The British Abroad

View from Cape St. Vincent, 27/10/2015 ( Copyright T D Wright )

View from Cape St. Vincent, 27/10/2015 ( Copyright T D Wright )

Those of you who've been there will know that this is the 'Land's End' of Europe, being the South Western extremity of Portugal, Europe's most South Westerly country. For a birder, it's an obvious place to visit, being a likely place to see migrant birds, seabirds and marine wildlife. I had a couple of enjoyable days there even though I was a bit late in the year for a lot of things. I saw Cory's Shearwaters, Balearic Shearwaters and Great Skuas but earlier in the Autumn more species are possible. On the land there were lots of Black Redstarts, Wheatears and other late migrants. Residents-wise, there were lots of Choughs, Spotless Starlings and so on. I was having a very nice morning, looking at my first ever Thekla Larks on the outskirts of nearby Sagres when a vehicle pulled up and another British birder marched over, demanding to know what I'd got. He seemed very disappointed when I told him, and seemed to think I ought not to be wasting my time looking at Thekla Larks! I explained that I'd just arrived in the Iberian peninsula for the first time ever and had never been anywhere that Thekla Larks occur, therefore this was a first for me. This cut no ice with Mr.Airhole ( I've changed his name to protect the guilty ), who went on to explain that he was a Briton who had lived in Portugal for so long that he had now declared himself the Great Dictator of Portuguese birding. He chastised me for not reporting to him on arrival in order to receive my instructions on where to go, what to do and how to do it. I expect he would have been very disappointed to hear that I had been thrilled to find my own Monarch butterfly as he expected us all to help with his enlargement of his sizeable Portuguese list. I wonder who he's competing against in the listing stakes? Anyway, by now I had lost my Thekla Larks so he completely ruined that. I mean, I saw more of them but they weren't my first ones, were they? Thankfully, he cleared off ( finally! ) and I was able to enjoy the rest of my day birding alone. However, I still feel bad about this encounter as my passivity & politeness prevented me from doing what I really wanted to do. By that I mean that I wanted to throw Mr. Airhole off those cliffs so that various forms of wildlife could have feasted on his obnoxious flesh! By now, his skull could have been the home of a marine invertebrate - perhaps an Octopus- thereby increasing the Intelligence Quotient of its contents severalfold. Instead, I've lost a lot of self-respect by allowing him to live. I suppose I have an Anger Management problem - I won't let it out! What I need is a birding destination where people like Mr. Airhole can't bother me. Maybe Rockall?