Little terns and linnets in Portugal

Sunday, 8 April.

After yesterday, our second full day in Tavira.

This is a video about Ria Formosa Natural Park near Tavira.

The Ria Formosa park is famous for its birdlife.

This morning,near the first salt pan: a crested lark.

A common sandpiper.

Three avocets and two black-winged stilts.

Five dunlins.

In the orchard, European serin singing.

Collared pigeons on a wire.

Near the small pool, a yellow wagtail. In the water, a dunlin.

A hoopoe calls.

Near the muddy creek, three dunlins and a Kentish plover.

A mixed flock of dunlins and curlew sandpipers.

A collared pratincole, calling.

A spotted redshank, feeding.

A spoonbill, and a little egret.

Grey plovers.

A turnstone.

Near a ruined salt pan building, a pied wagtail.

A yellow-legged gull stands near a creek.

Two slender-billed gulls flying.

Six bee-eaters flying.

A goldfinch sits down on a flowering plant.

A corn bunting on a wire sings.

In the salt pans near Santa Luzia village, two shelducks swim.

Two black-winged stilts mate.

A flock of dunlins and ringed plovers.

On the bank of the sound separating the continent from Tavira island, fiddler crabs.

On a sandbank, oystercatchers.

A little tern hovers. Then, it dive bombs into the salt marsh water and catches a tiny fish.

A male and a female linnet feeding on a thistle.

As we walk back, a greenfinch in the orchard.

An antlion pitfall in the sandy footpath.

Sanderlings and curlew sandpipers in salt pans close to Tavira.

British royals welcome bloody Bahrain royals

No matter how beautiful architecture and birds in Portugal are, that unfortunately does not stop dictatorship in Bahrain.

This video is called Bahrain‘s Forgotten Revolution.

Jailed Bahraini activist Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja’s life in danger: here.

Human Rights in Bahrain, a Casualty of Obama’s Double-Standard: here.

The Daily Mail is a conservative daily in Britain, usually supportive of the British monarchy and Prime Minister David Cameron, who supports absolutist rule in Bahrain.

However, the reality in Bahrain is so obvious that even the Daily Mail had to headline on 7 April:

Queen invites ruler of Bahrain’s bloody regime to her Jubilee lunch at Windsor Castle because ‘it’s very rude to leave anyone off the list’

* Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa’s regime is accused of killing and torturing civilians during last year’s pro-democracy demonstrations
* The King of Bahrain is also set to attend a champagne dinner hosted by Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace
* Outcry expected from human rights campaigners and MPs
* Pressure mounts for this month’s Bahrain Formula 1 race to be cancelled after police using tear gas and live bullets shot a protester dead last week

BAHRAIN: How the US Mainstream Media Turn a Blind Eye To Washington’s Despotic Arab Ally. Study Reveals Corporate News Blackout On Democracy Uprising in Persian Gulf Kingdom: here.

How Bahrain Spends Millions To Spin The Press: here.

LONDON, April 9, 2012 – Bahrain Press Association “BPA”, the London-based association concerned with defending and addressing issues related to Bahrain media and press people, condemns the brutal attack by riot police on Ahmed Al Bosta, a veteran and prominent journalist, this evening in the city of Manama: here.

Bahrain: COUNTDOWN TO FORMULA 1 – How long will our friend and former colleague Abdulhadi Alkhawaja survive? Here.

Britain: Labour MP Richard Burden has added his voice to the ever-increasing calls for the Bahrain GP to be cancelled. With unrest reportedly on the rise in the island kingdom as the April 22nd grand prix approaches, there is a growing call for Formula One and the FIA to take a stand: here.

Bahrain Protest Photos April 2012: here.

The head of the United Nations agency tasked with promoting and defending the freedom of the press today called for an investigation into the killing of a citizen journalist in Bahrain during a civilian demonstration: here.

(CNN) — Bahrain said Sunday it will not hand over Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, a human rights activist on a two-month hunger strike, to Denmark as requested: here.

From Associated Press:

April 7

Bahrain hosts warplane drills with US, Arab allies

MANAMA, Bahrain — Bahrain’s military says the U.S. and eight other countries are taking part in the Gulf nation’s largest air force exercises in more than two decades.

The official Bahrain News Agency says at least 100 warplanes will join the drills Sunday, which come amid heightened Western pressures on Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Bahrain also is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. Bahrain says the aerial maneuvers are its biggest since 1988 and include Arab allies, Turkey, Pakistan and the U.S.

Bahrain’s Sunni monarchy is facing a nearly 14-month-old uprising by the kingdom’s majority Shiites, who are seeking a greater political voice.

United States Navy Commodore fired for partying, nudity in Bahrain: here.

Royals’ £1m wind farm hypocrisy: 45 wind turbines described by Charles as a ‘horrendous blot’ to be built on Crown land. Read more: here.

Portuguese architecture and house martin nests

7 April 2012.

After our morning around the salt pans of Tavira, Portugal, in the afternoon we went to the old town centre and its surroundings.

Tavira is an old town. One of its bridges across the river was originally built in Roman times.

In the river, lesser black-backed gulls swim.

On a tall TV mast are two inhabited white stork nests.

The medieval center is not along the Gilão river, but on a rocky hill above the floodplain.

That old centre has a town wall, a medieval castle and many ancient churches.

From a tree in a square, a European serin sings.

There is not only human architecture in Tavira. House martins have built their nests under an old building’s windows.