Salgados Lagoon (Gale)

Fantastic sunrises were literally guaranteed.
A rather odd looking bird is the Purple Gallinule,looks just like an oversized Moorhen in shape and size sometimes called Purple Swamphen.These birds are not at all common so I was fortunate to see one in the open!
This solitary Spoonbill happily fed amongst the Flamingoes.
Again distant views of this unusual bird berfore it disappeard into the reedbeds.

A roosting Hoopoe was encountered along the dirttrack to the lagoon,one of the only ones I saw perched up.

Not far from our apartment was an area of wetland called Salgados lagoon.On one side was the golf course and on the other side was an area of sand dunes leading to the beach.A ten minute journey in the car would find me there early mornings sometimes before first light.Its rather mystical being there alone watching the sun rise in the East,the calls of the birds echoing all around you!Many waders use the lagoon as a refuelling point on their way South but the main birds there were the Flamingoes with some 200 birds resident.A lot of these birds were juveniles but one or two adults were still in their breeding plumage.I`ll include a few pictures of the Flamingoes in my next blog.This was one of my first recces down to the lagoon, a little to early for quality shots, but I managed a few in the early morning light!