I’m often asked whether there are any fish in the lake; this little clip should provide the answer. I took it this morning while waiting for the Kingfisher to show up, but I think it’s too fat to fly at the moment!

We’re in the middle of re-designing this website, (so watch this space!), and our webmaster has been carefully chosen as living right next door to one of my favourite birding locations, the Lagoa Santo André.
This time of year’s pretty busy at the Quinta, so meetings to discuss the design are invariably held early in the morning so I can be back here before lunch, and it was on one of these early mornings that i got this lovely shot of these traditional fishing boats on the shores of the lagoon.

The Birdfair looms - it’s Friday, Saturday and Sunday the 20th, 21st and 22nd of this month at Rutland - and we’re there again promoting Portugal. Stand 93 in Marquee 4, a slightly different position from the last few years but near enough to find us easily again for anyone who wants to come and have a chat, so we’ll look forward to seeing you there.
Oh, yes, before I forget; I, Frank, will be giving a lecture on the best places to watch birds in southern Portugal on the Sunday morning at 9.30, so drag yourselves out of bed for that one as it’ll be worth it for anyone wanting to minimise lost time on a holiday down here.

This is the Common Swallowtail as opposed to the slightly larger Scarce Swallowtail, and we take pride in seeing them fairly regularly in the Quinta’s gardens, as, contrary to their name, the Common is now a good deal scarcer than the Scarce. This is a very recently pupated individual as there’s been no damage at all to the wings, a common enough occurrence with all butterflies, be they scarce, rare or common …

I just had to post this lovely shot I was lucky enough to get the other day. At this time of year one has to get up very early if one’s to see any birdlife at all, and this can sometimes be a tad trying - but it’s redeemed when one has the chance to see sights like this with people who like getting up that early too!
I get to see a lot of suns rising over the Alentejo Plains, but they never cease to stun me and i’m always reminded of that line by Kipling, ” … An’ the dawn comes up like thunder outer China ‘crost the Bay!”

We recently hosted James Currie and Jeff Aderman of Birding Adventures from the States who made a TV program about Birding in southern Portugal while based at the Quinta. This comes in 3 parts as set out below.
Many thanks are due to Carine Batista and Antonio Lacerda of Agencia Turismo do Alentejo for all their understanding and help in making this project take wing, (pun not intended!), and to TAP for supplying the flights across the pond.
Many thanks also to Daniela the Wonderful and all the other Quinta staff for keeping the place going while I concentrated on making the film’s shooting a success - and a success it certainly is as I’m sure you’ll agree! I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Hope you enjoyed the show!

We recently hosted a film crew from the States who made this small video for us. They were over basically for the birds of the area, and will be making a full length film about them that I’ll post up on the Quinta’s Birding Blog as soon as I’ve got my sticky little paws on it, but this short video gives a wonderful feel of the few days they were over and for the Alentejo countryside in this, the most beautiful period of the year here. Many thanks to Jeff Aderman and James Currie.

We were welcomed home from a long day’s birding a week ago by this sunset at the Top of the World