Remember Princessa? She was a young female Kingfisher that I initially discovered accidentally after setting a Trail Camera to capture Otters. This was in November but as the autumn rain never arrived the River Pool she was feeding from ran out of food, she probably went downstream in search of food.
Here is one of the photos from back then.
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The camera got left behind on this morning’s Wally Walk as the rain has yet again returned.
I was just approaching the river and Wally looked up and I actually said to him “Nice weather for ducks!”, just 10 seconds later I arrive at the river to find……a Duck!
Just standing there in a shallow part of the river was a Muscovy Duck. This is not a native species to Portugal, it’s roots are South America. However, it is a common Duck here in Portugal as an Egg layer and perhaps meat. The fact that this particular Duck was almost completely White puts it in the “Domestic” category, although there are many Feral species in Portugal too. At some stage they would of escaped captivity.
As I didn’t have a camera, I did my best to snap a photo from a distance on my phone. It eventually flew thanks to Wally, although he was actually scared of it, but it soon turned around and came back to land in the same spot.
The photos don’t show what one looks like, so here is a photo from Wikipedia, as you can see, a strange-looking Duck! This photo is a Drake where as the female doesn’t grow such a substantial Caruncle (The red warty thing on their face).
After more torrential rain overnight thanks to Storm Felix, the River than runs through our land has again flooded. So today I took the drone up to get a birds eye view.
Just 10 days ago the river was still dry from last summer. In just these 10 days it has flooded twice due to the deluge of rain. It’s the River Odelouca which feeds the Odelouca Barragem, the main drinking water supply for the Algarve, so the water is very welcome apart from the flooding which will cause some issues for the wildlife living around the banks.
Keep a look out after 30 seconds, you can just make out the Fox Hole on the side of the track on the left where the water level has reached, hopefully it won’t flood the den.
Storm Emma might have made its way north, but the Algarve still has a lot of stormy weather. Heavy rain, thunder and strong winds is bringing a much-needed change to the countryside.
I have just been down the river to try to capture the water, wind and sky in one shot. With an ND64 and Circular Polariser fitted I captured this long exposure to try to show the force of the river flowing, the dark fast-moving clouds and the trees blowing in the gusts. As you can see, not the usual bright colourful photos I’m used to taking in the Algarve!
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Last night we finally had the rain that was promised and then some more to make sure.
It rained in almost Ark-building proportions. A persistent, heavy downpour for many hours. Although not enough to get the river flowing, it has had a very welcome change to the riverbed.
As you can see, Princessas´s (our resident Kingfisher) territory has been filled. The two water pools that she has been fishing in has turned into one very large pool. You can see the perch in the centre of the photo, the brown-coloured water shows the outline of the existing pool that was drying up. This is just dust that has washed in and will settle very quickly.
Although we’ve had the promise of a few days heavy rain, they have turned out to be a couple of heavy showers. Nothing to make any difference to the land.
The landscape is starting to turn green where grass is growing due to overnight dew, however, nothing like last year.
The river remains dry, very dry. This time last year we the river was running due to adequate rain as the following comparison photos show. Look at the difference of grass on the left riverbank and the colour of the hills behind.
Even the small river pools formed in deeper sections that provide water and food for the local wildlife (including “Princessa” our resident Kingfisher) are starting to empty. This comparison photo shows the effect just 4 weeks of warm dry autumnal weather has had on the pools.
Only speaking from a totally selfish point of view, the pools on section of river running through our land is becoming extremely dry. However, from a locality point of view, there is still plenty of water and (hopefully) a food source for the local wildlife. There are many Barragems (small man-made reservoirs) which remain at good levels and there are further, larger, river pools. There are many other parts of Portugal that are in desperate need of rain but here in the Hills of the Algarve, although we will be welcoming sustained rainy days, it’s not critical yet. That being said, it’s about time the river started!
As I type, the forecast is showing the next 2 days to be persistent rain, we’ll wait and see.
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