Frank-with-Wren-8158, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.

Winter at the Quinta is the time for maintenance and recuperation … and our holidays!
Last week we took a quick break in Ireland where Daniela’s always wanted to go; OK, this time of year isn’t the best time to see the Emerald Isle in all its glory, but we had a fun time nevertheless visiting Newgrange, (the oldest human structure), and the Tetrapod trackway, (the oldest footprints of any animal), as well as catching up with friends I hadn’t seen in over 40 years, (who must be the oldest friends I haven’t seen for a while as well!).

It was a week full of surprises - I’d told Daniela we were going to take a quick trip to Morocco, so it was a delight to see her face when we started queuing for a flight to Dublin instead of Marrakesh - but one of the nicest surprises, (apart from re-kindling old friendships of course), was this Wren landing on my shoulder … what made it even better was that Daniela had the camera in her hands and was able to get this photo. I’ve posted the picture on my birding blog as well, even if the chap wasn’t in Portugal.

Happy New Year to you all!

Piddle-Bridge-sign-at-Wareham-0339, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.

Daniela and I are having the holiday of a lifetime next month and’re off to Australia for a few weeks. I’ve had the dream all my life and finally we’re going, complete with the new monster lens. Unfortunately it looks as if it’s going to be even more expensive than usual, with their economy booming and Europe’s going down the pan, so anything to keep the cost down is in order … which reminded me of this sign on the bridge over the River Piddle in Wareham where I grew up.
Now let me see … where did I put the spray paint?

Crested-Tit-8479, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.

Went mad a month or so ago and bought the Quinta a lovely new lens and’ve been getting some cracking shots with it over the last week - now that I’ve taken enough vitamin pills to be able to lift  it!

Can’t wait till Spring comes around and I can get it out to the Plains where it’ll really come into its own, but in the meantime here’s a Crested Tit that’s in the garden at the moment.

Sunrise-6996, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.

There’s nothing quite beats sunrise over the Plains … and I’ve been seeing more than my share of them recently, so thought I’d share this one with all of you!

New-view-shot-0374-cropped, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.

Well, we’ve drawn the raffle again, but before I get there, I’ve had quite a few emails from recipients of the email I sent out asking what the picture of the lake is all about, so rather than write to all of you individually, the lake view picture above is the view from your room when you’re staying in Paradise at the Quinta.
OK, on to the Birdfair Raffle winners; well, I’m afraid only one of the winners got in touch with me during the last seven days, so she’s been awarded the First prize of a week’s free accommodation anytime apart from High Season during 2012. Congratulations Vicky Gilbert! Go and celebrate with a nice bottle of wine - with a cork in it!
For all the rest of you, better luck next time. Remember we’ll be at the Birdfair again next year and’ll run the same raffle with the same great prizes, so there’s always 2012 to have another go - and if you can’t wait till then, well, come out sooner and drink in the view above with your wine!

Birdfair-2011, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.

So … another Birdfair done’n'dusted, and what a Birdfair it was!
Glorious weather, not too hot nor too cold; pelted with rain the day we set up and pelted again the day afterwards, just right really, so not too hot in the tent, nor too wet and slippery around the fair either … perfect! Our thanks go out also to all those hard-working souls behind the scenes who organised and ran yet another successful weekend.

It was a great venue to showcase the Quinta’s new joint venture, “Nature Provides” where we’re going to be promoting jewellery and other accessories made from our local natural products here, such as cork or olive wood.
My lecture went well - or so I’m told - but I’d have liked it to be longer so I could really get my message out there that screw top and plastic stoppers in wine are seriously bad for the environment and adversely affect much of Western Palearctic birdlife. In October I’m off to spread the word in Middlesborough and Teeside at two lectures, thankfully longer, for the RSPB groups there, so if you’re in the area please come along. In the meantime, if you drink wine, please make the effort to buy bottles with real corks in them; the birds you see in the future depend upon us making this small, pleasurable, commitment. Not too much to ask is it?
Not too much to ask for me to get a move on and announce the lucky winners of this year’s Birdraffle either …  but i had them up for a week and nobody claimed, so I’m going to re-draw on Sunday 11th September and the new winners will be posted here from midday that day. Remember that the names will only be up here for the following week so if you were an entrant make sure you pop by during that time.

Of course you could always come out here beforehand and see what Paradise is like - you can see what birds we get by visiting our Birding site. We’re keeping the prices the same as this year for any reservations made before Christmas, and there’s a wonderful promotion of 20% for any stay of a week or more, so it’s never been better value for money.

Building-the-new-Solar-House-P7110031, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.

No posts for some time so I appologise to avid readers of this blog - you’ll probably have deducted that I’ve been a tad busy and you’d be right.

We took the long-dreamed-of decision a couple of weeks ago to jump one rung up the ladder of self-sufficiency and turn ourselves completely over to solar water heating, so I’ve been up to my elbows in bricks and mortar recently building the new solar house which’ll store all the complicated equipment and which’ll have the panels on the roof. Now it’s finished and we wait for the panels and heat exchangers to turn up and be plumbed in …

Tarmac-depth-P6210013, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.

What else is new? Well, Portuguese TV came down and interviewed us about the road and quick as a flash there was a crew down here digging up the road and filling in the worst holes, but now they’ve gone again and left us with long stretches of road that’s flatter, yes, but with no tarmac at all. Plus ça change … You can see why the roads around here constantly fall apart by the photo above … 8 ton eucalyptus lorries thundering along on top of 5 cms of tarmac with no hard-core at all …

Now I’ve got to get cracking on the lecture I’m giving at the Birdfair in Rutland next month. Submission date’s today so I really must get on, but I’ll leave you with a lovely article written recently by the On-Line Travel Journal, so read all about it here …

Sunrise-through-flowers-2763, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.

I had to pop up to town a week or so ago, and, to beat the heat of the day as much as the traffic, left the Quinta at 5.30 for a ride up there on the bike.

I thought it’d be interesting to make a note of what I saw in the first hour’s drive, passing through 6 villages and covering 60 miles of the ride, (about 100 kms), so here it is …

Regarding the Natural World there was
1 Barn Owl
1 Buzzard
1 Hare
1 Rabbit
4 Storks
5 Cattle Egrets
5 Red Legged Partridges
3 Jays
10 Blackbirds
and many LBJs, mostly Crested, Thekla and Wood Larks, Goldfinches, Linnets, Cirl Buntings, Stonechats etc.

Nothing spectacular there one might think, but what always stuns me on these early morning rides is the amount of human presence noticeable in this area, and that morning was no exception.

In that first hour’s ride there was
1 lorry carrying bricks
1 lorry carrying wood
1 small van
1 pick-up
1 moped,
3 men, (two together and 1 individually)
and 1 dog ….

I wonder how many other places in Europe would have this kind of list! What a joy to be able to live here!

Eclipse-2757, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.

The recent Lunar Eclipse threw up this particular oddity - a new Blue Planet. Any of you know what it could be? There was nothing there and only when the shot was downloaded off the camera did the blue object became visible. A mystery …

Southern Gatekeeper-5653, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.

The weather this Spring has been gorgeous, hot sunny days interspersed with a few rainy ones here and there. Wetter than normal and the rain seems to have lasted a great deal later than usual which has kept everything green and fresh.
Loads of food around for all of nature to take advantage of and we’ve had great fun observing it all.
One of the nicest places around the Quinta is the little Cortebrique Valley about three miles away, and I’ve spent many happy hours there during the past few months. It has a mixture of habitats from scrub to grassy meadows to kitchen gardens and fields of maize and wheat to patches of cork oaks and woodland. I’ve posted quite a few pictures of birds I’ve seen there on the Quinta’s Birding website, and it’s sometimes difficult to know where that blog ends and this one begins - or vice versa - but this beautiful Southern Gatekeeper belongs here I think.
There were quite a few of them yesterday in a small patch of wood, flitting about early on in the morning warming up; this is a male.
He’s smaller than the female, (only about 15mm wide rather than 20mm), who lacks that beautiful pattern on the top forewing shown above. The pattern is actually scent glands called androconia that are used in attracting the female. They feed on grasses and like it hot with dappled shade, so the Cortebrique Valley suits them right down to the ground. They fly in one brood from June onwards throughout the summer, extending from Portugal eastwards to Turkey and along the north African shore, though apparently absent from the eastern Mediterranean.
I got most of the above information, including the original id, from Matt Rowlings and his excellent website, so “Thanks, Matt!”. If you’re interested in butterflys I can heartily recommend a visit.