we haven’t seen a cagarro (aka cory’s shearwater) yet, but we have heard plenty of them in the middle of the night, cackling somewhere in the backyard of house we’re staying at in pico. they spend all their time in the sea, and come back to land during the night to check on their nests, so there must be one somewhere behind the house. :| the sound is loud and super creepy… gave us a proper fright the first night!
it feels like a few weeks have passed in the last 7 days, and all because we took a few days off… we should probably do that more often! :D
– seeing a sea hare! at first, we thought it was a plastic bag just floating around, but then it kept moving in a strange way… and when we looked closely, we found out it was a gigantic sea slug. often we see something interesting and then are disappointed to discover it’s just plastic, but this was the other way around and it felt brilliant.
– kestrels, little owls, whimbrels, rare red-billed choughs, the ellusive (though exceedingly loud) corn bunting… it’s been a good week for birdwatching.
– the highlight of the week was definitely the return of the long hikes: three days walking from lagos to sagres, up and down aaaaaall the cliffs. i’ll probably write more about it at some point, but it was sublime to be outside in open air. just us and the birds and the waves crashing the shore for miles and miles, nothing to do but walk all day. if that isn’t nice, i don’t know what is.
– a visit to the chinese shop on the way back to stock the pantry with the essentials was ridiculously exciting for me, who had been listing ingredients and anticipating it for weeks. the nearest proper asian supermarket we have is all the way in albufeira and it isn’t even very good… but no matter — i got what i could find and i can’t wait to cook some stuff from chinese cooking demystified and work on improving my tolerance to spiciness.
last year, we did a little trip on a campervan for the first time — it sounded like the safest way to go out and explore a little, while technically not leaving home. we enjoyed the experience, and used the opportunity to visit some of our favorite places in alentejo. at the time, we were just starting our birdwatching hobby, so it seemed fitting that we would try to see the biggest bird in europe, the bustard…
alas, it wasn’t meant to be. despite being big birds, bustards are shy and not easy to spot in the vast steppe-like prairies of alentejo. no matter — we still enjoyed the trail in the vicinity of castro verde, with its never-ending open skies, soft rolling hills and almost dry river beds.
we’ve since acquired a pair of binoculars, and plan to go back to re-do this walk and hopefully spot some bustards at last! :)
since we seem to be on an animal streak (see the grasshopper and the chameleon), here’s another one that paulo spotted in our backyard last week:
you can barely see it in this crappy super-zoomed-in photo from my phone, but that silhouette is so different from any other bird out there that it really stands out. while we were squinting at it, friends with good lenses arrived and took these amazing photos instead:
what a beauty it is, even as it bestows its disapproving frown at our antics! :D the little owl (mocho galego, in portuguese) is a nocturnal owl that is usually found in farm or woodlands in the south of europe. it nests in holes, where the female takes care of the baby owls, while the male protects the territory and hunts for insects, worms and small vertebrate like mice.
we’ve seen it a couple of times since, hanging around our backyard, doing its surveillance and hunting gig, and it’s always exciting to spot it in the distance. such cool neighbors we have!