I went on a family holiday to Lanzarote from 25.07.19 to 07.08.18, we stayed in some self catering apartments in Puerto Del Carmen. We arrived late on Saturday evening and had a good start when a Peregrine Falcon was seen quartering the car parks at the airport.
During our stay I spent some time wildlife watching and saw a number of bird species. This included a half day trip by landrover into the El Jable/Soo desert area of Lanzarote via Eco Insider (https://www.viator.com/tours/Lanzarote/ ... 82-19371P1).
The tour guide Adolfo, was from Venezuela and had amassed a great deal of knowledge in the 5 years he had been a tour guide. He took myself and a french couple on tracks in the desert area and we had about 20 sightings of Houbara Bustard (some days he said they struggled to get a single sighting), we also saw around 10+ Southern Grey Shrike, 6 + Stone Curlew and a family group of 6 Cream Coloured Courser. Other birds seen on the day trip included several Berthelot's Pipits, a flock of around 40 Lesser Short-toed Larks, 2 of the local sub-species of Kestrel, 1 Cattle Egret, 2 Plain Swift and 1 Hoopoe.
Around our apartment complex was a flock of around 20 Spanish Sparrow, numerous Collard Doves and 7+ Rose Ringed Parakeet (apparently escapees from an hotel's avaiary and now breeding in the wild), however they seemed much smaller than the Rose Ringed Parakeets we have in the UK, so they may have been from a different sub-species or they may have reduced in size over the years. Also seen on 3 separate occasions was an Hoopoe and near dusk there were regularly flocks of Cattle Egrets seen flying just off the coast from the Fuertoventura direction heading east. I counted 3 flocks one evening of 28, 8 and 8.
Also in the gardens of the apartment complex I spotted several African Blue Butterfles, several White Butterfles, a Black and Yellow Mud Dauber (a Sphecid Wasp), an interesting looking small spider and a moth (both yet to be identified) as well as a number of large Cockroaches.
One early morning I took a walk westwards along the beach/prom to Playa Blanca, I saw a single Whimbrel feeding along the rocky shore (and catching small crabs), I found a Southern Grey Shrike between the prom and the beach in a small tree (less than 5m from the path) and saw numerous Yellow Legged Gulls on the beach.
We took a couple of trips; on one trip to the more recent volcano's (last erupted 200-300 years ago) in Timanfayi National Park I spotted several Berthelot's Pipits, a single Trumpeter Finch, 4 of the local sub-species of Raven and a flock of 10+ of the local sub-species of Linnet as well as a number of Rock Doves.
What did surprise me was the lack of reptiles seen, I saw 1 male and 1 female of the local sub-species of Canary Island Lizard and that was on a day trip to the northeast of the island to see the Cueva De Los Verdes, a cave along what was a former volcano lava tube (or rather two parallel lava tubes).
On the shore on the black coloured lava rocks were numerous small but exquisitely coloured Marbled Rock Crabs.
Total bird count was 20 species, that's 7 lifers or 10 if you include the sub-species.
Photos of the birds seen can be viewed on my Flickr website at https://www.flickr.com/photos/69575632@ ... ed-public/
- Southern Gray Shrike
- Cream Coloured Courser
- Houbara Bustard
Lanzarote - Trip Report
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- Little Egret
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Lanzarote - Trip Report
Last edited by Leonard Poxon on Sun Aug 11, 2019 12:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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- Little Egret
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Re: Lanzarote - Trip Report
More photos added:
- Bertholt's Pipit
- Hoopoe
- Stone Curlew
- Bertholt's Pipit
- Hoopoe
- Stone Curlew
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- Peregrine
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Re: Lanzarote - Trip Report
Nice images Len, looks/sounds like you had a good holiday.
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- Little Egret
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Re: Lanzarote - Trip Report
Thanks Peter and Tony, it was a good holiday.