So on 29th October it looked like our trip to Cuba was on; Varadero airport was open, tickets and hotels confirmed, we would fly into Varadero on 15th November, drive to Havana for few nights, then back to the north coast and then south coast with a local guide to see most of the endemics. Great!!
However on 31st October, rumours of a second English lockdown starting on 5th of November were rife and the PM had scheduled a press conference later that day. After a quick chat we agreed that Cuba was almost certain to be cancelled and that we wanted away for a quick birding trip, but we couldn’t be sure our flight etc. would be cancelled so just in case we needed to be out by 4th and back by 11th (we had a hospital appointment on 12th to have our blood tested as part of the Covid vaccine trail).
There wasn’t a lot of choice and obviously other people were trying to beat the lockdown as flights were going quickly, so we ended up booking a week in Fuerteventura based at the Riu Palace Tres Islas just outside Correlejo for a very reasonable price (40% discount).
We had been to Fuerteventura for a day once 6 years ago from Lanzarote just to tick the chat and see what was about so we knew we could do some decent birding.
Day 1
Reasonable flight time but Manchester Airport at the TUI check-in/bag drop is heaving, they have changed their flights to the Canaries and Greek Island to bigger planes (Dreamliner in our case with 340 people rather than 180) but check-in, security, etc. was not equipped for the surge. Still everyone eventually got through and plane was only a little late leaving albeit we had no time for any food before boarding.
We had booked a car with Cicar for £96 all included for the week, this was a great deal and compared well to guy on our flight being quoted 99 euro for 3 days on the day we landed, we had used this company a few times before but prices seemed even lower than usual due to lack of booking as the islands are pretty empty.
By the time we picked up the car and drove north we decided we wouldn’t do any serious birding today just a walk local to the hotel and enjoy some winter sunshine. All we saw were Yellow-legged Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Collared Dove, Spanish Sparrow and a surprise Hoopoe in the hotel grounds.
Day 2
I had looked with interest at attempts at the long staying Dwarf Bittern in the Barranco de Rio Cabras. There was no indications that the bird was still around but with travel restrictions we reckoned that not many people had tried for it. So after breakfast we set out for the track and path to the Barranco. We did struggle a little with finding the turn off and track despite having co-ordinates for both the turn off and the parking spot but after a little bit of a drive round we were here. Immediately we left the car we had great views of the Fuerteventura Chat (Canary Island Stonechat), a lot less time to find it that before, in the bushes we also had a Whitethroat and then a large unmarked yellowish, large billed warbler put in an appearance, despite not seeing one for a while I was sure it was a Melodious Warbler, not Icterine later confirmed when I looked at the field guide. When we started on the track we bumped into a couple of birders from Barcelona, they had been to the Bittern site 3 times and had failed to see it, but they wished us luck and we decided to spend time looking down onto the place the bird had been seen last year. Sarah, thought she had it in the margins of the water below a bush but when the bird showed it was a much bigger but a nice Purple Heron which flew down the Barranco, only other birds we saw on our watch were a Moorhen, a Black-winged Stilt and a Buzzard. On the way back to the car we had a Yellow-browed Warbler, (from speaking to a Canary Island birder we bumped into later there were at least 4 on the Island) and finally a Berthelot’s pipit.
However on 31st October, rumours of a second English lockdown starting on 5th of November were rife and the PM had scheduled a press conference later that day. After a quick chat we agreed that Cuba was almost certain to be cancelled and that we wanted away for a quick birding trip, but we couldn’t be sure our flight etc. would be cancelled so just in case we needed to be out by 4th and back by 11th (we had a hospital appointment on 12th to have our blood tested as part of the Covid vaccine trail).
There wasn’t a lot of choice and obviously other people were trying to beat the lockdown as flights were going quickly, so we ended up booking a week in Fuerteventura based at the Riu Palace Tres Islas just outside Correlejo for a very reasonable price (40% discount).
We had been to Fuerteventura for a day once 6 years ago from Lanzarote just to tick the chat and see what was about so we knew we could do some decent birding.
Day 1
Reasonable flight time but Manchester Airport at the TUI check-in/bag drop is heaving, they have changed their flights to the Canaries and Greek Island to bigger planes (Dreamliner in our case with 340 people rather than 180) but check-in, security, etc. was not equipped for the surge. Still everyone eventually got through and plane was only a little late leaving albeit we had no time for any food before boarding.
We had booked a car with Cicar for £96 all included for the week, this was a great deal and compared well to guy on our flight being quoted 99 euro for 3 days on the day we landed, we had used this company a few times before but prices seemed even lower than usual due to lack of booking as the islands are pretty empty.
By the time we picked up the car and drove north we decided we wouldn’t do any serious birding today just a walk local to the hotel and enjoy some winter sunshine. All we saw were Yellow-legged Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Collared Dove, Spanish Sparrow and a surprise Hoopoe in the hotel grounds.
Day 2
I had looked with interest at attempts at the long staying Dwarf Bittern in the Barranco de Rio Cabras. There was no indications that the bird was still around but with travel restrictions we reckoned that not many people had tried for it. So after breakfast we set out for the track and path to the Barranco. We did struggle a little with finding the turn off and track despite having co-ordinates for both the turn off and the parking spot but after a little bit of a drive round we were here. Immediately we left the car we had great views of the Fuerteventura Chat (Canary Island Stonechat), a lot less time to find it that before, in the bushes we also had a Whitethroat and then a large unmarked yellowish, large billed warbler put in an appearance, despite not seeing one for a while I was sure it was a Melodious Warbler, not Icterine later confirmed when I looked at the field guide. When we started on the track we bumped into a couple of birders from Barcelona, they had been to the Bittern site 3 times and had failed to see it, but they wished us luck and we decided to spend time looking down onto the place the bird had been seen last year. Sarah, thought she had it in the margins of the water below a bush but when the bird showed it was a much bigger but a nice Purple Heron which flew down the Barranco, only other birds we saw on our watch were a Moorhen, a Black-winged Stilt and a Buzzard. On the way back to the car we had a Yellow-browed Warbler, (from speaking to a Canary Island birder we bumped into later there were at least 4 on the Island) and finally a Berthelot’s pipit.
-.
