I always expect that I'll see a new bird when I go travelling, even if it's a new type of crow or something that doesn't seem so exotic, but on this trip, I was starting to get the feeling I might not see anything new because there seemed to be a lack of birds around the hotel where we were staying. Granted, it didn't help that I had a cold the first couple of days, so I wasn't getting out much just lying around and resting most of the time, but in Gran Canaria last year, there were those parakeets hanging out in a tree right by our room, so I just figured something nice would nest at or near the hotel that I'd be able to spot without having to get too far. Evidently--by the fact that I'm able to make a post here about it--I did eventually see some new birds and an old favourite (the parakeets). I was pretty excited about it.
I shared a bit in my travel blog about what I saw and how I came across the birds, but I wanted to be able to post more photos here. The lifers that I saw on this trip were: hadada ibises, cattle egret, Fuerteventura stonechat, and Berthelot's pipit. Ones I've seen before (though it might be the first photo I have of them in one case) were: sandwich tern, lesser black-backed gull, Eurasian collared dove, rock dove, and monk parakeet. I'll add my raven photo as well, but I'm actually not sure if it's a crow or raven. I also heard and saw the African blue tit and the Spanish sparrow that I saw for the first time in Gran Canaria last year, but I was unable to get photos of them.
Hadada ibises (Bostrychia hagedash)
As we were driving back into town after a day of driving around the island, I spotted something I thought was an egret flying into some trees and was trying to spot where it landed to confirm the ID, and although I couldn't find it, by looking around, I ended up spotting some other interesting birds I hadn't seen before. They looked like ibises, but I've not seen the native ibises we have back home in person, so I couldn't be sure if that's what these were, but as soon as we parked, I was determined to find out. The walk back to their place was about 20 minutes, but I was glad to see there were four birds and that they were still there and quite unbothered by what was going on around them. I took a photo with my phone to pop into the Merlin app and discovered that they were hadada ibises, native to West Africa. It wasn't clear to me if they should be on the island, but further research seemed to suggest that they, along with the cattle egrets, were brought over by a hotel owner that used to have a hotel on the island that had a fairly sizeable botanical garden. The hotel existed for something like 20 year or so, and when it closed down, the birds were just left on their own. Since the climate and terrain allow them to survive rather well, it seems they have adjusted to living on their own, but they tend to remain in the area. I think it's also because it's one of the only areas on the island that has green space, and the ibises in particular apparently don't like to travel around too much. Anyway, when I saw them, they were eating. Like most shorebirds, they tend to have longer, curved beaks that are ideal for spearing into the sand or other soft terrain and pulling up seafood and other insects that move around beneath the surface. I guess that's why they hadn't moved much because I came across them during their feeding time.
Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis)
This was my "gateway" bird haha! It's the one I saw that led me to find the ibises, and I discovered that there were a few of them up in the trees, so I was able to get some decent photos of them as well. I may have seen these before, but when they're in non-breeding plumage, they're all white, so I might have mistaken them for Little Egrets in the past. During breeding season, they have kind of a rusty pinkish colouring to their crown and a bit down their neck as well as on their breast. Although egrets are generally considered to be waterfowl, cattle egret are a little different and prefer to spend time inland, especially in farmers fields where the movement of cattle unearth invertebrates with their hooves, so egrets use this to their advantage. I saw them up in palm trees, but as waterfowl, they were near the ocean, so perhaps this was normal. It was a little sad one morning when we went to return our rental car to see one in the middle of the street checking out food scraps that some guys at a restaurant/bar were throwing to it. It wasn't eating most of it, so at least it knows what it should be eating.
Fuerteventura Stonechat (Saxicola dacotiae)
We had been coming down from a short climb at a lookout point on one of the highways, and as we were grabbing a sip of water and just getting our bearings to get to our next stop, I thought to turn around and look across the road. I noticed that a little creature was watching all the people who had stopped there for the lookout. I was able to snap a couple of photos and was just about to start stepping forward to see if I could get just a little bit closer when the little bird flew off. I was so thankful that the two photos I took turned out because I discovered that this bird was the Fuerteventura stonechat. Originally called the Canary Islands Stonechat because it was found all over the islands, the population of this bird has been declining, and it is not only found on Fuerteventura and is considered an endangered species. It really made my experience with this bird more special than it already is when I see a bird that's new to me. It means that I had the chance to see a bird that might not be around in the future, and I felt so privileged to have seen it.
Berthelot's Pipit (Anthus berthelotii)
On the morning we were leaving, I didn't expect to see another lifer. We hadn't had the chance yet to check out this lighthouse that was walking distance from our hotel, and as our flight wasn't leaving until the evening, we want to enjoy our morning at a leisurely pace. As we were walking, I spotted a little brown bird--and if you've been following my bird blog at all, I'm sure I've mentioned somewhere that you should never dismiss little brown birds as just sparrows, one because there are dozens of sparrow species, and two, because it might not be a sparrow! This was definitely the case here. When I saw its movements, hopping around and sprightly, I saw it wagging its tail a little, just like wagtails do, so when it was chirping, I used the Merlin BirdNET app for sound ID, and it seemed pretty confident this was a white wagtail. I was a little disappointed, but I took several photos anyway because it was so cute and not at all bothered by my presence. When I got back the hotel, I researched white wagtails to see if females look different, and it turned out that only the juveniles are brown, but the markings just didn't match. So I entered the photo into the Merlin app and came up with Berthelot's pipit. I researched this bird a little more and also looked for videos of it, and sure enough, it wags its tail like wagtails do, so I knew for sure I had seen a lifer. It's such a cute little thing, too! I loved just watching it hop around and flit here and there.
Other Birds
The sandwich tern, lesser black-backed gull, and Eurasian collared dove all made appearances. The doves especially are really plentiful on the island. I don't think I have photographed the sandwich tern before, and I can't say my photo is spectacular since I usually can't get good ones when they're flying, but I always think it's better than nothing, and my photo was good enough to allow me to ID it.
One of the birds I actually really enjoyed seeing was the rock dove/pigeon at the Cuevas de Ajuy. I think I mentioned this in my Gran Canaria post that the original habitat for rock doves are actually cliffy rocks (hence, the name!). The ones we see in cities are the urbanised versions of these birds, and while most people find them to be pests, I can't help thinking that it's not their fault they became urbanised, and it was so lovely to see them in their original environment. In fact, you get an appreciation as to how their colouring provides them with such excellent camouflage in the rocks. Two of the photos here, you'll see that one is just a close-up of the other, but from farther away, it's hard to tell that there's a bird there. I only spotted it because the shape looked a little bird-like, and I did a double take to determine if I was just seeing things.
I'll give a quick mention to some birds I couldn't ID, too. I got a photo of what I think is a younger lesser black-backed gull. The other photo is either a crow or raven, but I can't be sure, but all the ones I saw on the island were glossy and almost iridescent.
Finally, the last bird I photographed in detail was the monk parakeet. These colourful birds had jumped down from the trees to sit on the fencepost and eat something off the ground when we were walking to the lighthouse, so I was able to use the morning light to my advantage and get photos of them unfettered by leaves or anything else and see their bright markings in the sunlight. They may be invasive, but they are nice to look at!
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