Back to Portugal (Lezíria Grande de Vila Franca de Xira) 10/12--Blue-crowned Parakeet, Bonelli's Eagle

Shovelers, Mallards, teal, Lezíria Grande de Vila Franca de Xira
Photo: Shari Zirlin

Saturday we left the hotel around 9 AM and it was a very long bus ride heading north then west back to Portugal. We were rewarded with our final birding stop of the trip, the rice fields of Lezíria Grande de Vila Franca de Xira near the Tagus estuary. The fields were sliced though with irrigation ditches but it all looked the same in every direction. How Pedro our bus driver navigated through the dirt roads to the Nature Center is a wonder to me. 

Nature Center

By this time, I have to admit I was a little fried with birding, so I certain I missed a number of birds through inattention or apathy. But we did get one life bird--a BONELLI'S EAGLE, which we'd be searching for all through Spain. The look I got was not great and it was checked off my list as an "if you say so" bird, but a little while later there was another bird that was much closer, lower, and gave me decent enough looks so that I can honestly say that I've seen a Bonelli's Eagle, because looking at their range, my chances of seeing another are dim & slim. 

At the Nature Center we demurred from buying a baseball cap a brim made of cork (how long would that hold up) but we spent some time scoping the pool in front of us, which had hundreds of ducks in it--unfortunately, none that you couldn't see in NJ (well, I suppose you'd be hard pressed to see so many of this version of Green-winged Teal). 

29 species
Northern Shoveler  100
Mallard  200
Green-winged Teal  100
Little Grebe  1
Eurasian Moorhen  2
Eurasian Coot  2
Northern Lapwing  300
Common Snipe  1
Green Sandpiper  1
Lesser Black-backed Gull  15
Little Egret  12
Western Cattle Egret  4
Great Egret  10
Gray Heron  6
Glossy Ibis  2
Short-toed Snake-Eagle  1
BONELLI'S EAGLE 2     Juveniles
Western Marsh Harrier  5
Common Kingfisher  1
Eurasian Kestrel  3
Carrion Crow  3
Zitting Cisticola  1
Barn Swallow  3
Cetti's Warbler  1
Sardinian Warbler  1
European Stonechat  2
Northern Wheatear  1
Common Waxbill  6
House Sparrow  50

So, I thought Bonelli's Eagle would be my last life bird for the trip but I was wrong. While driving through central Lisboa to our hotel one of our party was on the lookout for Rose-ringed Parakeet, an exotic that was seen on the first day by the ones who could stay awake. He didn't find it, but did find, as we passed a little park, 3 BLUE-CROWNED PARAKEETS, which are countable (provisionally) in Portugal. He was disappointed because he'd seen them in Brazil. I was kind of happy--it seems like a silly bird to have as your most recent lifer. 

For the trip I ended up with 156 species in Spain and 86 in Portugal. Considering that we only really birded Portugal portions of 2 days, that seems like a surprisingly high number to me. 

The next day we left before dawn (the sun comes up very late in Portugal and Spain) so we saw no birds until we arrived home where crows and jays greeted us.