Summer in the Algarve is hot – temperatures in the forties in the shade – and any breeze is welcome though even that is likely to come from the hot Sahara to the south. Very occasionally, it rains.
Early mornings can be cool, even overcast and grey. Carpenter bees and bumblebees buzz around whatever flowers they can find. Purple bugloss Echium plantagineum, thyme Thymus spp, wild carrot Daucus carota, sea daffodil Pancratium maritimum, Sea Hollies Eryngium spp to name a few. But most seem to have gone to seed, or shrivelled up in the heat.
Most of the butterflies are browns – meadow brown, wall brown, southern gatekeeper, speckled wood, skippers – species that depend on grasses for the caterpillar food plants. The occasional flash of colour from an Adonis blue, a swallowtail, or even a Bath white is welcome.
Birds, too, are best looked for in the early morning – before the heat haze turns them into misshapen ripples of colour in the distance. On the saltpans and estuaries waders are returning south – the first wave being those adults that have failed to breed successfully and are now going south without youngsters in tow. Another few weeks and the family groups will appear.
Dragonflies mass around the shrinking pools and diminishing streams. The narrow bodies of these colourful jewels can be surprisingly hard to see amongst the browning stems and leaves of plants.
Daytime is siesta time – for wildlife as well as humans. Nothing wants to move if it doesn’t have to. Out on the sand dunes, the heat is accentuated by the fragrance of curry – from the yellow flowers of the curry plant Helichrysum italicum. Holes, burrows, houses, anywhere that provides shade is cool – comparatively speaking. Sandhill snails Theba pisana move up the stems of plants to aestivate (wait out the hot dry period) away from the heat of the ground.
Inland, there is still a variety of small birds skulking in the olive groves, citrus groves and wherever else they can find shade and food. Finches appear magically as the heat goes out of the day, to feed on grass and thistle seeds. At dusk nightjars and owls still call in defence of their breeding territories.
Yes, Summer in the Algarve is hot. Very hot. And it’s probably best left to the tourists.
If there was a book like this for every area I visited, I’d be a very happy camper. It takes you through the year in fortnightly chunks, with information about plants, birds, invertebrates, places, etc, etc.
It is a general guide to the most obvious bits of natural history, so if you are a specialist in birds, or botany, or butterflies, you’ll need a specialist book for that, and this will help with everything else.
More nature-watching in the Algarve
Best places for wildlife in March
A round-up of some of the best places for nature-watching in Europe in March.
Bird-watching along the Algarve railway
How to get the most out of bird-watching in the Algarve using the railway service.
Nature-watching in the Eastern Algarve
The eastern part of the Algarve is less busy with tourism than the middle and west, so is ideal for a bird-watching (or indeed any nature-watching) holiday
Nature-watching in Europe 
I went to the Algarve but didn’t see as much of the bird life. Lovely post. Thanks for sharing!
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Just like someone else commented, I too went to the Algarve but never saw so much wildlife. Good to know what book to buy to know where to go for next time.
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