Bird lovers will be flocking to Sagres on October 4th at the start of the four day ‘Bird Watching & Nature Activities Festival.’
The sky will be dotted with birds, and a remarkable 200 activities will be available in the Sagres area in a festival generally dedicated to nature, not just birds.
The festival, which was given a low chance of success when it started, now is in its 9th year and benefits from a dedicated team at Vila do Bispo Council, environmental organisation, Almargem and SPEA - the Portuguese equivalent of the RSPB, but with rather fewer members.
Hopefully on cue, thousands of birds will be heading to Africa for some winter sunshine, while binoculars and telescopes are trained on their flight paths over the Sagres peninsular over the four days.
The activities will cover topics such as archeology, geology, history, flora and marine mammals with much of these aimed at young twitchers.
This year’s poster bird is the rather impressive, and rather endangered, Bonelli’s Eagle which will be appearing on all the publicity material.
After a sharp decline in the 1980s, the species is on the increase, especially in the south of the country.
The eagle also is SPEA’s Bird of the Year 2018 and one of the target species of the Life Rupis project, a cross-border project between Portugal and Spain in the Douro area.
The full programme will be presented on August 1st. The festival news can be followed on Facebook Festival and soon on the www.birdwatchingsagres.com website.
