Postcard From the Algarve - July 05

However, better news for nature lovers, I have seen a pair of Olive Tree Warblers, or, as I’m no expert, I think I’ve seen etc. What makes me uncertain is that they don’t warble, they croak, and as my Portuguese neighbour keeps a large colony of birds (all destined for future Sunday dinners) it was sometime before I discovered that the croaking was coming from my own olive tree. Anyway, enough of that. Bird recognition can get very boring and obsessive, as I discovered when I tried to identify the OTW on the net.

Back to wildlife. Perhaps the reason for the absence of furry creatures is the Portuguese obsession with hunting. Every Thursday and Sunday through the hunting season, the hills are alive with the sound of shotguns being fired at anything that moves. Hunters are reputed to poison dogs roaming around the countryside who might scare off their intended prey, or who might fight with their own scrawny mongrels.

Hunters should not fire their guns within a specified distance of any house, but they do, and little will be done about it, as most of the local police are also hunters. Hunters are also rumoured to start some of the fires that sweep through the countryside at this time of year, in protest at being excluded from former hunting grounds. But then, I’m clearly prejudiced, there must be wildlife somewhere, as every respectable restaurant serves Wild Boar on its menu, and there are no Wild Boar farms (yet), and… now here’s a clue…. One of the most expensive dishes in Portugal is Rabbit, which brings us back to where we started; there are not many rabbits about.

And one last thought. What do all the stray dogs live on? Must be rabbit. Don’t they know there’s a shortage?