5-8 Feb 2019: Fuerteventura & Gran Canaria

Fuerteventura is a semi-desert island with no tall trees outside of human habitation.I stayed in Puerto Rossario where I ticked the Spanish Sparrow, an impressive sparrow with a heavily streaked chest. The next morning I found the Fuertenventura Stone Chat on some fallow lands as well as the Common (Northern) Raven, subspecies Canariensis, which is distinctly smaller than its European counterpart. Late that afternoon I encountered a Ruddy Shelduck and a Spectacled Warbler at the only open water encountered during the day. The next day delivered a Lesser Short-toed Lark and an Iberian Grey Shrike. The ferry trip to Gran Canaria comprised of two and a half hours of scanning the empty sea, although I did see the plume of a whale in the distance. I flew from Las Palmas to Agadir in Morocco the next day.

Spectacled Warbler, Los Molinos, Fuerteventura, Canaries.

Ruddy Shelduck, Los Molinos, Fuerteventura, Canaries

Birds in the Canaries are few and far between; it is certainly not a bird-rich environment! Yellow-legged Gulls and some Ruddy Turnstones were the only coastal birds I were able to tick although spending plenty of time near the sea, in ports and in coastal parks. The ferry trips between the islands rendered not a single pelagic bird.