Berlenga Grande

There is a group of islands about 10 km off Peniche called the Berlengas. The largest and closest to Peniche is Berlenga Grande which is about 3 km long and roughly 1 km wide (though very narrow at one point) the area is 79 hectares. The island is a nature reserve and is famous for its colonies of seabirds. Having visited bird islands in the UK we were curious to see what this was like. It was a 30 minute ride in a fast boat from Peniche harbour. On the way we saw some shearwaters - I do not know which ones but according to my birdbook we were in the range of the Sooty Shearwater.

A path rises steeply from the harbour and splits to go to the NE or SW ends of the islands. Near the path there was a lot of marsh samphire, however higher up the south side the rocks were covered with a larger succulent with purple and yellow flowers. I remember seeing a similar succulent at the Lizard where they said it had been introduced from South Africa.

We turned to the NE part of the island which was a gull colony. The island is supposed to be famous for guillemots but we were too late for the nesting season (I assume May-July) and saw none. Early on we saw an adult gull viciously attacking a fledgling that looked sickly. We got a brief glimpse of a kestrel (too brief to know if it was the common one or lesser one). The rocks had a pinkish colour and were I assume granite. There were plenty of gulls on the rocks and I thought they were herring gulls. When my son checked our bird book he pointed out that herring gulls have a more northerly range and that we were in the range of the similar-looking yellow-legged gull.

The yellow-legged gull has a longer neck than the herring gull and the legs are a distinct yellow. The whole NE end of the island seemed to be covered with gulls - almost all yellow-legged with the odd lesser black-backed. Having seen great black-backed gulls take guillemot eggs I found it hard to image how guillemots could thrive with so many gulls around. Maybe their behaviour is different - the gulls are not living on a diet of ice cream, pasties and chips! There was also a surprising lack of gulls in Peniche harbour despite a huge fishing fleet.

The NE end of the island included some splendid cliffs and views to nearby islets and the next biggest island in the group.

We returned to the narrow neck of land near the harbour passing yet more gulls. Everywhere there were lots of lizards in evidence. I presume that gulls do not eat them otherwise they would not be so plentiful.

The other end of the island included some nice coves and a stone fort - Fortaleza de S. João Baptista. The fort is famous because its 20 person crew was attacked by a group of Spanish warships and they managed to inflict a massive amount of damage on the ships before running out of ammunition.

We had a pleasant trip back to Peniche and finished the day with a great meal at Restaurante Popular.