Our Portugese Holiday 2016

At the end of May 2016, my family and I flew to Algarve in the south of Portugal for my uncle’s wedding. We stayed in an apartment for a week where I studied in preparation for the junior cert using a decent supply of notebooks, while we also enjoyed the sunny weather and the beach near the apartment we stayed in. During our stay, we observed some interesting species of birds we hadn’t seen before, and Mum and I visited two different places that were somewhere in between a zoo and water park – Aquashow Park and Zoomarine.

On the morning we first arrived at our apartment, we saw a number of Iberian magpies flying around the estate. I recognised these birds from one of my animal encyclopaedias, although the picture was actually of the azure-winged magpie of eastern Asia, of which the Iberian magpie was formerly considered a subspecies before genetic analysis suggested otherwise. While taking a walk in the nearby forest, Dad and I saw an even more interesting bird up in the trees: a hoopoe. This pink, stripy-winged bird, a close relative of hornbills and kingfishers, would make a few more appearances during our stay. Hoopoes do turn up each year in our native Ireland, but only as rare vagrants, so we were definitely lucky to have seen this rather unusual species.

At the Aquashow Park, we enjoyed swimming in the pools and sliding around on the water slides. A major highlight was the birds of prey flight show at the end of our visit, where we watched some birds of prey flying around and soaring above the stadium as the keeper told facts about each bird to the audience. The birds used in the show included a bald eagle, Eurasian eagle owl, gyrfalcon, and bateleur eagle. Earlier after I had changed following my swim, I was lucky enough to get my picture taken while holding a great horned owl (I still have the picture of me holding it) and a barn owl, and later on just before we left, I was photographed with a golden eagle on my hand. Sadly, we didn’t get the photo of me holding the eagle as we were leaving, but its definitely an experience that will never leave me.

The following day, Mum and I took a taxi to Zoomarine, which I would say is more of a zoo compared to Aquashow due to having more animals, while still retaining the water park aspect. Among the first things we did was enter a tropical aviary with various species of birds, including scarlet ibises, guira cuckoos, burrowing owls, black-headed swans and a sunbittern. Speaking of owls, along the way there I saw what may well have been a little owl on a roundabout, and just moments later, I could see a white stork standing on its nest on a tall pillar in the distance. Anyway, at Zoomarine, we also saw grey crowned cranes, as well as Nile crocodiles and American alligators in outdoor enclosures. In the Oceanus aquarium, we saw two interesting species of fish: the leafy seadragon and Peters’s elephantnose fish. We also watched three different shows, the first of which was Flying Colours, where we watched some macaws and other parrots flying around and indulging in mischievous antics. This was followed by a sea lion show, where we watched the trainer and sea lion walking around and playing on stage. The main highlight, of course, was the dolphin show, where we watched some bottlenose dolphins performing in front of the crowd and playing with their trainers. We did manage to see Fungie the dolphin the previous year in Dingle back home in Ireland, but this was our first good look at a bottlenose dolphin (and by extension, any cetacean).

Overall, this was a pleasant and enjoyable holiday. We got to see a few new wild bird species, and enjoyed swimming  and seeing all the different animals at both water parks, and we especially loved seeing the dolphins at Zoomarine.