Another year of intense work at Faia Brava. The management of a property like Faia Brava is characterized by daily activities that are recurrent but require rigorous planning and permanent dedication from our team and in particular from our nature wardens, Luis and José. Active and passive surveillance of the Reserve is essential to mitigate the risk of fire, but also to ensure that the management rules of a Private Protected Area are respected.
At the end of winter and during spring, in addition to managing the native forest and supporting natural regeneration, we sow cereals and leguminous plants to feed the prey populations. We continued to monitor the cliff breeding birds. We can now confirm that 2024 was a good year for these species, birds of prey and scavengers nesting on the Côa cliffs. We were able to confirm the nesting of the golden eagle pair. The young born this year is still in the area, under the guardianship of his parents. We suspect that the Bonelli’s eagle bred this year in Massueime river cliffs because we saw the couple hunting in Faia Brava but could not find the nest. We were also unable to find the nest of the black stork pair that frequented Faia Brava during the breeding season, but the couple was present and breeding is almost certain. The two pairs of Egyptian vultures occupied the same nests and bred successfully, as did the 50 or so griffon vulture pairs.
During the summer we stepped up our vigilance because of the high risk of fires. There were a few fires in the vicinity that were quickly brought under control by the Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo fire department, but fortunately this was another year in which the fire didn't get into the Faia Brava. In September and October in addition to our day-to-day activities, we monitored the roe deer, rabbit and partridge populations. This year, roe deer observations remained regular, we noticed a decrease in the wild rabbit population and the number of partridges increased. In January next year, we will be joined by a team of experts from our NGO partner, CBD Habitat who will be coming to advise us on how to promote the wild rabbit populations, whose presence in the reserve is vital for maintaining several rare and threatened species.
Between November and February, we harvested 14 tons of olives and broke yet another record, only possible with the unparalleled dedication of José and Luis and the precious help of David and Palmira, two friends from Faia Brava, in Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo. We planted 7,000 trees and selectively pruned the holm oaks, cork oaks and Portuguese oaks to encourage their growth, increase the spacing between them and ensure greater resistance and resilience in the event of fire. We also carried out maintenance work and widened the ponds, which are essential for ensuring the survival of fauna during the summer. This year we added two more ponds to the total and installed three new Canadian cattle crossing structures to prevent cattle from passing through and to allow another herd of garrano horses to settle in the north-east of the property in 2025. Autumn/winter is a period of intense activity to promote the regeneration of the native forest and in January we will sow around 40,000 acorns that will be given to us by our friends and partners in the Freixo do Meio Private Protected Area. Thanks Alfredo!
The britangos and black storks have migrated to the Sahel, as have some of the young griffon vultures, but most of the adults have stayed with us and we have therefore kept two vulture feeding stations active, in collaboration with our partners at Casa da Cisterna, to ensure that the birds that remain make it to the next breeding season with a better chance of success.
This is life at Faia Brava!
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