Friday, February 12, 2021

Glass Half Full

Trying to stay positive is the key. When all around is doom and gloom my glass is half full. Spring is not far away. The sun will shine, rain will stop and birds shall sing. Despite the virus, birds will arrive from Africa, my pliers well oiled and camera batteries fully charged in readiness for oodles of photos.

Good news from Greece where we are due to travel on 5 May and where the Greek authorities are even now preparing a welcome for tourists from late April.  Even here in moribund Great Britain our government appear to realise that their yo-yo restrictions and lockdowns are disproportionate to any remaining threat, and that they must allow society to open up very soon.


Meanwhile, an archive from warm and sunny Lanzarote 18th January to 1st February 2015. 

It was fairly blowy on the day Sue and I set off south to the working salt pans, Salinas de Janubio and the little lunch-stop village of El Golfo. It is often breezy, more likely windy in the Canary Islands which lie in the Atlantic Ocean some 100 kms off the coast of Africa. During the times of the Spanish Empire the Canaries were the main stopover for Spanish galleons on their way to the Americas because of the prevailing winds from the northeast. There is compensation for the breezes in the islands’ subtropical climate with long warm summers and moderately warm winters. 

The Canary Islands

Not far from our base of Puerto Calero and just off the LZ2 we stopped off to look for Lesser Short-toed Lark and perhaps more Houbara Bustards in a location they are reputed to use. No luck with the bustards however we did see Lesser Short-toed Lark, Berthelot’s Pipit and Kestrel, as well as finding a good crop of huge watermelons and strawberries growing in a seemingly inhospitable but well irrigated place. 

The Lesser Short-toed Lark is a bird of dry open country which is fairly common in Lanzarote and breeds in Spain, North Africa and eastwards across the semi-deserts of central Asia to Mongolia and China. It prefers even drier and barer soils than its close relative the (Greater) Short-toed Lark. As far as I know the Short-toed Lark is but a scarce passage visitor to the Canaries, and a species I am familiar with in the Mediterranean. 

Update 2020. A recent paper has proposed that Lesser Short-toed Lark is better treated as two distinct species, with the position subsequently adopted by the IOC World Bird List. The species that occurs here in the Canaries is now known as Mediterranean Short-toed Lark. Distribution - southern Europe, Canary Islands, North Africa and Iberia through the Levant to western Iraq.

Mediterranean, (Lesser) Short-toed Lark

Watermelon, Lanzarote

From a high approach road the salt pans down at sea level often appear tranquil enough. There can be a different story at ground level where the wind whips the water into a frenzy of white as a display of how the salt pans create their valuable product by deposition of salt. The Greenshanks are wading through the salty froth of the water seen in the first photo below, 800 yards away.

Salinas de Janubio

Greenshank

Greenshank

Berthelot's Pipit

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

Turnstone

What with the wind and lack of cover to approach birds, this is a difficult place in which to birdwatch and take photographs. Unfortunately I didn’t manage any pictures of the also-present Whimbrel, Kentish Plover, Grey Plover, Redshank, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper or Black-necked Grebe but it was good to see so many species in this one place.

A short drive away from Janubio is the famed Green Lagoon, something of a tourist hot-spot and a destination for crowded buses. It is easy to see why and to join in the endless photography which takes place. 

The Green Lagoon, Lanzarote

The beach itself is of pebbles and the cliffs behind the lagoon equally dramatic, having been wind eroded into fantastic shapes over the course of the centuries. The scenery is further enhanced by the large finger of rock which sits just off the beach and causes the sea to crash around it. The landscape here is so wild filmmakers used it as the backdrop for Raquel Welch wearing her animal skin bikini in the classic movie One Million Years B.C. 

El Golfo, Lanzarote

The weathered cliffs extend all the way along the walkway which goes in the opposite direction to the village of El Golfo, revealing different bands of rock smoothed and shaped by the forces of nature. 

Just along from the Green Lagoon is the village of El Golfo which has possibly the highest concentration of fish restaurants on the island. The morning’s catch is gutted and cleaned on the beach to a watchful audience of many dozens of Yellow-legged Gulls and the inevitable Common Sandpiper scurrying through the rocky pools. 

El Golfo, Lanzarote

Yellow-legged Gull and chef. 

Common Sandpiper

We stopped off in the pretty town of Yaiza before heading back to the Hotel Costa Calero and a pre-dinner glass of Cava. 

Yaiza, Lanzarote
 
Hotel Costa Calero

Another successful day of exploration in Lanzarote. Previous posts about our holiday to Lanzarote can be found at "A birding-day Lanzarote style" and at Birding Lanzarote.

More birds soon from Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Anni in Texas,  Rain's Garden  and Eileen's Saturday Blog.

 

16 comments:

  1. That Green Lagoon Phil, wow, what a colour! I suppose you could get away with being part of the art date, say if there was a Creature From The Green Lagoon hanging out nearby! :) Great bird photos! Is this why we call those wooden things "stilts" after those long-legged beautiful birds! Great shots! I thought that was a pumpkin! :)

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  2. I am glad you are optimistic Phil and looking forward to better days and weather. it is very cold here at present. Roll on the spring and summer for more heat and at least be able to get into the garden. Lovely looking over a past holiday and to see what birds you photographed. Stay safe. I hope you have a great weekend

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  3. Hello Phil,

    I hope you are able to take your trip, sounds wonderful. Great variety of birds and sightings.
    I like the gull waiting for the chef to prepare it's meal, lol. The green lagoon is amazing.
    The hotel looks beautiful and has a lovely view. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Take care, have a happy weekend!

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  4. The Green lagoon is spectacular! What beautiful sights you saw and neat birds too. Nice to spend time with our photos while we look forward to other trips or outings!

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  5. Great pics! Hope your expected expeditions will turn out well.

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  6. Stay optimistic, Phil...good things will happen...they always do! For instance this morning at the river, in the 9 degree freezing cold, I watched about 15 Eastern Bluebirds fly out of ONE nesting box waiting for Spring occupancy. The crazy part was that when I got home and was working in my kitchen I noticed the same thing!! I have never seen that happen before...nature is full of happiness...jp

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  7. I could spend weeks there! That area is gorgeous. Loving the gull with anticipation of dinner served "on a platter". And the short eared lark is so stately posed atop the the boulder...like a monument.
    Loved reading your narration...as if I was there!

    If you celebrate, Happy Valentine's Day & thanks for joining us at I'm Rather B Birdin'

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  8. A lovely set of photos, I am wondering if we will ever go on holiday again but you are obviously thinking well ahead.

    I have had first vaccine and a second one planned for the 8 March, but Nigel is not even near having his yet, they say here he is too young at only 73!!!

    Keep well and stay safe, Diane

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  9. It looks like a pretty place to visit and I enjoyed my little tour with you.

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  10. Fascinating! And I love \the stilts!
    Thanks for taking us along for the tour! Appreciate you sharing at https://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2021/02/cedar-creek-galleries-not-your-average.html

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  11. Some good shots there - swung by to check out where you were because the thumbnail was so inviting!

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  12. Wonderful photos and thank you for sharing the information! Have a grand week!

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  13. I've been to Lanzarote via cruise. It's a lovely place.

    Worth a Thousand Words

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  14. I'd love to visit that Green Lagoon!

    I feel the positive vibes you are giving off, Phil!

    Thanks! I needed that!

    Happy Tuesday!

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