Natural Selection

Jane and I walked up to the golf club from the hotel this afternoon, and sat with cold beers watching the wildlife around the pools. Well first we saw the Hummingbird Hawkmoth above in the car park, perhaps the one that’s been there most of the week.

There certainly had been some new arrivals though as there were no fewer than five Glossy Ibis. They and the Spoonbill got spooked by a stray dog but eventually settled down again.

At least one Bar-tailed Godwit was also still about, and a more distant Greenshank.

There was no sign of yesterday’s Ring Ouzel by the course boundary, which wasn’t a surprise really. A few Hoopoe were knocking about as well as the ubiquitous Berthelot’s Pipits.

I guess an assessment of the island as a birding destination in a low readership blog is a bit indulgent, but I still feel I should. It’s not somewhere for dawn to dusk birding but might suit people with non birding partners. If you weren’t bothering with a car I would base relatively somewhere near to the golf course. The Pestana Ilha Dourada where we’ve been is ideal in that regard as it’s straight down the hill from there and the nearest hotel.

I hope you’ve enjoying reading these if you’ve persevered.