedro Moreira).

As far as defects in colouring go, this type of deviation seems to occur more regularly among this species. See i.e. http://www.frankmajoor.nl/kokmeeuwen-kleurafwijkingen-1-nl.shtml. Not as completely different as I first thought, but still a beautiful bird to see.