FUERTEVENTURA - 7th December

We went back to the Barranco Rio Cabras first thing for another go at the Bittern; we initially employed the tactic of sitting at the top looking down but after a while we wandered along the top and almost straight away I saw the lovely DWARF BITTERN walking along the edge of the stream (present here since 2017) – out of view from where we were sitting, it eventually flew up onto the rocks posing brilliantly.   Other birds here included good views of several African Blue Tits, a nice flock of c20 Trumpeter Finches showing well, good views of several Buzzards, a flock of Lesser Short-toed Larks as well the same selection of water birds down in the Barranco.   

We then drove back up to the El Cotillo Plains for another look around via a big goat farm near Molinos where we had excellent views of 30+ Black-bellied Sandgrouse feeding among the goats; on the plains birds were generally similar but a bit more distant as it was the middle of the day and included 3 Houbara Bustards, more Spectacled Warblers and some bigger flocks of Lesser Short-toed Larks and Trumpeter Finches.   

A drive round the north coast and back south to Las Playitas then didn’t produce too much but we did add Turnstone and Redshank (Salinas del Carmen) to our trip list as well as lots of Yellow-legged and Lesser Black-backed Gulls moving along the coast, Sandwich Terns, Grey Plovers and a flock of 10 Spoonbills on the rocks at Caleta de Fuste.

Dwarf Bittern

Trumpeter Finch

Buzzard

Black-bellied Sandgrouse

Spectacled Warbler

Yellow-legged Gulls

Atlantic Wall Lizard (or something like that)

Nearly a Sally Lightfoot Crab