Bird Watching – Why not?

While evaluating things to do in Southern Portugal I came across a two-hour bird watching tour by boat in the Rio Formosa National Park. It was reasonably priced and highly rated, and we had never been bird watching before, so I thought, why not? Plus this would be a good way to experience the large natural park area. Now I just had to convince Jeff it would be fun. In the end, it didn’t take much convincing.

We ended up with an almost private tour. There was only one other guest, Margaret from Oregon. The three of us had a marvelous time with our guide Paolo, who was incredibly well-spoken and informed about the natural park and its wildlife. It wasn’t the warmest afternoon, but the light was marvelous, and we had no issues spotting several types of birds.

Being total amateurs, we’re not able to remember all the types of birds we saw. But we did get super lucky and saw a group of 9 wild flamingos flying and then landing in the shallow wetlands. I’m pretty sure neither of us had ever seen flamingos in the wild before – only in zoos. And we know we had never seen them flying. This was tremendous good fortune. Even Paolo noted that he does not get to see them often, and he’s out there nearly every day. These flamingos seemed remarkably elegant in their natural habitat and we enjoyed spying on them from our boat for several minutes. We don’t have any photos because you really can’t take quality photos of birds with a phone. It was just as well, better to just enjoy what we were seeing without trying to get the perfect shot.

Enthused after our tour with Paolo, we spent another half a day walking and bird watching in the area close to our resort, which is also part of a nature preserve. We were able to locate a stork rookery and enjoyed seeing various other birds as we walked along golf courses and nature paths. Bird watching makes you much more aware of what’s going on around you and you see things you otherwise would miss. You are more “in the moment,” which in these distracting times is a good thing.

Although we won’t be taking up bird watching as a hobby anytime soon, we have a new appreciation for it and will keep our minds and eyes open to new opportunities.

Here are a couple of bird photos I did get along the way. A cormorant in the Lagos marina and a stork nest near the Silves castle.

Keep your eyes open and your head up. You never know what you might observe out there.

Cheers,

Shana & Jeff