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!!!)

Island Tour - Part 1 - Calderon Hondo

Monday 30th was the first day that Jayne and I had a car, so we set off to explore the island. By the end of the day, we'd seen 7 new species of bird!! This blog will cover the first site of the day, our trip to Hondo Volcano (Calderon Hondo).

The Hondo Volcano, just a short 15 minute drive from our base at Corralejo. I'd discovered a great blog, giving lots of details about the walk, which you can check out here. Most of the drive was on slightly dodgy roads, but we took it easy, and got there without any difficulty. Our first  bird sighting of the day was a Barbary Partridge (3rd lifer) that ran across the road in front of us, followed by a brood of c.10 chicks! Unfortunately, there was no time for photos, as they all disappeared into the rocks. On arrival at the small car park, we were joined by a pair of Raven, who flew down as soon as we parked the car. Obviously used to being fed!! 

Calderon Hondo and Raven

Following the details from the blog, we set off from the small car park, and walked along the well-maintained footpath to the base of the volcano. Berthelot's Pipits were seen here (4th lifer), and it was here that we also got our first, and as it turned out, only sightings of Fuerteventura Chat (5th lifer) Three birds, with at least 1 male, were seen flitting about, and I managed to get a flew, distant shots.

Calderon Hondo

Fuerteventura Chat

Carrying on up the path, we soon got to the top of volcano, where we had amazing views of the island.

View from Calderon Hondo

Walking back down to the car, we came across the remains of some farmer's buildings, where we had our first encounter with the island's (in)famous Barbary Ground Squirrels. The animals we saw looked like youngsters, who had just woken up, and were walking around the old buildings, yawning, stretching and getting ready for a new day!

Barbary Ground Squirrels

As we were watching the squirrels, we had our first, very brief, views of a pair of "trumpeting" Trumpeter Finches (6th lifer), as they flew past us.

Our last bird at this site was the Mediterranean (Lesser) Short-toed Lark (7th lifer). This bird, a singing male, was spotted on the drive down the volcano.

Mediterranean Short-toed Lark