Just on the Lagos side of Portimão is the estuary of the Alvor, where the entrance through a gap in a sand bar leads to lagoons and salt marsh. On Wednesday I went there by bike to see what birds were around. The cottages in the side-road leading to the footpath were guarded by the usual friendly dogs. Friendly to walkers, but frenziedly chasing anyone on two wheels (a Portuguese canine weakness that we previously noticed among the fishing-hut guard dogs at Nazaré). I pedalled like blazes for fifty metres, after which they gave up and returned to snooze outside their front gates.

The walk was lovely (though very hilly as it mainly ran along the higher orchard land overlooking the marshes). The birds were varied and excellent. In the ditches on the salt marsh were familiar waders from England such as redshank, common sandpiper and ringed plover, mixed with good numbers of black-winged stilt (a tall, slender, black-and-white wader a bit like an avocet but with extremely long bright red legs). In the lagoons was a flock of about 40 greater flamingo, the white wings of these very big birds revealing occasional flashes of bright pink body. I’m not a flamingo enthusiast but these guys at close range in the wild were impressive. A nearby flock of black-tailed godwit (one of the UK’s largest waders) looked tiny and drab by comparison. Little egret and grey heron were everywhere. Dwarfing everything were several white storks, standing motionless on the bank of the lagoon.

There were some nice non-wading birds too. The winners for numbers were serin (tiny finches a bit like a smaller goldfinch), which were moving around the scrub bushes everywhere. Several of the trees by the path held spotted flycatcher (not actually spotted but streaked, but they were certainly catching flies, leaving their perch and returning to it faster than the eye could follow). For me the best bird of the day was a Dartford warbler (not trying to find its way back to Kent –they are fairly uncommon birds in England). These chaps have a steeply cocked-up tail – like a big, colourful wren only scruffier. They are maddening birds – you can spend hours searching the top of every bush for miles without so much as a glimpse. Finally, when you have given up, put the binoculars away and are heading home, one pops up in full view about two metres away. So it was yesterday.

Apologies to non-birders, but it may become much worse when I reach Madeira etc (particularly if I can get my binoculars fixed so that I don’t see two of everything).