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| Bird Report By Dave Adamson |
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Hi Dave and Eric,
Your list of Lanzarote’s birds certainly helped to make my recent holiday on the island much more enjoyable; as did Sjaak Schilperoort’s visit report which you recommended. The following sightings and notes may help you add to your list. Thursday 11th March. The day of arrival and the first thing we saw was a Spanish Sparrow at the airport. A first for me but they did turn out to be very common and were then seen everyday. Collared Doves were present where we stayed in Costa Teguise and were later seen in many towns. Friday 12th March. Spanish Sparrows and Collared Doves again. I will not list these again. We drove North up the coast past Los Hoyas and Faro de Punta Priesta. I had two separate sightings of Hirundinidae but these were brief and from a moving car. I am familiar enough with them to know that they were not Swallows, Swifts or House Martins. I couldn’t help thinking that they may have been Crag Martins which I have seen in the winter months ( January actually) in the South of France. Do you think that is likely? Do Crag Martins get as far as the Canary Islands? Could they have been Sand Martins? Well, food for thought any way. Saturday 13th March. This was the day I discovered a gully going up from the coast at Costa Teguise and starting within a hundred yards of where we were staying. In the mornings to come it was explored for about a mile or so inland and onto one of the coastal hills. We also had a look at the stony plains and old cultivations on either side of the gully. Recent rain had left some quite deep muddy pools, one of which was frequented by a Grey Heron that was there on almost every visit. Several Trumpeter Finches, a Hoopoe, a Great Grey Shrike, Spanish Sparrows and Yellow Leg Gulls. I gave myself a hard time trying to decide if I was seeing Lesser Short Toed Larks or Berthelot’s Pipits. They were very tame and in the end I decided on the latter. By the end of the week I was happy with this decision and they were probably the commonest birds that I saw. Larks were about but I came to that conclusion from their song and flight rather that any good sightings through the glasses. Three Swifts flew around for a while but they did not look quite right for our UK Swifts. Slower wing beats perhaps, and the outline looked a bit "bulky". I cribbed from Sjaak and put them down as possible Pallid Swifts eventually. Elsewhere during the day I have a note of seeing Kestrels and Egrets but not just sure where now as we drove about. Sunday 14th March. The gully walk was almost a repeat of the day before – Heron, Trumpeter Finch, Spanish Sparrow, Hoopoe, Great Grey Shrike, Berthelot’s Pippit, and Gulls all present again. To add to them were a Kestrel and the first three Swallows I had seen. We then drove round the vineyards and Lava Beds and finished up for a much too brief visit to a viewpoint on the Northern Cliffs between the Parque Tropical and Mirador Del Rio. Good sightings of a Raven and two great sightings of a falcon. Distance, speed and my lack of knowledge means that I can not say for sure what they were but I went there hoping to see Eleonora’s Falcons which I had heard breed there. I think that is the most likely. Monday 15th March. A beautiful, and quite close sighting of a Little Egret and two Hoopoes near El Golfo. A short ( maybe 30 minutes) trip to the Salinas de Janubio yielded several Kentish Plovers and three Ringed Plovers. There were also two Swallows. Tuesday 16th March. Truly a red letter day. We had a good, long sighting of a Houbara Bustard high up in the flat land at the head of the gully I explored going inland from Costa Teguise. Several good sightings of our first House Martins as well as the now familiar inhabitants of the area. Wednesday 17th March. Another good gully morning topped off by seeing two Stone Curlews at quite close range. On this day I noticed Swallows over the resort for the first time. Thursday 18th March. Going home day. It may well be significant that on this the last morning there were large numbers of Swallows all around the resort. Sightings had slowly increased through the week but on this day they were there in force – just arrived I guess. Best regards, Dave Adamson. |
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Bird Reports By June and Barry Dee,
Chris Johnson,
Chris Stamp,
Dave Adamson and
Håkan Billing
Extracts from other letters about birdwatching in Lanzarote |
| Introductory Comments An article reproduced from the Lancelot Magazine List of Lanzarote birds Notes about Lanzarote birds |
