Birdwatching report, Fuerteventura February 2007

A chance encounter with two former work colleagues, one of whom is a keen bird watcher, of the drive 200 miles each way to twitch a bird type, gave me the opportunity to spend half a day out and about with a well equipped, experienced bird watcher.

European Hoopoe A week in Fuerteventura had appealed to Ed and Lesley as it provided the opportunity to have a break from work, escape from the British winter for at least a few days, and also provided the opportunity to do a little birdwatching.

The species that Ed was interested in seeing in particular were the Canary Island Chat, a species endemic to the island, the Houbara Bustard, a species that is in decline on the island and the Barbary falcon.

After being surprised and delighted to see both Ed and Lesley, the talk soon got to what Rd had been able to see, and his disappointment at not yet having seen a Houbara bustard, so we arranged that he would hire a car, and I would try to find out where the best place to see the elusive bustard was. Jose, the teacher who takes the Spanish classes did me the favour of telephoning the department of the Medio Ambiente at the Cabildo, but they were disappointingly unhelpful.

The day began with me wandering round to Angle's for some bread, but as he wasn't open I decide to wander to the moon, as the land between Nuevo Horizonte and Caleta is known to see if there was anything of interest there. There was a flock of around 40 trumpeter finches and a couple of european hoopoes feeding on a patch of scrub that had greened up after the recent rain.

on the way back with the bread Ed telephoned and we arranged to meet up after I had eaten the bounty from Angels and had chance to check the batteries were OK in my cameras.

We decided that though Ed had thought he had probably seen a Bustard in Paraja a couple of days before we would head out to the Embalse de Los Molinos, as he had yet to visit there, and one of the more recent trip reports suggested that Houbarra Bustard had been seen in the area. A combination of the trip report, a guide to birdwatching and a large scale map of the island allowed me to identify the area in question, so we set of there.

Houbara Bustard When we arrived at the site which is on the north side of the FV221 just after the area in Tefia where the astronomical telescope is located we scanned the horizon from inside the car, but apart from one Berthalots pipit were unable to see any other signs of birdlife. We got out of the car and Ed scanned the plain but was still unable to locate anything of interest so he set up his spotting scope. While he was doing this I used the binoculars and nothince something in the distance that looked a little like a white plastic bag moving along the ground about 600 metres away. I pointed this out to Ed and he was delighted to identify it as the bird he had been looking for for three days, a Hubara Bustard.

In the same spot we also saw three+ Cream Coloured Coursers. When we lost sight of the Bustard as a result of messing about trying to photograph it we got back in the car and spotted another Bustard and some Cream Coloured Coursers that were relatively close to us, allowing me to take some photographs that were just about of passable quality.

Egyptian Vulture, Fuerteventura We then drove to the Embalse de Los Molinos picking up a German birder who had hitchhiked down from El Cotillo. Ed had a conversation with him in German and he told us that he had seen Houbara Bustard in the El Cotillo area the previous day.

At the reservoir we counted around 49 Ruddy Shellduck and also saw a dozen or so Coots, a couple of yellow legged gulls, and a small Ringed Plover, as well as a Greenshank. We then decided to go down to Los Molinos and on the way there saw a pair of Egyptian Vultures which were flying up and down the other side of the barranco. In the barranco there was a small Egret and a couple of Kestrels were flying with the Vultures. At Los Molinos there were the usual Muscovy ducks in the pond and on the cafe terrace as well as another yellow legged gull a small egret and a Berthalot pippet.