Natural Selection

Today we were on the first of our Canary Island stops in Lanzarote, before making a sedate journey overnight to Tenerife.

We hadn’t booked any excursions. I couldn’t find a bird guide either as the main one has apparently given up. That said I’ve been to the island four times before (day tripping on a Fuerteventura holiday, both previous cruises we’ve done and a short break for pelagic boat trips). I’ve seen all the main local specialities, including the seabirds and to my delight the local race of Barn Owl which is scarce.

So we got a taxi to the golf course in the hope of migrants, then returned to Arrecife to look at the birds in the harbour. All told we only saw about fifteen species, but it was a lovely day and as the photos show we got close to som of them. Just look at the bill on that shrike.

The boat left with a couple of hours of daylight left. As we headed down the east coast of the island some dolphins passed going north, probably Spotted Dolphins given apparent size and the location. A few Cory’s drifted past and a single Madeiran Petrel was seen.

Tomorrow we are going on a beach transfer so I’m not sure if there will be enough for a blog. Failing that I could tell some stories about Inbetweeners-eque episodes in previous Lanzarote trips, or review tonight’s Q&A with Kevin Kennedy, aka Curly Watts for Corrie fans with long memories.