KenM
Well-known member
For the first time on the cusp of taking the iron bird to Fuerteventura, we set off in acute trepidation for the journey ahead...Gatwick and the Drones! Staying overnight (Friday) at the airport for our hoped for Sat. 07.10am departure to FTV. That night much angst was felt regarding the likelihood of us having to return home the following morning, due to NO flights on the day! However the flight was still scheduled on Friday night and miraculously on the morrow we duly took off...only 10 minutes late! During the journey in the ''viral incubator'' I had cause for concern, when the child immediately behind us, sneezed repetitively!....there was just something chilling about the outspraying ''a-a-tish-oos'' that kinda rang alarm bells :eek!: However on the positive side we broke our previous flight time record to 3 hrs.47 mins!...full marks to Helios and friends. :t:
Landing under a wall to wall blue and 21 degrees C. was most uplifting, a quick check in, and unpack at the hotel, had us...(self, missus and 14 year old grandson) strolling down the beach front (Caleta de Fuste) for a quick bite (toasted sandwiches all round, washed down with two Americanos and Apple juice in sequential order). A scan of the rocks on the incoming tide revealed a 50% drop (compared to 2017) in Sandwich Terns and Kentish Plover, but a 300% increase in Spoonbills (24). With average counts for Ringed Plover (c40), 4 Whimbrel, 4 Grey Plover, 2 Turnstone, 3 Common Sandpiper, with the exception of just 2 Sanderling.... nine last year!
With refreshments and scan complete, grandson being a mean Table/Tennis player...goaded me into 4 games of the Table ''kind''....cos this wasn't going to be a ''Total Birding Holiday'', during the course of which...he learnt a lot from moi, on how to lose ''ungraciously''. Late afternoon found me at the end of the hotel complex by the ''drain''.....that wasn't!
This narrow outflow has held water since my first and subsequent 13+ visits, and has attracted a variety of wader and passerine species, this years exceptional drought had not surprisingly left it bone dry, and with no vestige of life apparent....apart from the myriad of Painted Ladies (they must have got up late! as they were mostly bereft of ''make-up'' ... Carrying on South East across the desert strip I struggled to find much of note. Clearly passerine and non...were conspicuous by their absence, apart from two Berthelot's Pipit, a couple of Trumpeter Finches, two Lesser Short-Toed Larks and a Lark sp without white OTM's! Oh well I sighed! no two years the same, as I made my way back to the hotel...tomorrows another day, when I pick up the hire car...and it sure did!
To be continued....
Landing under a wall to wall blue and 21 degrees C. was most uplifting, a quick check in, and unpack at the hotel, had us...(self, missus and 14 year old grandson) strolling down the beach front (Caleta de Fuste) for a quick bite (toasted sandwiches all round, washed down with two Americanos and Apple juice in sequential order). A scan of the rocks on the incoming tide revealed a 50% drop (compared to 2017) in Sandwich Terns and Kentish Plover, but a 300% increase in Spoonbills (24). With average counts for Ringed Plover (c40), 4 Whimbrel, 4 Grey Plover, 2 Turnstone, 3 Common Sandpiper, with the exception of just 2 Sanderling.... nine last year!
With refreshments and scan complete, grandson being a mean Table/Tennis player...goaded me into 4 games of the Table ''kind''....cos this wasn't going to be a ''Total Birding Holiday'', during the course of which...he learnt a lot from moi, on how to lose ''ungraciously''. Late afternoon found me at the end of the hotel complex by the ''drain''.....that wasn't!
This narrow outflow has held water since my first and subsequent 13+ visits, and has attracted a variety of wader and passerine species, this years exceptional drought had not surprisingly left it bone dry, and with no vestige of life apparent....apart from the myriad of Painted Ladies (they must have got up late! as they were mostly bereft of ''make-up'' ... Carrying on South East across the desert strip I struggled to find much of note. Clearly passerine and non...were conspicuous by their absence, apart from two Berthelot's Pipit, a couple of Trumpeter Finches, two Lesser Short-Toed Larks and a Lark sp without white OTM's! Oh well I sighed! no two years the same, as I made my way back to the hotel...tomorrows another day, when I pick up the hire car...and it sure did!
To be continued....