Algarve Bird Watching Tours
During spring 2008, the Quintassential are proud to announce the start of their bird watching tours.
Our first bird watching week is Sunday 30th March 2008 until Sunday 6th April 2008. An itinerary will be available shortly on our website. Should you be interested in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact us for further information.
The Algarve has great diversity of habitat providing first landfall for thousands of spring migrants and a fine range of resident birds on the coast and inland, Portugal's Algarve has some of Europe's finest spring birdwatching. If you add to this a range of varied and beautiful landscapes, a rich history, friendlypeople and some fine food and wine, and you have the makings of a great week!
The Algarve has roughly 150 km of varied coastal habitats, from the rugged cliffs of Cape St Vincent on the Atlantic coast in the Western Algarve to the Castro Marim wetlands on the Spanish border in the east. In spring this south-facing coast attracts countless migrant waders and other birds that pass through on their way to their breeding grounds. It is not just the passing migrant birds, though, that give this area such good birdwatching possibilities. An impressive array of resident and breeding birds include Azure-winged Magpie in the Stone Pines, Purple Gallinule in the freshwater marshes, and Stone Curlew on the dry heathland. In addition, the flowers in spring, whether on the heathlands, the limestone cliffs, or at the Quintassential, can be spectacular and varied.
Our second week’s bird watching tours is scheduled for the autumn of 2008, dates will be released shortly.
Why not treat yourself to a week of delightful autumn birding centred on Portugal’s sunny south coast, and come and see the beautiful Algarve.
The Algarve is a favourite destination with holidaymakers and retirees from Britain and further afield, this trip will take you off the tourist track to a land where White Storks and Hoopoes, Purple Gallinules and Azure-winged Magpies offer the prospect of a truly memorable week’s birding.You will ideally fly into Faro, but Lisbon is only just over a 2 hours drive from the Algarve. The Quintassential is located 15 minutes from Faro International Airport, so in no time at all, your birding holiday will commence. Here we have ready access to the best of southern Portugal’s coastal and inland birding sites, and you will spend a good deal of your time visiting these, enjoying easy walks and a minimal amount of driving around. Lured by the chances of finding Little Bittern, Squacco Heron or Audouin’s Gull in amongst the anticipated groups of Little and Cattle Egrets, Black-winged Stilts and an array of other birds, some wetlands are so good that we’re likely to return to them more than once.
One of the many attractions in autumn is that migrants can turn up just about anywhere, and our days might variously begin by unexpectedly finding a Woodchat Shrike perched on a cactus in the Quintassential’s garden, or thrilling to the likes of Black Kite, Short-toed Eagle and other southbound birds of prey circling above our heads. While inland, the Algarve’s pretty wooded valleys harbour residents such as Firecrest, Sardinian Warbler and Cirl Bunting.
During your stay, you will find it impossible to resist making two or three longer day trips out: west to Cape St. Vincent with its magnificent cliffs, Blue Rock Thrushes and playful Red-billed Choughs; and east to Castro Marim - where fantastic Greater Flamingos grace the bird-rich saltpans.
If all this sounds attractive, then our seven night holiday to Portugal’s Algarve and a stay at the Quintassential might well have been tailor-made for you. And all in the company of our guide whose love and enthusiasm for the region will make you long to return.
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