September 26, 2006
Gulls of Lisbon
I got a chance to re-visit beautiful Lisbon for a long weekend. Birding wasn't really on the cards, but I couldn't help but bring my bins along... On arriving in Lisbon, we headed straight for Belem to eat the fantastic pasteis. Lots of gulls were wheeling around the monastery...
... and soon alighted in a large fountain to drink and preen. Most were Lesser Black-backed Gulls (Goeland brun), with smaller numbers of Yellow-legged (leucophee) and Black-headed Gulls (Mouette melanocephale). I took a bunch of shots of the Lesser Black-backs as they plunge-dove and preened.
The birds were displaying a variety of plumages. Here's a second-winter...
... and I'm guessing the bird in the foreground is a third-winter by its distinctive three-toned bill.
Just adjacent on the Tagus River, a shoal of fish swarming around an outflow pipe was attracting the attention of several Sandwich Terns (Sterne caugek)...
... and Mediterranean Gulls (Mouette melanocephale).
Other interesting sightings were Sardinian Warblers (Fauvette melanocephale) doing a surprisingly good job of hiding in the manicured hedges of Belem, oodles of Pallid Swifts (Martinet pale) overhead and a vocal male Tawny Owl (Chouette hulotte) in a city square.
Posted by rjhall at September 26, 2006 10:08 PM