Introducing Bird Place of the Month

I will try something new for 2024 and I would love others to join in and post their own bird place and with link in the comments. From gardens to wetlands, city towers to mountains. Lets celebrate and learn from each other places which birds find welcoming. No need for clear photos of birds as emphasis can be on the place that the birds like. I will visit any links supplied in the comments and tag Bird place of the Month.

Other plans for 2024 include creating a page/ author website for the background to my writing, the species and places in the novel, and other books read. I have not yet decided where to begin this and how to promote but am beginning. Navaselva, The Call of the Wild Valley : Wright, Georgina, Koenigsberger, Ruth: Amazon.co.uk: Books

I hope to keep navasolanature moving forward with its nature focus and am inspired by I J Khanewala’s Bird of the Week and Denzils Nature Challenge https://anotherglobaleater.wordpress.com/bird-of-the-week-invitation/ 

Although Denzil has changed his focus he has helped add to all the connections and information about nature on WordPress and this links to his nature pages on Discovering Belgium. https://www.discoveringbelgium.com/category/nature/page/2/

Bird Place of the Month January

This has to be for me the Rio Formosa by Cabañas de Tavira. We arrived on New Years Eve and celebrated with long standing friends the Portuguese delights of this time of year.

Mackerel skies over Cabanas and some of the last small houses with large gardens which are good bird places for the small birds and house martins.

The weather was often grey but I believe a brighter grey. One afternoon we looked out from our balcony and saw lots of cormorants along the far side of the Rio Formosa river delta or lagoon. On the other side of these sand dunes lies the Atlantic and where the long stretches of sandy beaches are. It is a protected and wonderful stretch of sandy dunes, tidal sands and water. A prefect place for many birds.

The rio and sand dunes towards Tavira

A heron flew in

Goldfinches, hoopoes and processionary pine caterpillars like the old pines.

Unfortunately I only had my phone camera but for Bird Place of the Month lets say it is the place that matters and the birds you see at that time. Of course great photos appreciated too but those birds for me often evade capture.

We went out onto the boardwalk and counted the cormorants all poised and upright on the other side of the water. Mr T says over 200. I counted 190. A lot. We have never seen so many like this all together on a stretch of sand of about 200 metres. A cormorant a metre, perhaps! They had been there a while from late afternoon and as the light fading they flew off westward towards the isle of Tavira. About three or four were left. These might have been the residents of this stretch, sharing for a while their patch.

The cormorants along the sands of the Rio Formosa and below flying off towards Tavira island.

Why were they all there? They were not fishing. Were they there for a meeting as in Navaselva, The Call of the Wild Valley?

Why so many together? Migrating? Searching for good places.

On a walk the following day we saw several curlew, the normal camouflaged turnstones and ring necked plovers. With the binoculars I could clearly see the reddy orange legs of the redshank. A heron flew in and did seem larger in flight and size than the resident egrets.

Tidal mud that so many of these waders and gulls love.

I was going to add these egrets to I J Khanewala’s bird of the weekhttps://anotherglobaleater.wordpress.com/bird-of-the-week-invitation/. This is a great place for bird lovers to share and focus on a particular bird. We think they were little egrets but could not see the orange feet to really determine and at a distance the relative size. All three types of egret can be found on the Algarve. Many now have become resident in the UK too. As a species they seem to be doing well. My first memories were seeing white birds on the backs of the very black water buffalo in India in the 70s and 80s. These were probably cattle egret. Near Doñana in Spain we have taken pictures of egret on some horses. But I think these were little egrets. It is sometimes better with these characters to use their latin names and pick out a few distinguishing features.

Egret garcia garzetta

Egrettta garcia garzetta – Little egret and with a range from southern Europe to Southern Asia. Can migrate to Africa or if in Asia to the Philippines. Also might be flying over the Atlantic to reach the New World.

Ardea alba is the Great or Common Egret and has a yellow bill and black legs and feet. This one is found on all continents.

Bubuculu ibis is the cattle egret with yellow bill and yellow legs and slightly smaller than the little egret – egret garcia.

There are also a lot of sub species of these birds too. The rarity of egrets when I was younger in Europe was the impact of using their feathers in hats.

How many more birds might we see if hunting was truly banned eg with turtle doves and netting and glue sticking of small birds like goldfinches for cages and a variety of songbirds for ‘Fine Dining’ was so abhorrent that there would be no illegal trade for these activities.

Below is a type of egret painted by Ruth Koenigsberger who illustrated Navaselva, Call of the Wild Valley.

I named the bird John Travolta. The bird is pursuing courtship activities and based on a you tube video from the Americas.

Perhaps my offering to Bird of the Week and another type of egret.

https://anotherglobaleater.wordpress.com/bird-of-the-week-invitation/ 

By Ruth Koenigsberger

Navaselva, The Call of the Wild Valley : Wright, Georgina, Koenigsberger, Ruth: Amazon.co.uk: Books

Navaselva The Call of the Wild Valley: Georgina Wright: 9781914199523: hive.co.uk

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/navaselva-the-call-of-the-wild-valley-georgina-wright/1144385388?ean=9781914199523