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