Ludo Trail Flamingo Lagoons

Photo: Kritzolina, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Flat lagoon-side tracks between Faro airport and Quinta do Lago where flamingos feed in old salt pans. The Ludo estate is the Ria Formosa at its most generous: former salinas and freshwater ponds threaded by sandy service tracks that anyone can walk or cycle. Flamingos are the headline act and are present most of the year, joined by spoonbills, black-winged stilts and, in the pines, chameleons you will almost certainly not spot. The route connects to the São Lourenço birdwatching trail, so you can make a morning of it, and the airport runway makes a surreal backdrop for photographs. Start from the dirt road off the Praia de Faro bridge or from the Quinta do Lago side, go early for the light, and bring binoculars.

Found by Adam

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