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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Fuerteventura 2011 (1 Viewer)

Highlight from this morning at Catalina Garcia, Fuerteventura:

CITRINE WAGTAIL juvenile photographed around dry area at west end. This species is not mentioned in Tony Clarke's book which was published in 1996. Does anyone know the status of this species in the Canaries and Fuerteventura?

SQUACCO HERON adult.... this is listed as "accidental" in Clarke. Is this still true?

Barbary Falcon juvenile over, plus 2 Egyptian Vultures over too.
Black bellied Sandgrouse 7+
Curlew Sandpiper 2, Greenshank 4+, Ruff 2, Redshank 1, Black winged Stilt 15+, LRP 20+, Dunlin 1
Pied Flycatcher 1, plus many Trumpeters Finches and Lesser Short toed Larks
 
Mark,

According to the latest field guide published this year:

- Citrine Wagtail has been recorded from Tenerife and Lanzarote

- Squacco Heron is a passage migrant recorded on all islands other than El Hierro

Stephen
 
Seawatching again from El Cotillo lighthouse 07.20 to 09.30.
Pomarine Skua, dark phase adult (complete with spoons) south at 08.45
Great Shearwater south at 08.50
Gannet 1 adult north
Great Skua 2 south
Skua sp 4. all distant going south
Manx Shearwater 20+
Cory's Shearwater 70+

Near Olivia
Houbara Bustard 2 adults
Barbary Partridge 24
Lesser Short toed Lark 200+ (in one flock!)

Corralejo
Ring necked Parakeet 2 over town late morning
 
In the sand dunes inland from Corralejo's two main hotels this morning, I was surprised to see 7 Houbara Bustards. Two singles flew over south towards the lava fields at south end around dawn, then a flock of 5 birds also flew out of dunes and headed south too.
 
In the dunes south of El Cotillo this morning

Cream coloured Courser 3 adults (5.6km south of town)
Houbara Bustard 1 (walked across road in-front on car!)
Lots of Lesser Short-toed Larks and a few Trumpeter Finches

A quick sea-watch from the cliffs here produced a Sooty Shearwater heading north at 09.20, plus lots of Cory's Shearwaters

Edit - also a shark sp. off-shore briefly
 
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A great mornings birding today-

Catalina Garcia -
CITRINE WAGTAIL juvenile still present at west end
BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER juvenile with the wagtail
Fuerteventura Chat 1 female
Cattle Egret 2
Squacco Heron adult still
Pallid Swift 8
Curlew Sandpiper 1 juvenile
Sardinian Warbler 1
Black-bellied Sandgrouse 22+
Spotted Flycatcher 1 plus the usual resident species

Los Molinos Reservoir -
BAIRD'S SANDPIPER juvenile at south end until 12.30 at least
BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER juvenile still present
Cream coloured Courser 3 (on entrance track!)
Sanderling 1 juvenile
Barbary Falcon 1 adult
Black-winged Stilt 3
Fuerteventura Chat 2 (a pair)
Black-bellied Sandgrouse 55+
Spotted Flycatcher 1
Egyptian Vulture 4

Very few waders around currently, but the quality is not to be sniffed at! Anyone know how many records of Buff-breasted Sandpiper and Baird's Sandpiper there have been from Fuerteventura before now?
 
Congrats Mark! You're finding many interesting birds in Fuerteventura. It would be great if you could report some of them (Citrine, Buff-breasted and Baird's) to the spanish rarities comm. as they are on the rarities list. You can find the submission form here:

http://www.rarebirdspain.net/arbsa000.htm

Cheers y gracias,
Eduardo
 
Hi Eduardo

I have been in touch with both Richard Gutiérrez and Juan Antonio Lorenzo and will send them descriptions and photos when I return to the UK. Gutted I couldn't make in on the two pelagics from Lanzarote last weekend.... looks like you had a fantastic trip on both dates.
 
Quiet at El Cotillo lighthouse this morning, just one Great Skua heading north and 5+ Manx Shearwaters going south (plus the usual steady stream of Cory's).

Two Plain Swifts over Corralejo town today.
 
A quick seawatch from El Cotillo lighthouse was again quiet, despite the increased wind strength.

Great Skua 1 south
Common Tern 1-2 past
Manx Shearwater 15+ south
 
The results of the Lanzarote boat trip can now be seen in a trip report posted on the Reservoirbirds website: http://birdscatalonia.brinkster.net/ReservoirBirds/TripReports/RBTR_000008.pdf

Naturally this is in Spanish, but the pictures speak for themselves. Just to note that there were (at least) Bulwer's Petrels, Cory's, Great, Sooty and Manx Shearwaters, Black-bellied, Wilson's, Madeiran, White-faced and European Storm-petrels, South Polar, Long-tailed and Pomarine Skuas, Common, Arctic and Black Terns and Grey Phalarope, and also Sperm, Cuvier's Beaked and Bryde's Whales, Atlantic spotted and Common Bottlenose Dolphins, hammerhead shark, sunfish, flying fish and Loggerhead Turtle.

Mark. One thing from the report which will be of interest is that Great Skuas are very scarce in Canarian waters at this time, with any records of large skuas having an 80% chance of being South Polar according to Dani López. Given the tremendous difficulty of identifying the majority of the dark morph birds, I wonder if they really were all Greats you saw going past the Tostón lighthouse?

Long-tailed Skua was also virtually unrecorded in Canarian waters until your record and the trips, so congratulations. It has (and continues to be) an extraordinary year for passage of Long-tailed past Estaca de Bares in NW Spain, with peak-day counts in the hundreds for a couple of weeks now (see breakdowns in Rarebirdspain and Reservoirbirds). A South Polar went past there too.

Regards,

John

ps. And see Eduardo's entry on the other Lanzarote thread: http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=207345
 
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Hi John,

The possibility of South Polar Skua was always in the back of my mind, especially after the news of the birds from Lanzarote. The first two birds I saw on 12th looked like typical Great Skuas in both plumage and structure and were close-in. The bird which flew north on 17th was different looking in plumage, but I didn't see it for long, as it was going away when I picked it up, and I couldn't claim anything from what I saw. The last, which flew south on 19th was rather Great Skua-like in plumage, but was certainly less heavy looking in flight, and not typical of Great Skua. I had to follow it for sometime to convince myself it wasn't a dark Pomarine for example, but again, with no photos and no previous experience of South Polar Skua (not to mention how hard this pair are to separate!), I won't claim it as such.

The 3 adult/sub-adult Long-tailed Skuas that I saw were rather smart, and I was aware of the huge numbers passing NW Spain a few days before hand. At least 2 of the skua sp. I saw looked like Long-tailed on structure, but were far too distant to see plumage details.
 
Some general notes from my trip.

Seawatching:
I found that morning and evening sea-watches from the north end of the island (i.e. around Corralejo) produced nothing more than Cory's Shearwaters - I'm sure other birds must pass between Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, but I guess most pass down the east and west sides of the island. This was reinforced when watching birds from the lighthouse north of El Cotillo, as birds heading south were often some distance out, suggesting they had come down the west side of Lanzarote. The east side of Fuerteventura would be good for seawatching, especially given the predominant NE winds, but the rising sun makes it very hard on clear mornings.

The lighthouse is well placed for seawatching in the morning, and provides some shelter from the wind, but it is only just above sea-level, and whilst providing a good panoramic view of the horizon, it is a little low-dow, and many birds were lost in the troughs of the waves before being able to get a good view (picking up any Petrels from here would be hard work during a good blow). The town of El Cotillo is more elevated, but set a little further "inland", and birds were passing by a little further out than further up the coast.

Los Molinos Reservoir:
Still a good site, but not as productive as in previous years when I have visited. There were few waders here (although this made picking up the Yanks easier!), but plenty of water. Muddy areas at south end and in the inlet along west side were the only areas of wader habitat here. There is a hide midway down the east side, but it was locked on my visits. As others have reported, the access to south end as described in Clarke has changed a lot, and there is no longer any vegetation or Tamarisks at the end of the reservoir. In-fact, there is little point accessing from the south end, except to check the trees and scrub around the goat farm.

Catalina Garcia:
Still the best site on the island, and plenty of water here during my visits. There is a hide, but its locked. Worth a visit, especially in the mornings.

Caleta de Fuste golf course:
Sadly, I never made it to this site, but from the air, it looks like great habitat for migrants, with plenty of grass, vegetation and some pools. I bet there was a Buff-breasted Sandpiper here too....
 
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