Day 6: On top of de Risco

23rd of July:

Another walk was made this morning, this time we didn't pick the wrong track:) We drove up to the Hermita, on top of the Risco de Famara. These are the cliffs you see when you are in Famara. But you can also get on top of them! From Los Valles you drive to Los Nuevos where you come near the edge of the cliffs. We parked the car near the Hermita and got out of the car to make the walk. First we enjoyed the view from there. The wind was very strong, it blew my sunglasses off... at least 6 bft.

 View to the south

 Famara 

 Tammo in the wind!

And myself

We started our walk, and walked parralel to the cliffs in a northern direction. Our walk would lead us to another viewing point (even prettier than near the hermita).

As we walked we came by a weather station, which amongs others, measures the volcano activity. Almost everywhere on the island, you can see this building, located on top of the cliffs. During our walk we saw Linnets, Turtle Doves, 3 Lesser Short-toed Larks, 1 Hoopoe, Stone Curlew, Spectacled Warbler and near the very nice viewing point we had two Egyptian Vultures soaring below us, patrolling the cliffs. Two migrating Red-rumped Swallows were seen here as well. Mum and sis went back to the car, and my dad and I went on to Haría, where the girls would pick us up again with the car. We descended down to Haría through a very beautiful barranco, probably the greenest on the island.

In the cultivated fields, just south of Haría (and at the end of the barranco) we had our first Fuerteventura Blue Tits, some 20 Canaries, many Spectacled Warblers and a few Turtle Doves. Certainly a spot to come back to some time later!

In Haría we had some drinks and then went home again. We passed Barranco the Chafaris (Tabayesco) and here we found a light morph Eleonora's Falcon hunting! Quick stop with the car delivered us good views.

Here's one of them:

Eleonora's Falcon (Falco eleonorae), light morph 

In the evening we did some seawatching east of Orzola, resulting in 1500+ Cory's Shearwaters, but also 5 Bulwer's Petrels. The observations of the Bulwers were however, very brief and quite distant, as they were  dissappearing behind the waves all the time, making it extremely difficult to follow them. Near the harbour of Orzola we see a dark morph Eleonora's Falcon flying over the sea, probably going to its nesting colony north of Lanzarote. Furthermore we see a Little Egret and two Redshanks.

Day 2: Exploring the North

19th of July:

We left the apartment around 10:00 in the morning. Near the apartments I see two Red-rumped Swallows, a nice species to start the day with! After some 30 km driving we arrive at the Mirador del Rio. A really great viewpoint! You stand on the edge of the 500-600m high cliffs looking down to the sea and the nearby islets, La Graciosa, Alegranza and Montana Clara.This Mirador is very spectacular and surreal!

There was a strong wind blowing, a northern wind, 6 beaufort strong. I tried to do some birdwatching but it was hard with the strong wind. The sight wasn't very good either, it was very hazy. We didn't see any Barbary Falcons here, despite the fact that it's described as one of the best spots for this species on the islands. Birds observed from here were: Atlantic Yellow-legged Gulls, Berthelots Pipits and some Rock Doves.

 The islet La Graciosa, seen from the Mirador. Despite the haze you can see the two other islets behind it.

Standing on the edge of the cliffs..

When you see it...... (in the salinas on the bottom of the cliffs)

After the visit to the Mirador del Rio, we continued to Orzola. This small village lies in the north-eastern corner of the island. It has a very sheltered position (with a northern-nw wind), making it very pleasant to reside there. 

Orzola and its harbour.

We walked into the village to the harbour. While standing in the harbour my dad suddenly noticed a falcon coming from the south. A light morph Eleonora's Falcon! It flies past us at a reasonable distance but the light was terrible, hence the highly edited images :) The second lifer in two days time! In the harbour I found a Lesser-black Backed Gull, not that common in summer I presume? 

The Eleonora's Falcon (Falco eleonorae), light morph

Along the houses near the shore we see some swallows: 2 Barn Swallows and 15 House Martins. Around 12:30 we decided to eat something at a restaurant - we had a very good fish plate! 

When our bellies were filled we drove along the coast to the south. We stop at a nice point along the road. From there I see at least 15 Cory's Shearwater flying by on the sea. 

Lava beach near Orzola.

And this is where all the lava trash came from: Monte Corona. 

We drove back to the village Yé and we park the car near the church. From there we start the climb to the Monte Corona. One of the highest volcanoes on this island. The temperatures weren't too high, so the climb went well. Another hunting Eleonora's Falcon is observed (probably dark morph but difficult to see with bad light conditions), Berthelots Pipit's are everywhere, a Spectacled Warbler male is showing really well, and next to that, we had a nice overview.

 Berthelot's Pipit (Anthus berthelotii)

 Berthelot's Pipit (Anthus bertelotii)

Spectacled Warbler (Sylvia conspicillata)

In the evening, while swimming in the lovely sea at Costa Teguise, we observe 500+ Cory's Shearwater flying north, some quite close to the shore. 

Day 1: Hola Lanzarote!

Came back yesterday from a two week trip to Lanzarote with my family. All in all it was a great trip. After visiting two other Canary Islands, Tenerife and La Gomera, back in the summer of 2007, Lanzarote and a one-day trip to Fuerteventura were a nice addition to the list, as these two islands differ completely from Tenerife and La Gomera.

I'm going to write a trip report about what we did everyday, birding stuff and non-birding stuff. Starting with day 1 in this blog post!

18th of July (day 1):


Lanzarote here we come! Our plane departured at 6:40 in the morning from Weeze Airport, just past the border in Germany. This meant we had to get up very early, just like with ringing!

The plane was one time and we arrived at 10:10 (11:10 Dutch time) Arrecife Airport, the capital city of Lanzarote. We picked up our rental car at Goldcar, a well-used red Seat Léon. From Arrecife Airport we drove to Costa Teguise, just north-east of Arrecife. We had hired an apartment there for the two weeks, at the apartment complex El Moline de Guatiza. After some food around noon and a nap in the early afternoon, we headed out in the late afternoon to explore Lanzarote a bit!

From Costa Teguise we drove north in the direction of Guatiza, where we stopped to have a look at all the cactus fields. Here I heard my first Spectacled Warbler of the trip. From Guatiza we drove through Mala to Arrieta. There we took the road to Tabayesco that goes through Barranco the Chafaris and if you keep following this road you end up in Haría. This is what we did. We stopped at Mirador de Haria, from where you have a great overview to the north and to the east:

 View from Mirador de Haria towards the east. An overview over Barranco de Chafaris. The village Tabayesco is at its end, with Arrieta on the top-left end.

Also taken from Mirador de Haría. Here a look towards the north, with Haría in view; probably the greenest village of the island. Palm trees, bushes and nice cultivated fields around it.

From the Mirador some more birds could be added to our list: Canary, few Turtle Doves, Berthelot's Pipit and I almost forgot to mention I saw an Barbary Partridge just outside Tabayesco. From the Mirador we drove further south. We drove back to Costa Teguise via Teguise.

While in the driving car I suddenly discovered 4 Houbara Bustards walking in a lava field next to the road!! I shouted 'Kraagtrappen' outloud and we managed to stop the car at some sort of parking spot. From there we had great views of the birds, albeit a bit distant. We had to look at them with the binoculars as we had left the scope in the apartment. During the observation some birds even did some displaying. Below are some of the 'recordshots' of the birds in the lava field.

 Houbara Bustards (Chlamydotis undulata fuerteventurae)

And another one.

We hadn't expected to bee seeing these bustards so easily! What a great life bird for us! Already on the first day we had one of our target species! While we drove back to Costa Teguise I also saw Southern Grey Shrike and some Kestrels of the ssp dacotiae.

Bienvenidos a Lanzarote!

We're having a great time on Lanzarote! A small posts here, with a few pics. Birding wise it's quite succesful already. Two lifers so far: amazing views of already 8 Houbara Bustards, 2 Eleonora's Falcons. Not many bird species here on Lanzarote, but most of the species you see are special and you are able to get wonderful views of otherwise more difficult species in Europe, such as Stone Curlews and Lesser Short-toed Lark. On the cultural/ non-birding aspect it's enjoyable as well, with a trip to the Timafaya National Park - the place on Lanzarote where the biggest volcano eruptions took place three hundred years ago - that was made today. 

Houbara Bustards (Chlamydotis undulata fuertaventurae), totally unexpected, four birds were discovered  from a driving car on our day of arrival! What a start!

 Eleonora's Falcon (Falco eleonorae), light morph, this stunner flew past while standing in the harbour of Orzola.

 Stone Curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus), extremely easy to see and photograph on the plains of La Jable.

 Timafaya Parque Nacional

 Another view from Timafaya Parque Nacional

Geiser at Timafaya Parque Nacional