Postcards from Portugal

This is Mertola, a historic town in the Alentejo region of Portugal. I stayed there for a couple of nights last week, and as well as exploring the superb birdlife of the surrounding area, there was the chance to dig into the history of a settlement that has Roman, Moorish and medieval Christian remains.

I'll be posting a few photos from the town's museums over the next couple of weeks - to start with, here's a bowl from the Moorish period - the bird looks rather like a bustard, and both Great and Little Bustards can still be found in the area close to the town.

Digi-binned bustard

While in Portugal last week, I spent a day birding around Cape St Vincent, right at the south-west extremity of the country (and the continent, I suppose), with the expert help of German tour guide and Algarve resident Georg Schreier. We'd already seen a couple of Little Bustards (OK, OK, no sniggering at the back there) at a fair distance, when the one above popped up not far from the track we were driving along.

He's a male, so he was spending all his time ruffling up his neck feathers and making a strange 'prrrt' noise, a bit like someone trying to blow a raspberry but failing miserably. As we paused there watching him, I thought I'd try to digi-bin him (ie. take photos using a compact camera held up to the eyepiece of my binoculars, which were resting on the door of the car). I was never going to manage anything of any great quality, because I have little experience of the technique, and because it was so windy that the car was shaking like crazy. Still, I did get a few record shots, such as the one shown, with a Fuji F31d and a pair of Bushnell Elite 8x43s.

Georg, meanwhile, digi-scoped (same technique, but using a telescope) the much better picture below, despite also having to rest his scope on the car door.