The River Odelouca is important for both wildlife, farming and human life in the Algarve. It runs dry in the heat of the summer and usually starts running in November. Last year, of course, we had no rain in the autumn and it wasn’t until March that the river started. It is critical to local wildlife, but also fills the Barragem de Odelouca which provides a large portion of drinking water to the Algarve region.
We’ve had a fair amount of rain over the last few weeks which has been filling the dry river bed pools and this morning it has started to trickle. I wouldn’t class it as running yet as there are still some breaks in the flow, but it has started to trickle. I think we are a few heavy showers away from the river running.
This is great for the wildlife, there is fresh Otter Spraint (and yes, it smells great!) this morning around one of the pools, unfortunately, I have only seen one in the daytime once during last years flood. Otters often can be seen during the winter months during daylight, but ours are very much nocturnal. I am monitoring in case they do decide to seek some daylight. Of course, it’s not just the Otters that will benefit, but the Kingfishers will be glad as fish stocks will start to increase too.