Fuertaventura Day 3

For my last morning on the island I decided to dedicate my time to giving the bittern one last shot. I spent a good three hours birding the site from first light, but with no sight or sound of my quarry. The birding continued to be excellent, with fantastic views of Spectacled Warbler and Egyptian Vulture.

I has been birding from first light, when it was cold, but the morning soon warmed up and I decided to return to the car to drop off my excess clothing. On my way back I passed a couple of birders heading down to look for the bittern. Knowing I wouldn’t be alone I decided to sack off the bittern once and for all, and spent my last remaining hour on the beach north of the airport.

-African Blue Tit

-Egyptian Vulture

-White Stork

-Spanish Sparrow

The beached looked ideal for gaining a few more trip ticks, my big hope being Kentish Plover or something of that ilk. However, when scanning the bay I picked up a Great Northern Diver fishing not too far offshore. This was not an expected species at all, and a quick check of eBird supported my hunch that this might be quite rare. As such I took some BOC photos and put them on the ‘Rare birds of the Canary Islands’ Facebook group. It wasn’t until an hour later, when I was in the airport that the message was received and I was informed that this was the first for the Fuerteventura, the sixth for the Canary Islands. There had been one off another island during the winter, so presumably this was that bird. I was pretty thrilled with this. The beach also had a mammal trip tick in Bottlenose Dolphin and a few Sandwich Terns to round of a brilliant trip. 

-Great Northern Diver

-Bottlenose Dolphin

Species List:

Barranco de Rio Cabras: Ruddy Shelduck, Feral Pigeon, Eurasian Collared Dove, Laughing Dove, Common Moorhen, Black-winged Stilt, Little Ringed Plover, Common Snipe, Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Yellow-legged Gull, White Stork, Grey Heron, Little Egret, Egyptian Vulture, Common Buzzard, Eurasian Hoopoe, Great Grey Shrike, Northern Raven, African Blue Tit, Spectacled Warbler, Canary Islands Stonechat, Spanish Sparrow, White Wagtail, Berthelot's Pipit, Trumpeter Finch, Common Linnet, Barbary Ground Squirrel, Emperor Dragonfly, 

Playa Blanca: Feral Pigeon, Yellow-legged Gull, Sandwich Tern, Great Northern Diver, Little Egret, Bottlenose Dolphin,