Island Tour - Part 8 - Isla de Lobos

 After dropping off the car, Jayne and I had another two days in Corralejo. We decided to take a trip across to the nearby nature reserve of Isla de Lobos (Lobos Island). It is located just off the island, and requires a short, 10 minute ferry trip across the sea. 

On arrival on the island, you will find a small information centre, with details of the now-extinct Monk Seals, that once inhabited the island. The only toilets on the island are also to be found here. Please note, as well, that your visit is limited to just four hours. A permit is also required to visit, which you can buy for free online. We, however,  travelled across with Water Taxis, and they arranged the permit for us.

We set off to walk around the island, heading first to the volcano La Caldera. It was a good 20 minute walk to the base of the volcano, on well marked paths, but the climb to the top was much trickier than our previous walk to the Hondo Volcano, earlier on the trip. It took us a good 30 minutes to walk to the summit! The wildlife was less than I'd expected, but we did see Berthelot's Pipits, Ravens, Yellow-legged Gulls, Rock Doves and Atlantic Lizards on the walk across. The gulls were breeding on the island, with many pairs on nests, just a few metres from the paths.

Walk to the top of La Caldera

Yellow-legged Gull on nest

After the volcano, we walked across to the lighthouse, at the far end of the island. Again, there were excellent paths, but the walk did take us a good 40 minutes. Two Egyptian Vultures were seen on the walk across, and this is the only (heavily cropped) flight shot I managed.

Egyptian Vulture

We also saw a few butterflies on the walk across, including Painted Ladies, Small White, Greenish Black-tip and this beautiful Clouded Yellow, that posed nicely. Here's an uncropped shot, showing the small plants it landed on as well.

Clouded Yellow

After a quick spot of lunch at the lighthouse (picnic, no facilities here), we had a look at a small pond and added Black-winged Stilts (adults and juveniles), Common Sandpiper and a single Grey Plover (trip tick) to the island list. Our final stop, on the walk back to the "little harbour" (el puertito), was a very beautiful area called Las Lagunitas, which were a set of brackish lagoons. The only addition was a single Whimbrel.

Las Lagunitas

Island Tour - Part 6 - El Embalse de los Monlinos

Thursday 1st April was the last day that Jayne and I had the hire car, so we set out to visit a nearby reservoir, namely El Embalse de los Molinos (Los Molinos Reservoir). We arrived at about 9.45am and spent a couple of hours here, adding 4 new species to the trip list. Fuerteventura has had its highest rainfall in 30 years this last winter, so the water levels in the reservoir were much higher than in previous years.

Los Molinos Reservoir (full of water!)

The first, and most obvious species seen, was Spanish Sparrow, with a small colony found around a ruined building by the dam wall. As we were watching these, I noticed a small flock of hirundines flying over the dam wall. Using the bins, I spotted a few Barn Swallows, 3 Sand Martins, and, best of all a couple of Red-rumped Swallows!! We walked on, along the goat track, and had the best views of the trip of Berthelot's Pipit, Trumpeter Finch (male, female and a single juvenile) and Egyptian Vulture (2 flew low overhead).

Berthelot's Pipit

Trumpeter Finch (male and female)

Trumpeter Finch (juvenile)

As the reservoir was quite full, there were also many birds to be seen on the water. The vast majority were Ruddy Shelduck (60+, including several groups of juvenile birds), but also included Black-winged Stilts (20+, including juveniles), a single Coot (trip tick!), 2 Little Ringed Plover (trip tick) and a single Common Sandpiper.

Ruddy Shelduck (duckling)

If we hadn't seen anything else, we would have been very pleased, but, just as we heading back, we spotted a small flock nine birds flying around the site. We both realised that they were Black-bellied Sandgrouse, a species we thought we'd "dipped out" on! Thankfully, they landed (about 200m away) and we managed to get reasonable views (in the developing heat haze!). A great bird to add to the trip list!!

Black-bellied Sandgrouse

Island Tour - Part 4 - Tindaya Plains and Houbara Bustards!

 Apart from the Fuerteventura Chat, the other bird that was high on our "wish list" was Houbara Bustard. The bird lives over much of the island, but the most reliable spot to see it is an area called the Tindaya Plains, near the village of Tindaya, in the north of the island. Although the roads are pretty dodgy, if you drive very carefully (!) you'll be ok! whilst there, we used the car as a hide, and got all the photos from there.

Mount Tindaya (Montana de Tindaya)

It was about a half hour drive from Corralejo, so we set off early to arrive on site form sunrise (7.30am). At the start, it was quite frustrating, as it is a very large area to cover, and there were no birds at all (except the ubiquitous Rock Doves/Feral Pigeons and Collared Doves) but, as the day warmed up, so did the birds! The most numerous were Berthelot's Pipits and Mediterranean Short-toed Larks, followed by Plain Swift, Swallow(2), Raven, Trumpeter Finch (male and female) and Egyptian Vulture (1).

Mediterranean Short-toed Lark

Trumpeter Finch

After the best part of three hours, we were just about to give up, when we spotted a large white object spinning around, about a kilometre away, on the horizon! We got the binoculars on it, and realized that we'd found a displaying male Houbara Bustard! We were able to watch it for about half an hour, and managed to get some very distant (!) photos and video footage.

Houbara Bustard

Houbara Bustard

Houbara Bustard displaying (amazing!!!)

S'Albufera es Grau and Algendar Gorge

Two sites that we visited whilst on holiday in Menorca were the large marsh called S'Albufera es Grau near the village of Es Grau in the north east of the island and the Algendar Gorge in the south west of the island.

Harbour at Es Grau

 

S'Albufera es Grau is the only official nature reserve on the island. It is nearly 2000 hectares in size, 67 hectares of which are a large, freshwater lake. We visited one afternoon, when it was very, very hot! It wasn't the best time to visit, but we did still manage to find a few birds; Little Grebe (several pairs nesting), Moorhen, Coot, Black-headed Gulls (2 juveniles- quite a rarity here), a single male Pochard, Red Kite, Kestrel and several juvenile Red-crested Pochard.

View from the hide at S'Albufera es Grau

Another good spot for any visiting birder is the Algendar Gorge.

Algendar Gorge

 

The main reason for visiting this site was to catch up with Egyptian Vultures. We arrived at about 11am and managed to see 2 birds; an adult and a juvenile bird, already high up in the sky. As well as the vultures we also saw and heard the following; Blackcap (singing male), Kestrel, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, House Sparrow, Rock Dove, Red Kite and Raven. Woodchat Shrike and Hoopoe were seen on the drive over.

A typical Menorcan gate

Punta Nati and Cap de Cavalleria

There are 5 lighthouses on Menorca and during our recent holiday we managed to visit two in the north of the island, Punta Nati and Cap de Cavalleria. Both sites stick out into the sea and are home to a variety of very good birds.

Cap de Cavalleria

Punta Nati

 

When we visited it was very hot and obviously late in the breeding season, so the number of birds seen was quite low, but it did include one lifer; the Thekla Lark. We also managed to see Tawny Pipit, Rock Dove and Kestrel!

Tawny Pipit

 

Other birds that can be seen at these sites include; Blue Rock Thrush, Short-toed Lark, Corn Bunting, Stonechat, Stone Curlew and Raven. Next time hopefully!

 

On the drive up to lighthouse at Punta Nati there is a small breeding colony of Cattle Egrets which we managed to see.

 

Cattle Egret

 

Driving back from Cap de Cavalleria we stopped off a wetland called Tirant, where we saw a at least 50 Cattle Egrets roosting in the trees. Luckily for me, a Booted Eagle flew over the area as I was looking at the birds and spooked them into flight. Lovely!! Other birds seen here were: Swallow, Egyptian Vulture, Coot, Red Kite, Little Grebe, Moorhen and Red-crested Pochard. 

Year List update and 2 "Lifers"

Yesterday I blogged about my recent trip to Menorca and promised to update the Year List, so here goes:

149- Zitting Cisticola (Fan-tailed Warbler)
150 – Turtle Dove
151 – European Bee-Eater
152 – Yellow-legged Gull
153 – Audouin’s Gull
154 – Scops Owl
155 – EGYPTIAN VULTURE (lifer)
156 – Blue Rock Thrush
157 – Booted Eagle
158 – Hoopoe
159 – THEKLA’S LARK (lifer)
160 – Cattle Egret
161 – Purple Heron
162 – Purple Gallinule
163 – Little Stint
164 – Green Sandpiper
165 – Sardinian Warbler
166 – Red-crested Pochard
167 – Night Heron
168 -Woodchat Shrike
169 - Rock Dove
170 – Stonechat
171 - Whinchat

Numbers 149 - 170 were all recorded in Menorca and the Whinchat was added following a trip to Big Moor yesterday.

As you can see, the two "lifers" were  Egyptian Vulture and Thekla's Lark. The vultures were seen on several days, mainly in the western end of the island around a place called Algendar Gorge, but we did get one flying over the swimming pool in Son Bou. Here's a link for a bit of information about this bird. Thekla's Larks were seen briefly at an area called Punta Nati. Here's some more information about the Thekla Lark.I'll blog more about these two sites later.

I didn't manage to get any photos of either of the lifers, so here are a couple of photos of a Scops Owl that fed around our apartment every night and a Turtle Dove that also came and fed on some bread crumbs outside the apartment!

Scops Owl

Turtle Dove