Brian Stone
A Stone chatting
Hopefully this will be of interest to some. I'll be doing as much birding as I can while spending as many of my allowed 90 days as I can in warmer climes than my native UK. This won't be much like other trip reports as the budget doesn't stretch to car hire or other excursions. I'll be relying on shank's pony and a bit of determination. Accommodation choice is also limited by the need to be close to shops, close to good birding habitat, have good cooking facilities and of course be available for 4 weeks or more.
First a bit of background. Since becoming nomadic over four years ago it has always been our intention to spend the majority of the winter months somewhere warmer than the UK and cheap to live. That worked fine for the first couple of years with extended stays in Spain and SE Asia. Then COVID19 landed and you know the rest. But with Spain now allowing entry for the multiply vaccinated it was time to risk leaving the sceptic isle and we planned to utilise our post-Brexit 90 days to the full.
For the first month we booked a place in the north of Fuerteventura, planning to move on to Tenerife for February and the mainland for March. By spending at least 4 weeks in each place we managed to find good AirBnB discounts and flights were pretty cheap.
Our early flight from Luton had to be de-iced before departure and it did feel good to be leaving -4C behind. Only 40 people on the plane and a very quiet arrivals area at Fuerteventura airport meant formalities were super fast. Our Spanish health check QR code (set up before we left by scanning in our NHS proof of vaccination) was just scanned through with no other checks. Not much longer after that we were settled into our home for the next month in an apartment complex right on the edge of the Corralejo Natural Park in the north of the island.
Just as others have remarked, first impressions of Fuerteventura were of a largely bird free place. Only Yellow-legged Gulls and Feral Pigeons were seen at the airport and virtually nothing on the way north. There didn't seem to be much more around the apartment complex where we were staying either but it was rather windy and it was sunny and 21C, so who cares!
First a bit of background. Since becoming nomadic over four years ago it has always been our intention to spend the majority of the winter months somewhere warmer than the UK and cheap to live. That worked fine for the first couple of years with extended stays in Spain and SE Asia. Then COVID19 landed and you know the rest. But with Spain now allowing entry for the multiply vaccinated it was time to risk leaving the sceptic isle and we planned to utilise our post-Brexit 90 days to the full.
For the first month we booked a place in the north of Fuerteventura, planning to move on to Tenerife for February and the mainland for March. By spending at least 4 weeks in each place we managed to find good AirBnB discounts and flights were pretty cheap.
Our early flight from Luton had to be de-iced before departure and it did feel good to be leaving -4C behind. Only 40 people on the plane and a very quiet arrivals area at Fuerteventura airport meant formalities were super fast. Our Spanish health check QR code (set up before we left by scanning in our NHS proof of vaccination) was just scanned through with no other checks. Not much longer after that we were settled into our home for the next month in an apartment complex right on the edge of the Corralejo Natural Park in the north of the island.
Just as others have remarked, first impressions of Fuerteventura were of a largely bird free place. Only Yellow-legged Gulls and Feral Pigeons were seen at the airport and virtually nothing on the way north. There didn't seem to be much more around the apartment complex where we were staying either but it was rather windy and it was sunny and 21C, so who cares!
