Fuerteventura October 2017

Fuerteventura Trip Report - October 10th - 17th 2017

Introduction -

A weeks family holiday combining some birding where possible. 1 day was spent out with Derek Bradbury of Fuerteventura Birdwatch tours http://www.fuerteventurabirdwatch.co.uk/ and an excursion to Oasis Park were very productive. Our accommodation was in Caleta de Fuste which is approx 10 minutes drive from the airport. Ideally located for most sites needed to visit, especially for the islands specialities. Caleta itself has many hotels and appartments leading down to the beach with some lush gardens and migrant traps for birds whilst the man made beach in the harbour is ideal for roosting gulls/terns and waders. There is also a golf course nearby which also looks worthwhile exploring but unfortunatley I did not get time to do this.

Day out with Derek Bradbury of Fuerteventura Birdwatch - 12th October 2017

I had booked the services of Derek Bradbury to take me out for the day with many of the islands speciality species our target birds. I had seen the Houbara Bustards in Lanzarote on a recent holiday along with Barbary Falcon, Partridge and Trumpeter Finch. My primary targets today were to see the Fuerteventura Stonechat, Cream-coloured Courser and Black-bellied Sandgrouse.

Derek met me at my appartment as agreed at 8am and we headed for the Tindaya plains, Derek was very easy to get on with and had taken on board the target species for the day and planned as such to visit suitable sites. Derek was honest and mentioned that the chances of Cream-coloured Courser was slim as he had heard of only 1 reported sighting recently...but did say they should start returning to the plains soon...fingers crossed!

Reaching the plains, the conditions were not ideal as the wind had really picked up here and searching for any Sandgrouse, Stone Curlew's and any passerines proved difficult, we searched various sites with little reward, there was some hunting witnessed throughout the day as locals headed out on their bank holiday, mainly hunting rabbit. We did find some sandgrouse footprints and a Houbaras dropping so the birds are around!

Things picked up when I spotted some Barbary Partridge running across a nearby track, heading away from us the whole time but good views were gained from the car. At least 10 birds present but difficult to determine exact number as they scrambled across the rocky terrain before disappearing over a small stone wall. Then as we approached a crossroad a sandy bird ran across the road and Derek announced 'Courser' and was soon clapping my eyes on my first sighting of Cream-coloured Courser, a bird I had always wanted to see and was great to see one in it's natural environment, I watched the bird almost road-running, occassionally standing still before moving further away from us. Derek tried to position the car in the hope I could grab some photos but I was quite happy watching the bird, before another flashed past and I proclaimed there was 2 birds! The camera then came out and some record shots were made, attentions then turned to a flock of small flock of birds mobile in the scrub and land behind and Lesser Short-toed Lark was added to the day list. I had previously seen this species in Donana in Spain but many years ago so was good to see again. The 2 Coursers gradually moved away from us and we drove on to a nearby barranco where we stopped for lunch.

Cream-coloured Courser - 1 of the 2 birds we first dicovered on the Tindaya plains

The barranco we stopped at for lunch contained 2 small pools which seemed popular with dragonflies which seemed very active in the sheltered spots but the persistent wind made searching for passerines difficult. Birds were around though and 2 Ruddy Shelducks flew up and away from the first pool and then we got brief views of a Barbary Falcon as it shot overhead. Berthelot's Pipits liked it here and offered close views and Linnets were added to the day list. A couple of hunters arrived in the are and a few shots were heard. A couple of Ravens flew over and a Spectacled Warbler sent out its call from nearby scrub giving brief views and remained elusive. Up on the rock face I noticed a small bird flycatching and soon realised I was watching my first ever Fuerteventura Stonechat and got Derek onto the bird which performed well allowing a few record shots. We moved onto another barranco which had some surface water creating some shallow pools. This area was hugely productive with extensive scrub and greenery nearby and the wind now dropping produced sightings firstly of a male Spectacled Warbler. Here also held a small family of Fuerteventura Stonechats which were conveniently perched up for long periods at least 4 birds in the area including a smart male bird. At least 2 Ringed Plovers were feeding on the waters edge and 3 Trumpeter Finch were buzzing around although a bit too distant for any pics as they came down to drink.

My first ever Fuerteventura Stonechat - seen flycatching on rock face

Family of the endemic Fuerteventura Stonechat's - they pose and show nicely with patience

We then moved onto a feeding station for Egyptian Vultures. This was basically a fenced off area with goat carcasses and pigs heads scattered on the ground so all looked pretty grim but my did it attract the birds...well everything except Egyptian Vultures it seems. Ravens were around in good number and Hoopoes were everywhere we looked. I have never seen such numbers in one place! I then spotted a couple of distant pale bird scampering across the ground...surely they cannot be coursers? Fortunatley Derek had a scope and my initial hunch was right as 5 Cream-coloured Coursers brought the days total to 7 birds....not bad considering there was only 1 confirmed sighting recently! Good scope views were had as we watched them in the haze. 2 Northern Wheatear were also here adding to the daylist. No sign of any vultures unfortunatley so we departed through La Olivia and onto Los Molinos reservoir

As we entered the track which leads upto Los Molinos there was a goat farm which held several Berthelots Pipits and White Wagtails. Onto the reservoir itself, the echoing calls of the many Ruddy Shelduck bounce around the surrounding rock faces. There was probably a good 200 Ruddy Duck here, difficult to get a accurate account as they were constantly moving around as were the Coot and Yellow-legged Gulls on the water. Around the edges, waders were present with 2 Black-winged Stilts and 2 Greenshank were present and there was good number of Grey Heron and Little Egret. 5 Black-bellied Sandgrouse flew over and kept going and unfortunatley did not land

A Cornish 'pirate' visits Goring

Greater-black-backed Gull - L:CT2 - Goring-on-sea - West Sussex - 25th February 2017

Checking through the gull roosts at Goring always throws something interesting up from time-to-time. Checking the gulls today, I noticed 2 of the young Greater-black-backed Gulls were colour ringed. For a change, they were close to the car, 1 had a black ring with white numbering on its right leg but unfortunatley I was unable to get the details before it departed, but did manage to get details of this individual and checking the Euring website was fortunate enough to receive the following details from Bruce Taggart from the Looe Gull Study group......

"Hi Nick

Thanks for this sighting. Not a great life history I'm afraid - yours is the first sighting of this bird. However it is a good record as not many of our birds head NE, most have a southerly bearing. Interestingly we've never had any records from the English east coast.

The project on Looe Island has colour ringed over 500 GBB Gull chicks since 2010. Last year for the first time we had ringed birds returning to the island to breed.

The project has shown that there is frequent cross Channel movements with numerous sightings in France and the Channel Islands, and birds returning to the south west. I suspect they find a working trawler and follow it back to port. The furthest movement has been a bird that flew twice to NW Spain, returning to Looe in the interim.

Any more sightings of this or any other Looe birds will be valuable.

Many thanks

Bruce"

Bruce Taggart

Co-ordinator, Looe Gull Study Group

Great Black-backed Gull Recapture History

Codes: Pull = Pullus/Nestling; 3J= hatched during calendar year in juvenile body plumage; 3= hatched during calendar year; 5= definitely hatched last year; 7= definitely hatched 2 years ago; 9= definitely hatched 3 years ago; 11= definitely hatched 4 years ago; VV=alive and probably healthy, ring or colour marks read in the field.

Metal Ring Number	MA34386	Colour Code	L:CT2	Ringing date/ Ringer	20/06/2016 Mark Grantham	Age	Pull
Place of Ringing	St George’s (Looe) Island, Looe, Cornwall. England				Co-ordinates	50º20’N, 04º 26’W

                    

Type/ Age	Capture Details	Date	Location	Co-ordinates	Distance/ Bearing	Duration
5	vv sighted Nick Bond	25/02/2017	Goring-on-Sea, nr Worthing , East Sussex	50o48’N 00o24’W	290 km 78º ENE	250 days

Winter 2016 - Goring

As followers of this blog may know, one of the area's I try and keep an eye on in winter months is at Goring, especially the roosts that accumulate here on the surrounding fields. This has proved fairly fruitful, with Iceland and Glaucous Gull's being found here in previous winters. Some crisp winter morning's allowed for some of Goring's resident birds to be photographed

Black-headed Gull - this individual had started to moult into it's breeding plumage very early!

Common Gull - hoping a Ring-billed Gull will drop in with these guys one day!

Kestrel - has been favouring the east side of the gap and can sometimes be seen hunting the back fields

Magpie - always look daper this time of year, a bird full of character

Sanderling - this individual on the beach with colour rings, unfortunatley unabe to retrieve any information on this individual as some rings are missing from it's left leg as is the bird's foot. Dave Potter also photographed this individual last winter at Goring. 

December 2016 - Rose-coloured Starling - Crawley

This young Rose-coloured Starling has been residing in gardens in Beachy Road in Broadfield, Crawley and paid this bird a visit in early December. Juvenille's are usually a drab affair, but this bird was already moulting and if it hangs around, who knows, we may well see it as a full adult and a completly different looking bird. The locals are feeding the bird well and were very friendly and inquisitive about the birds presence, hopefully it will hang around....

This photo featured in February's 2017 Birdwatching magazine

December 2016 - Local Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting are pretty regular along our local stretch of beach here in Worthing, I never tire of seeing them and they are generally confiding although this individual was pretty flighty and took some tracking down, not really a surprise considering how busy the area gets with dog walkers/joggers etc, The bird only remained in the area for around 4 days, but proved rather popular with local birders and photographers when it did show. It mainly fed along the coastal path, but I also observed this individual feeding in the ploughed field opposite the beach with Skylarks, flying back to the coastal path calling as it flew

Short video of the bird here on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RAzpGaVEvA

September 2016 - Sussex Birds

September on the Sussex coast enabled me to catch-up with a couple of scarcities. The Red-backed Shrike at Newhaven Tidemills showed brilliantly during it's stay. I went on a Saturday and the light faded as I was there but was great watching the bird hunt insects and also singing. I also have video footage whilst Yellow Wagtails were calling as they migrated overhead.

The Wryneck at Climping was not so easy and was typically elusive, I managed a quick record shot as it flew up from the beach into nearby cover and only gave very brief flight views before finally coming back to the beach again a couple of hours later, 

Red-backed Shrike - Newhaven Tidemills - September 2016

Wryneck - Climping - September 2016

Portland April 2016

23rd - 24th April 2016 - Portland weekend

Another weekend visit to Portland, staying for the night a Portland Bird Observatory and catching up with Gary and Glen and all the Portland regulars. Leaving early, I stopped off at Acres Down in the New Forest for a stroll. As soon as I parked up and opened the car door, the distant sound of a calling Cuckoo was a first for the year for me. Pretty surreal as temperatures were barely touching 4 degrees! Plenty of birdsong and at times difficult to pick out the different species as each tried to over-power the other in the continuous dawn chorus. Blackcap, Willow Warbler and Chiff chaff were abundant, but the highlight for me was a singing male Common Redstart, on territory, there song is one of my favourite and very distinctive. A couple of Crossbills flew over as did some very vocal Siskins. No sight or sound of any Wood Warbler so was time to head to the car to continue my journey to Potland and warm up.

Dolphins - distantly off Cheyne Weare - Portland

 



 Reed Warbler - Culverwell - found this bird apparantley a first for the year at the 'bill'

 

Wheatear - always a delight and in good numbers too

Arriving in Weymouth and conditions good, I checked out Lodmoor, parking at the north end and did the circuit dodging dog walkers, cyclists and joggers. There was lots of hirundines hawking the reserve, mainly Sand Martin's but Swallow, House Martin and my first 6 Swifts of the year were seen higher up. Cetti's Warblers were everywhere and another yeartick in the form of a Lesser Whitethroat was rattling away and seen briefly. Was surprised to find no waders on the reserve and little else of note was seen but heard the 'pinging' of Bearded Tits as I walked through the reedbed along with many Reed Warblers. Only 2 Sedge Warbler were seen and heard 

As I drove towards Portland, Martin Cade had tweeted that a pod of bottle-nosed dolphins were heading along the east cliffs off the bill. I decided to check off the car-park off Cheyne and within minutes I was watching the dolphins as the headed north, counting at least 8 and they were constantly being mobbed by gulls. I headed round to the prison as would gain closer views, but despite waiting here, they failed to arrive. Whilst here, the local gull and crow population were going mental, a Common Buzzard floated over-head and not the hoped for Osprey.
Glen had messaged to say they were watching a Ring Ouzel in the crown estate field, so headed down to the obs and struggled to park for a while as car park full as where the road-side verges. There was an army of birders lined up in the top fields and the thoughts of a rarity that had just been found flashed through my mind, but was a false alarm as everyone was watching a Redstart! A quick trudge around the top fields produced some good birds, Redstart, Short-eared Owl, Whitethroat, Wheatears dotted around. The Short-eared Owl was just viewable sat tight in a tree near the barns. There has also been new stables constructed up here now and appears to be some work/developing going on in the barn area, hopefully not too much! In Culverwell, I managed to pick out a Reed Warbler that showed well, returning to the obs, Pete proclaimed it was a first for the year for them so was pleased with that!
By now Gary had arrived and after a quick catch up and seeing a male Redstart in the hand, we headed to Cheyne to look for Wall Lizards, but no luck here today. A Wheatear, Blackcap and Peregrine made the stop worthwhile though. Onto Ferrybridge to see what was on offer there. Little Terns showed well with at least 4 birds present, at times fishing quite close, but the light was all wrong for any decent pics. Plenty of Sandwich Terns also fishing on the Fleet. Back at the obs, the Dolphins were putting on another show, viewed from the garden. We decided to head out for the evening early to catch the FA cup semi-final between Man Utd and Everton also meeting up with Joe Stockwell, followed by a Chinese takeaway and more beers back at the obs to conclude the day!

Peregrine Falcon at Cheyne

 



Little Terns at Ferrybridge - light all wrong for decent pics but glad to get some record shots 

  

After a great nights sleep in the cottage at the obs, it was time to go again and hopefully find and see some decent spring migrants. The wind was all wrong for a sea-watch, but a single Bonxie and Arctic Skua were a nice bonus. A Firecrest showed briefly in the front garden along with a single Goldcrest. The wind was stronger than yesterday and was pretty damn cold making searching for any grounded migrants difficult. We checked out the top fields again, there was an obvious fall of Wheatears and was nice to find a male Yellow Wagtail that showed nicely before moving off north, another bird was also seen but again, did not hang around. The Short-eared Owl was sitting out in the open giving stunning, but a little distant views near the barns. A female Redstart was also a nice find as was a female Pied Flycatcher in Culverwell which Gary did well to pick out. Chilling at the obs, I caught a couple of snippets of a reeling Grasshopper Warbler in scrub next to the obs. It literally reeled for no more than 5 seconds at a time and I failed to get anyone else onto it. I thought I was going mad and starting to doubt myself, but Pete confirmed there was one reeling at the bottom of the garden and Julian had heard one earlier too. Later on, I heard it reeling again this time more distantly but enough to clinch it....no need to get the ears checked just yet :-). Time to head home, but got distracted by some good birding at Reap Lane and Barleycrates where giving the barns a good grilling, we found a couple of smart Whinchat, along with 2 Common Redstart. Blackcap and Wheatear were present in good numbers and a couple of Whitethroat passed through. A smart male Sparrowhawk was perched up and seeing what tired migrants he could pick up for tea!

A great weekend and good company, many firsts for the year happily ticked off, just love birding on Portland this time of year, just never know what you may see , on land and sea.

Thanks to Martin, Pete and all at the Obs for another great stay!

 

 Holly Blue - again ' another first for the year for me'