Day 7: Quality birding

24th of July:

Photographing a Houbara Bustard was one of our most-wanted wishes for this trip. So we give it a try this morning. We visit the site where we saw the Houbara's our first night. Whilst we are on the way we already see a Houbara Bustard passing the highway, on the plains a few km south of Guatiza! What a start! The bird flies right over our car, fantastic! As on most mornings, there is a good cloud cover, which keeps the heat waves away and provides good light conditions for photographing.

While we're driving on a dirt track I see a large bird circling. As the light is not that good yet, I first think it's a  Raven but it turns out to be a nice female Barbary Falcon! 

As we drive on we suddenly discover a Houbara Bustard walking in front of the car! The bird sees us and walks away but it's not shy and starts foraging at a good range! Our first close encounter!

Houbara Bustard (Chlamydotis undulata fuerteventurae)

Next stop is Haría where we visit the cultivated fields south of the village. From Haría we walk a path towards the north (this path eventually goes up into the Barranco). As we'd observed before, there are many Spectacled Warblers around and we are offered some good photo oppertunities:

Spectacled Warblers (Sylvia conspictilla)

We see 5 Fuerteventura Blue Tits. These show really well, just like the warblers:

Fuerteventura Blue Tit (Cyanistes degener)

When we're almost back at the car we see large panic amognst the Feral/Rock Pigeons. It doesn't take long for us to see what's the cause: a (presumably) pair of Barbary Falcons is hunting them! We don't see if they have any succes as they disseappear to the cliffs after a while. 

We drive back through the Barranco the Chafaris again, where we see another 4 Fuerteventura Blue Tits. Also we observe 4 different Eleonora's Falcons at the same spot where we saw the one the day before. They're hunting above a small reservoir of water in a corner of the barranco. They're hunting on dragonflies and showing well. Great raptors! Later on the photos we see that one of the falcon's is ringed, where would this bird come from??

Bad light... 

And in the mean time an Egyptian Vulture passed by:

Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus majorensis)

In the early evening we visit Jameos del Agua. A cave with shallow water. It's a really nice place with the endemic Blind Crabs, that occur in the water in the cave. We see tens of them in the water, really special. A must to visit! A Fuerteventura Blue Tit is observed in the gardens there and over a 1000 Cory's Shearwaters pass by.

 One of the Blind Crabs

Fuerteventura Blue Tit (Cyanistes degener)

A Grey Heron  is observed flying over the highway near Guatiza on our way back.

What what what what a great day!

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.