Back to reality

I'm just back from my trip to the Eastern Canaries (Fuerteventura and Lanzarote) and have to report it was a great success......until I got messages about green-winged teal on the patch....every bloody time I go away....

We got our two target birds with no problems, with some good gen from Alan Gilbertson, we had views of Fuerteventura chat within an hour of getting off the plane!

male Fuerteventura stonechat

female gathering nesting material

Our second target took a bit more getting, ignoring the rules of the hire car company we took out Renault Kangoo for a bit off-roading on the planes, picking up some other good desert species we eventually got good views of three bustards, but no display.

Houbara bustard through the heat-haze on the planes near Pared

Other desert species

Stone Curlew

Black-bellied sandgrouse - we saw these displaying

Cream-coloured courser - a family party with tiny balls of fluff young was the highlight of the trip




This trumpeter finch was gathering nesting material from a dead goat

Spectacled warblers were common in the barrancas

The male spanish sparrows were really smart

Berthelot's pipits were everywhere

Other good birds included greater flamingo, southern grey shrikes, sardinian warbler, cory's shearwater and canary as well as the local race of blue tit which is quite striking. I'll produce a trip report when I get the time.

Hopefully the GW teal will still be around at the weekend...