January is a special and busy month with two special birthdays and lots of New Year greetings and meetings to make. It is also 9 years since I began my nature blog as a record of the biodiversity around me and with the hope that this will not disappear. The warning bells have been ringing for a long time now and for most people there is a desire to see the natural world flourish. But the big but is the way so much productivity whether food or goods harms nature through intensive farming, pesticides, mining for our mobiles etc. And then the pollution. Sometimes it all seems overwhelming but with a new year there must be hope. I hope my blog helps celebrate that diversity and in doing so helps us be stronger in our efforts to protect our precious world.

For one special birthday we were sitting on an Algarve beach with a picnic lunch. Coats needed but sunshine and a good breeze. In January there are few tourists on the beach just locals and dogwalkers. On the Manta Rota beach the surf was quite strong and we watched a few sanderlings with their fast moving legs dodging the waves coming in but ready to dig into the sand before the next wave. I wonder what their food is as it was hard to see.
There must also have been an abundance of fish close to the shore.as there was a lot of angling going on with long rods and some catches. We then watched some cormorants flying quite fast along the surface of the ocean dodging the waves. Thankfully we had brought the binoculars and noticed something different to the cormorants. There were flashes of white as these birds turned catching the light. Gannets. We were then rewarded with some very high speed dives dropping into the ocean. The cormorants seemed to be surface divers and the gannets deep divers but both seemed to be more successful with their fishing than the men standing along the shore.
In 2014 I wrote a post about gannets as we visited Bempton Cliffs in the UK. This area and Scotland are the main nesting sites for the European gannets. We also saw some very close by when we visited the Skelligs just off the coast of County Kerry Ireland. These birds have an amazing design to allow them to dive at high speed and protect their brains.



The Algarve and these southern European regions have an amazing diversity of flora and fauna. A little later on we walked around the salt pans between Cabanas and Tavira. The light was failing so I have used other photos but we saw quite a variety as I had seen once when I wrote a poem about all the birds along this coast. I have also put in an extract from that poem as we couldn’t decide what a certain pair of pretty brown birds were. It tied us in knots. Probably Calidris canutus or or knot in winter plumage so not very red. Sorry no photos yet! But we have these from the poem. Bird Biodiversity Poem 0n the Sea Shore

Today we are going to do identification of birds,
Birds on the seashore, birds out at sea,
Birds whose names meant nothing to me.
I must now make a spell and chant out the words.
Kentish plover, Ringed plover,
Little ringed plover too,
Golden plover, Grey plover,
Dotterel make a few,
and let’s not confuse
Dunlin, Sanderling, with Knot,
Green Shank with Red Shank
Or take a Stint or two.
That’s just the start
of the spell we need to weave,
If we go to the seashore,
Where there’s a chance to breathe.
Breathe deep and wonder
The vast variety of birds.
Stand in awe and thunder
Storms brewing words


And for me a first – Avocets but I only realised afterwards when studying my poor camera photo which at least zoomed in more than my eyes to show up the differences between avocets and the black legged stilts. And way into the distance was a lone spoonbill.
We are now back in the chestnut woods of the Sierra Aracena and here the diversity of the woodland birds deserves a poem. They are mainly singing away at the moment and the woodpeckers tapping out more holes in old trees. Today I look out from the kitchen window and spot two high in a tree. How do they make such perfectly rounded holes?
We were going to go out to some of the wetland areas to the north of us where the cranes overwinter but this for various reasons might be next November when they should come back. Winter can bring a different diversity of birds.
It would be lovely to hear from you as to what birds you might have seen in January. After all in the UK its been the Great Garden Bird Watch. What about a blog bird watch for January?
I was fortunate to live on Hirta, St Kilda, for a total of eight months and saw more gannets than you could count. They really are phenomenal to watch.
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Indeed they are incredible. We have family on Orkney. Perhaps I should visit but in summer! Have not been further north than probably Cairngorms!
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It’s been a bit wild up there the last couple of days!
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Yes, indeed! Hope all are ok and the gannets!
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Fabulous and diverse captures! Love them all. Is it your birthday? Wishing you a happy and healthy year my friend.
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And to you Cindy. Husband’s and blog’s birthday. What birds do you see locally in January?
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amazing bird shots … are they all yours?
Here it’s summer and I beach walk so seen ospreys, white breasted eagle, fulls, terns, and many more 🙂
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Mine except for the gannets and those were on some free use offer.
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Thats a great diversity too. Coasts are great for that!
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Such richness and to think that we’re destroying it all. Don’t know if you’re on Arthur Firstenberg’s mailing list? 5G is the biggest threat. They’re now planning cell towers on the ocean floor, it’s a nightmare. I’ll be going to the Spanish Pyrenees in April and look forward to the wildlife there.
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Should be lots of spring flowers in April. Enjoy. We have often taken the Roncevalles route through to Spain. The start of the Camino.
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I am completely ignorant about the birdlife in my area, Georgina, but I do marvel at the variety of birds I both see and hear. Learning their names may come one day, but for now I just love their presence. I especially love the birds of prey swooping around the area, and the hooting of owls at night. Such a delight to be surrounded by birds. Happy birthday to Trevor, and to your blog.
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Have just read your post and am in full admiration of all your work.I wonder how I would manage without Trevor but he was often here alone in the years I was still working. Yes, the names of the birds will come. We have a really good local book with Spanish and latin names. Good luck with it all.
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I guess when one focuses on what needs to get done, and what one has to do under specific circumstances one can cope with an amazing amount of things – both physical and emotional. 😊 I should try and find the equivalent of your bird book for Portugal. It is nice to be able to identify that which one is surrounded by – animals, birds, plants, funghi . . .
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I know there are quite a few Algarve bird resources otherwise a European bird book if there isn’t a local one. Yes, each day there is always something to get done here on the finca and it can be hard work but enjoyable outside.
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Georgina, a wonderful post in celebration of diversity and especially the amazing variety of birds, their habits – they are a wonder to behold and you capture this beauty in your poem! I’m smiling at the sanderling with its head deep in the sand, must have been a special treat! I love the descriptions of your coastal birds and wow, fantastic photos. Here in the garden, we have many blue tits, coat tits, sparrows, finches enjoying the seeds on the feeders. Doves, pigeons, thrushes and blackbirds join on the ground and every morning a Robin hops up to glass doors to say hello! At times a sparrowhawk pays a visit but luckily a year since a hawk killed the dove in the garden. Enjoy your warm and Spring weather by the seaside and congratulations on nine years with your nature blog!
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Thanks Annika for your comments and sharing your winter birds. The sanderlings are quite incredible as they dart about and try not to get soaked in the waves. I hear the weather is rather bleak at present for UK but hope you can still enjoy some outdoor life and nature. And here problem with lack of rainfall.
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Fabulous pictures and a lovely poem Georgina. We’ve been out to Amsterdam or Norway a few times on the ferry and watched gannets dive alongside the ship. And we have quite a few of those seabirds on the coast. Closer to home it has been starlings and blackbirds, crows and tits and the singing of robins!
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Wonderful, Andrea, good to hear from you and your birds. Yes, a good sea trip to Norway sounds fun with gannets.
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So glad you are being seeing as many as us. The Godwits we’ve noticed are into summer plumage already, but the knots as you say still grey.
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Yes, looks like a good salt pan for birds! Hope you are able to visit Olhaõ more now. We are back in our cold spot in Spain! But the sun shines.
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We are indeed back here and it is very very warm – too warm really for February and no rain either, but you can’t help but enjoy it
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Wonderful. Am sure some rain will come so enjoy before the downfall!
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Life isn’t too bad for birds here, though birds of prey tend to get persecuted still. And of course pheasants dominate, and continue to be introduced year after year after year …
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I love the poem — and it has reminded me of to look up the tall bird we spotted wading in an urban waterway last Thursday. As we guessed at the time, it was an Egret. Something rarely seen round our small English town.
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Thanks, yes could have been as more do seem to be crossing the channel. I have seen egrets around in some UK wetlands.
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There have been Egrets in Reading for some years, its taken them a while to travel 20 miles! 🙂
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Bless them! Guess its about where their young move to.
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Like us all……
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I’m not that good at identifying birds, but in my Rocky Mountain home in the U.S. there are lots of Stellar’s blue jays and crows, hummingbirds in warmer weather.
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That sounds a distinctive mix. Good to hear from you.
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Loving the way this poem and post are so deeply connected to the interactions of birds and how we experience them!
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Thanks, I’m glad you have liked the poem extract and the info about the birds.
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Georgina, Congratulations on 9 years of blogging! I enjoyed reading your post, your poem and photos. In January and February, I saw many long-tailed ducks, mute swans, mallards, gulls and redheads in Toronto Harbour. In March there are also Trumpeter swans, cormorants, common mergansers in the lake, and American robins, European starlings, red-breasted nuthatches, red-winged blackbirds on trees. They’re very active and vocal throughout spring. Have a great week!
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Wow! That sounds like a good variety of birds. Extra red seems a characteristic of some birds of the New World! Not heard of red winged blackbirds. Will look some of these up. Variety is the spice pf life or perhaps the essential ingredient.
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I enjoyed your writing style and flow as well as your subjects. I love nature too and do what I can to help the birds, squirrels, and rabbits near me. Keeo up the good work!
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Thanks, lovely to meet up with you. Kindred spirits!
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Yes we are. I have always admired how the Native Americans connected with and honored nature. I also love the beauty of nature.
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I think many indigenous tribal people were knowledgable about nature and sustainability. Nature was not exploited.
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