Canary Islands - Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura - 21st to 28th July

Background
This was a long planned family holiday to celebrate my brother in-laws 40th birthday. We let him decide on location and he fancied Lanzarote, the eastern most of the Canary Islands. This was mainly a relaxation holiday and, having been to the Canary Islands in December 2008 there was only one tick, Gran Canarian Blue Chaffinch, and I didn't plan to do much birding. That said, there are some great birds on the Canary Islands, including on Lanzarote and I pre-planned three part days birding using local guides. It is very easy to bird the islands without a guide but allocating myself with limited birding time I wanted to maximise my success rate by using local knowledge.

We stayed in an all inclusive hotel at the H10 Rubicon Palace at Playa Blanca, it was a decent enough hotel if you like resorts and it worked well for a family holiday. Sarah and I hired a car from Avis to give us some freedom to explore other parts of the island. These were my birding trips:

Lanzarote
On 23rd July Sarah and I were collected by Adolfo of Eco-Insider. The company was recommended to me by our guide on Fuerteventura, Derek Bradbury, and so I contacted Carmen Portella Ernest (info@eco-insider.com) and she arranged the tour for us. We paid 180 Euros for the guide, vehicle and a light lunch. Adolfo was an excellent guide with fantastic knowledge of birds and natural history of the island and perhaps the stand out of the day was his knowledge of the amazing volcanic history and geology of the island. As we travelled he explained the history of each volcano and each volcanic eruption that the island had experienced and explained why the central area of the island was dominated by sand, it was fascinating stuff and gave a real appreciation of the stark beauty of the island.

My main bird targets on the island were all to be found in the desert between Tinajo and Soo and so we spent much of the morning driving the deserts here. As we entered the desert we soon found a mixed flock of Lesser Short-toed Lark (c.30), Linnet (c.15) and Berthelot's Pipit (2) feeding on seeds along the side of the track. Also here was a large flock of Yellow-legged Gull of the subspecies atlantis. We then encountered Great Grey Shrike of the subspecies koenigi which is endemic to the Canary Islands and a very confiding Stone Curlew of the subspecies insularum which is endemic to the eastern Canary Islands. Next our two main targets were quickly seen with two Hourbara Bustard, here of the endemic subspecies fuertaventurae and five Cream-coloured Courser. We drove back to the hotel at 13:00 through the amazing Los Volcanes Natural Park.

Houbara Bustard - Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Houbara Bustard - Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Great Grey Shrike - Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Great Grey Shrike - Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Stone Curlew - Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Stone Curlew - Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Cream-coloured Courser - Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Cream-coloured Courser - Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Yellow-legged Gull - Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Yellow-legged Gull - Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Yellow-legged Gull - Lanzarote, Canary Islands

The remarkable succulent plant Mesembryanthemum crystallinum - Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Los Volcanes Natural Park - Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Probably the commonest bird on the island, Spanish Sparrow- Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Gran Canaria

On 24th July I took a 07:00 flight to Gran Canaria landing at 07:45. I met my guide, Daniel Gonzalez Rodriguez (kore_art@hotmail.com), and his interpreter, Oscar Moncur (oscar_moncur@hotmail.com), from the flight and they took me to the site for Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch. Daniel is an excellent naturalist but his English is a little limited, but actually still pretty good. I used Tours by Locals to book my original guide Guillermo B. but unfortunately he was not able to guide because of some family issues. Guillermo then recommended Daniel a very knowledgeable guide. I paid 300 Euros for the tour which in hindsight was fairly expensive but I wanted to make sure that I saw my only tick in quick time, I had read of others spending much time to see the bird or missing it entirely. Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch is one of the rarest breeding birds in Europe numbering around 120-132 pairs.

On meeting Daniel and Oscar we jumped into their 4x4 and were soon winding up the hills towards our target bird high in the pine forests near to La Culata.  Much of the pine forests have been replanted after deforestation but it is notable to the eye that some of this is too dense and the pines long and spindly, prone to fire, and lacking the underscrub required by the Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch. We stopped low down at a Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch territory with no luck but did see Canary Island Chiffchaff and Great Spotted Woodpecker of the endemic subspecies thanneri. After spending some time at a view point, Mirador del Pico de los Pozos de la Nieve, where Island Canary was common we headed slightly downslope near to the campsite at Llanos de la Pez to try for the Blue Chaffinch. After a short while a  Blue Chaffinch called and there above us was a male Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch, we watched the bird for some time and eventually the bird came to the ground to feed on the seeds of Canary Island Pine Pinus canariensis where it showed incredibly well and was joined by the distinctive canariensis subspecies of Common Chaffinch and eventually by a second Blue Chaffinch. Here we also saw Canary Island Chiffchaff, Great Spotted Woodpecker and the endemic subspecies hedwigii of African Blue Tit. We wandered back to the car picking up a further two male Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch. 

Birding a little further down the road we encountered more Canary Island Chaffinch and African Blue Tit plus a couple Common Raven of the subspecies canariensis. After a splendid lunch of cheese, avocado, tomato, bread and a glass of the local white wine we headed back to the airport and I caught a 14:30 back to Lanzarote after a very successful morning.

View from Mirador del Pico de los Pozos de la Nieve - Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

Blue Chaffinch habitat at Llanos de la Pez - Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch - Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch - Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch - Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

Location of Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch - Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

Common Chaffinch - Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

Great Spotted Woodpecker - Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

Gran Canaria Grayling - Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

African Blue Tit - Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

Canary Island Chiffchaff - Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

The bee-fly Villa nigrifrons - Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

Fuerteventura

Sarah and I were up early on the 26th July and caught the 07:00 Almas ferry from Playa Blanca to Fuerteventura. Here we were met at Corralejo by Derek Bradbury of Fuerteventura Birdwatch. I had contacted Derek before the trip as I wanted to visit the island to see Houbara Bustard and Cream-coloured Courser but Derek had advised that due to the drought conditions presently being experienced on the island these two species were very difficult to find as they move to the highlands in such conditions. He advised that these species are easier to see on Lanzarote at present and recommended the services of Eco-Insider. After some discussion with him I still decided that we would still spend the morning birding on the island for a few targets such as Fuerteventura Stonechat and Black-bellied Sandgrouse.

The ferry from Lanzarote took just over 30 minutes and we saw around 50 Cory's Shearwater, a few Yellow-legged Gull and good numbers of Tropical Two-wing Flyingfish Exocoetus volitans. We birded the desert area to the north-east of La Oliva where the highlights were fly-over Black-bellied Sandgrouse (7), a single sub-adult Egyptian Vulture at a feeding station here, Spectacled Warbler (3), Trumpeter Finch (2), Hoopoe (many), Berthelot's Pipit (many), Eurasian Buzzard (10) of the endemic sub-species insularum and Lesser Short-toed Lark (c.20). 

We then headed to an area of desert to the north of Tindaya where we hoped to get views of Black-bellied Sandgrouse on the ground but despite a couple of birds in flight we had no luck. Here we only saw Spectacled Warbler, a few Raven and more Common Buzzard. The introduced Barbary Ground-squirrel were numerous.

We then headed to a small barranco on the north slope of Montana de Tindaya where a pair of Fuerteventura Stonechat showed well as did a Little Ringed Plover. We headed for the 14:00 ferry and were back to the hotel for a late lunch at 14:45.

The barren landscape of Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Berthelot's Pipit - Fuerteventura, Canary Islands

Spectacled Warbler - Fuerteventura, Canary Islands

Spectacled Warbler - Fuerteventura, Canary Islands

Barbary Ground-squirrel - Fuerteventura, Canary Islands

Fuerteventura Stonechat (female) - Fuerteventura, Canary Islands

Fuerteventura Stonechat (male) - Fuerteventura, Canary Islands

Fuerteventura Stonechat (male) - Fuerteventura, Canary Islands

Barranco on north slope of Montana de Tindaya, Fuerteventura which supported a pair of Fuerteventura Stonechat

Cory's Shearwater - Between Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Cory's Shearwater - Between Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Cory's Shearwater - Between Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Cory's Shearwater - Between Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, Canary Islands

List of Birds Recorded

We recorded 38 species one of which was a tick for me (shown in bold). 

Lanzarote

Rock Dove

Eurasian Collared-dove

Laughing Dove

Plain Swift

African Houbara

Cory's Shearwater

Cattle Egret

Eurasian Thick-knee

Cream-coloured Courser

Yellow-legged Gull

Common Kestrel

Eleonora's Falcon

Peregrine Falcon

Great Grey Shrike

Lesser Short-toed Lark

Northern House Martin

Barn Swallow

Spanish Sparrow

Berthelot's Pipit

Common Linnet

Gran Canaria

Red-legged Partridge

Rock Dove

European Turtle-dove

Eurasian Collared-dove

Plain Swift

Yellow-legged Gull

Eurasian Buzzard

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Common Kestrel

Common Raven

African Blue Tit

Canary Islands Chiffchaff

Common Chaffinch

Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch

European Goldfinch

Island Canary

Fuerteventura

Rock Dove

Eurasian Collared-dove

Black-bellied Sandgrouse

Plain Swift

Cory's Shearwater

Little Ringed Plover

Yellow-legged Gull

Egyptian Vulture

Eurasian Buzzard

Common Hoopoe

Common Kestrel

Great Grey Shrike

Common Raven

Lesser Short-toed Lark

Spectacled Warbler

Fuerteventura Stonechat

Spanish Sparrow

Berthelot's Pipit

Trumpeter Finch

Common Linnet

Madeira Seabirds - May 2011

Having a collection of around 30,000 photographs I find myself spending my occasional spare moment editing, sorting and cataloging my ever expanding library. This is not simply an arduous task it brings back happy memories of trips and great birds. Every so often, when the mood takes me/time allows I am going to post photographs that are either of a great bird or are of those that bring back happy memories. 

I am a massive seabird fan but definitely prefer sitting on a headland to sitting on the deck of a boat. However, from 6th to 10th May 2011 I visited Madeira with Mike Edgecombe, John Gregory and Pete Antrobus, I couldn't resist the chance of three days sea birding plus the island endemics. We booked the trip with Madeira Wind Birds who were very well organised and I would thoroughly recommend using them. We spent the first two days drifting off the north-east coast of Madeira and one day off Deserta Grande, a map of the islands can be viewed here. Here are a few pictures from the trip: 

Fea's Petrel

Zino's Petrel

Cory's Shearwater

Madeiran Storm Petrel

White-faced Storm Petrel

Bulwer's Petrel

Sabine's Gull - Adult summer and adult winter

Others in this photo archive 'series':

• Cream-coloured Courser here

August 2014 Rarities

Introduction
This is my summary of what I consider to be the most exciting records from the UK in August 2014, this is not aimed at being a comprehensive account of all the rare's in the UK in this month, for such accounts see the Birdguides review of the week or the Rare Bird Alert weekly round-up. I am largely writing this as a personal record of UK records and sightings to aid my knowledge and feed my interest in UK bird records. I aim to publish the previous months records in the first week or so of the following month. The photographs that I used have been gleaned from the internet, I aim to provide the photographer with full credit and a link to their website or blog, if you see that one of yours has been used and you object to this then please email me and I will remove it immediately, alternatively if you would like to supply a better image or additional information or links then I will add. Contact me at simon@ecosa.co.uk

Weather
A summary of the weather for August 2014 can be found here.

August 2014
August was a fairly slow month with few major rarities but there were good numbers of seabirds to be seen for those based in the west with, for example, Cory Shearwater numbers including 200 from the Scilly Pelagic on 8th, 51  past Porthgwarra on 11th and 488 past Galley Head, Cork on 28th and with Great Shearwaters including 40 from a pelagic of Galley Head, Cork on 4th, 30 past Pendeen, Cornwall on 10th, 12 from a Scilly Pelagic on 24th, 27 past Galley head, Cork on 28th and 14 past Pendeen, Cornwall on 29th. A Fea's Petrel was seen from a Scilly Pelagic on 18th with some fantastic photos being obtained by Joe Pender, an account of this record can be read here along with a selection of Joe's fantastic images.

Fea's Petrel by Joe Pender from the Sapphire Pelagics. Joe's pelagic trips onboard the Sapphire are an excellent way of getting to grips with some great seabirds and Blue Shark

The megas of the month started with the Swinhoe's Storm-petrel being trapped on the night of 1st August on Fair Isle for one last time. There were also reports of the species at Bridges of Ross, County Clare on 25th August and at Kerry Head, County Kerry on 28th August. Could these records all relate to the same individual?

The Black-winged Pratincole seen on the Ouse Washes from 19th-27th July was relocated on 2nd August and had clearly been present throughout. It was last seen here on 9th August.

Thereafter, the month was filled with possibles and probables with possible Short-toed Eagle report in East Sussex and Lincolnshire on 9th and 22nd respectively, a possible Scopoli's Shearwater photographed off the Isles of Scilly on 8th, a possible Greater Sand Plover at Meath on 13th, a possible North Atlantic Little Shearwater at Flamborough on 23rd, a possible Bulwer's Petrel at Old Head of Kinsale on 25th, a possible Eleonora's Falcon at Thetford on 27th and a possible Isabelline Wheatear on the Outer Hebrides on 29th but none of these materialised into a good solid record.

A popular Eastern Subalpine Warbler was at Landguard Nature Reserve on 30th and 31st an interesting write-up can be viewed here on the Felixstowe Birding website under the account for these two days. While on 2nd September this interesting report of DNA studies of two Subalpine Warblers on Fair Isle in Spring 2014 showed that a bird identified as an Eastern Subalpine Warbler was of the race cantillans, the first of this race from southern Italy to be confirmed in the UK. While another bird tentatively identified as a Western Subalpine Warbler was identified as Britain's second Moltoni's Warbler, the only other accepted record being a bird from St. Kilda and subsequently identified from DNA from 1894. Moltoni's Warbler breeds on Corsica, Sardinia and northern Italy. The results of the Fair Isle DNA analysis surely begs the question of how certain can we be of some of these less clear cut Subalpine's appearing in the UK, surely a cautious approach and preferably DNA sampling is required?

Eastern Subalpine Warbler by Trevor Charlton from the excellent Felixstowe Birding Website which features a well maintained account of bird records and a great deal of excellent information on the site

Previous Monthly Accounts Can be viewed here:

• July 2014
• June 2014

BOU Taxonomic Update to the British List - October 2012

The latest issue of Ibis published by the British Ornithologists Union (BOU) (http://www.bou.org.uk) in October 2012 contains a number of taxonomic updates to birds on the British list. These include a number of family reshuffles but of most interest are the following (some long-anticipated) species splits:

Cory's Shearwater Calonectris diomedea to be treated as three species:

• Cory's shearwater C. borealis
• Scopoli's shearwater C.diomeadea
• Cape Verde shearwater C.edwardsii

Of these both Cory's and Scopoli's shearwater are on the British list, the latter on the basis of a single bird seen from a pelagic off the Isles of Scilly on 2nd August 2004, read an account of the find here: (http://www.scillypelagics.com/scopolis.html).


Madeiran Storm-petrel Oceanodroma castro is to be treated as three species in the Western Palearctic:

• Cape Verde storm-petrel O.jabejabe
• Madeiran storm-petrel C.castro
• Monteiro's storm-petrel O.monteiroi

The status of these species in the UK is to be assessed but based on the current knowledge of the distinguishing features of these species it would appear unlikely that definite confirmation of identification of any of the records will be confirmed. There is one record of Madeiran storm-petrel senso lato in the UK since 1950:

• Isles of Scilly on 8th July 2004. Read an article here: http://www.scillypelagics.com/BBstormpetrels.pdf

With a second record from County Mayo of a bird found dead on 18th October 1931 and now in the collection of the National Museum, Dublin.

Madeiran Storm-petrel - Off Madeira, May 2011 (S.Colenutt)

Cream-coloured Courser Cursorius courser is to be split into two species:

• Cream-coloured courser C.courser
• Somali courser C.somalensis

Since 1950 there have been seven accepted records of cream-coloured courser senso lato the UK by the end of 2010.

                                 Cream-coloured Courser - Socotra, January 2007 (S.Colenutt)

Arctic Warbler Phylloscopus borealis is to be split into three species:

• Arctic warbler P.borealis
• Kamchatka leaf warbler P.examinandus
• Japanese leaf warbler P.xanthodryas

Since 1950 there have been 300 accepted records of Arctic warbler senso lato in the UK by the end of 2010.

Marmora's Warbler Sylvia sarda is to be split into two species:

• Balearic warbler S.balearica
• Marmora's warbler S.sarda

There are six records of Marmora's warbler senso lato in the UK from 1950 until the end of 2010.

Eurasian Nuthatch Sitta arctica is to be split into two species:

• Siberian nuthatch S.arctica
• Eurasian nuthatch S.europea

Eurasian nuthatch is, of course, a common breeder throughout mush of the UK but is absent from Ireland.

Siberian Nuthatch - Inner Mongolia, Wuerqihan Forest 

(Max Berlijn) 

The full BOU article detailing these taxonomic changes can be viewed here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2012.01273.x/full