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ín botánico viera y clavijo el puertillo we had a car for our week in gran canaria and this was our first trip away from maspalomas really lovely and extensive gardens in the north of the island with some wilder areas and wildlife the canary island race of common kestrel was common throughout the island and there were a couple here showing very well they were feeding on insects caught by flying from low perches another obliging bird was this a little egret and this grey wagtail approached so close i had to stop photographing the african blue tits were less cooperative and canary island chiffchaff also challenging the canary island race of eurasian blackbird is not particularly distinctive there were plenty of butterflies with monarch being most conspicuous just one or two red admiral a few african grass blue and finally an island darter completed the photos from here el puertillo after we decided to head for a late lunch to the little bay where semipalmated plover had been showing unfortunately we considered with a high tide and the common ringed plover flock was nowhere to be seen a lovely spot nonetheless and an excellent lunch a few of the hardier rock loving species were around like eurasian whimbrel and ruddy turnstone posted by brian at 9 43 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest sunday january 25 2026 eastern black redstart sheringham staying on the coast in east norfolk for a few days and dropped in to see the long staying first winter male eastern black redstart a couple of times the second day it was feeding around disturbed ground in the esplanade gardens and approached really close at times wonder if this distinctive form would be split from black redstart i also made the pilgrimage to the black winged kite a long walk in to view a very distant perched bird still only the 3rd or 4th for the uk and a country tick a good supporting cast around including a small flock of the increasingly scarce berwick s swan a couple each of tundra bean and eurasian white fronted geese and this first winter iceland gull another species that had become much scarcer in recent years full list for the four days here posted by brian at 8 21 am 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest saturday january 10 2026 gran canaria giant lizard we really thought we might not see this gran canaria endemic despite numerous reports saying they d were common on the island they failed to show at every suitable site we visited this may have been due to the relatively cool weather we had most of the time eventually karen found two on a rocky outcrop near the cave houses museum in artenara i only saw and photographed the smaller of the two but was happy to finally tick the species then with a late afternoon flight on the final day we decided to head to a likely looking spot not far from maspalomas where we d been staying it was much warmer when we got to the reservoir at ayugaures and we had great views of at least four around the area of the dam posted by brian at 6 57 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest friday january 09 2026 african collared dove managed just one lifer during a week on gran canaria at the beginning of january the endemic blue chaffinch and long staying greater yellowlegs both eluded me despite multiple attempts but i did encounter i d seen reports of african collared dove on every trip to the canary islands but never been convinced of a pure one myself pale birds are quite frequent on several of the islands but all the ones i d seen before had some darker feathering and when able to check lacked the diagnostic undertail pattern i had no such queries about this one near the charca de maspalomas though first of all it is uniformly pallid and the primaries while slightly darker than the coverts are pale grey and do not contrast much at all the undertail coverts are whitish not grey and crucially the black base to the tail feathers does not extend along the outer edges as a comparison here is what i presume to be a hybrid feeding with some collared doves although obviously much paler than the other birds the presence of many darker feathers and clearly contrasting dark primaries mean it is unlikely to be pure african there s another debate to be had about the origin of these birds they occur naturally not very far away on the african mainland but also have a domesticated form barbary dove which is sometime given its own classification posted by brian at 12 30 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest tuesday december 16 2025 unesco world heritage cities morocco after an unfortunate false start to the moroccan leg of our travels in november 2024 we decided to have another go this time we would fly into marrakech something i ve done many times before on birding trips but this time we would concentrate on the cities and finally tick off some of the remaining unesco world heritage sites we d previously not seen as such we would not be seeing a lot of the more iconic birds of the region that are associated with the deserts and mountains but there are always some opportunities to see wildlife especially as we would be spending much of the trip by the coast koutoubia mosque marrakech after two nights in marrakech we took the train to el jadida via casablanca for two nights in the historic portuguese walled medina from here another train journey via casablanca took us to the capital rabat for another two night stay we then took the four hour marrakech express and a three hour bus for three nights in the pretty coastal fortified town and medina of essaouira we had one final night in marrakech before our return flight making a total of 10 nights away el jadida part of the attraction of this trip was the prospect of warmer sunnier weather especially as it had been particularly wet in the uk however after a few days of expected sunny warm days and chilly nights it became increasingly cool and wet ending 7 years of drought in the country resulting flooding sadly proved fatal for some people in the coastal town of safi between essaouira and el jadida we felt very grateful to be spared the worst of the weather essaouira s small island marrakech sunrise over the high atlas from marrakech the first morning in marrakech i watched the sunrise from the rooftop balcony of our riad with house buntings and common bulbuls singing all around common birds but great to watch and photograph in the evening here we watched up to 40 little swifts come down to roost collared dove streptopelia decaocto common bulbul pycnonotus barbatus house bunting emberiza sahari from the train north to casablanca a little owl western cattle egret white stork 7 glossy ibis black redstart and a great grey shrike el jadida at el jadida the main interest was the gulls there were a large number of wintering lesser black backed gulls forming sizeable roosts into the thousands around the port area and on the beaches other species were much less numerous with up to 120 black headed gull 13 mediterranean gull and only 2 or 3 yellow legged gulls a big surprise was when a first winter glaucous gull flew past and i was able to follow it until it settled distantly allowing a record shot despite a lot of effort over the next day or so i was unable to relocate it probably the 26th record for morocco and only the 16th documented 1st winter glaucous gull larus hyperboreus i found several colour ringed gulls here all lesser black backed as follows unmarked blue left tibia red right tibia 5z ringed as a pullus 30 6 2024 maasvlakte nl red left tarsus k23 d ringed 2017 in dublin blue left tarsus unclear but probably s 0n matching a belgian project but no further details waders around the port area were grey plover ringed plover whimbrel common sandpiper common redshank and turnstone up to 6 sandwich terns past and a similar number of great cormorant although these did not seem to show the characteristics of the maroccanus race a lot of egrets lingered around the port area scavenging around the docks and restaurants with up to 53 little egret 5 western cattle egret and 3 grey heron western cattle egret ardea ibis other birds in the port area were up to 6 barn swallow a common kestrel 2 common chiffchaff 25 spotless starling 1 black redstart 5 house sparrow 1 white wagtail and 3 house bunting spotless starling sturnus unicolor house bunting emberiza sahari while waiting at the station on the edge of the town for the train to rabat it was clear that there were many thousands of gulls using the large rubbish dump further inland along with at least 12 white storks and 26 jackdaws also at near the station were 4 zitting cisticola 2 crested lark 1 barn swallow 4 sardinian warbler 8 spotless starling 1 blackbird 1 greenfinch 1 house bunting 1 common kestrel and at least 1 marsh harrier rabat birding was surprisingly good in the capital the river and shoreline held waders 1 grey plover 6 ringed plover 2 whimbrel 1 common sandpiper 73 turnstone 17 sanderling also 2 maroccanus cormorants 1 sandwich tern 3 little egret 2 cattle egret and 1 grey heron moroccan cormorant phalacrocorax carbo maroccanus common ringed plover charadrius hiaticula ruddy turnstone arenaria interpres the gardens also held a few insects lamenting grasshopper eyprepocnemis plorans speckled wood pararge aegeria aegeria once again gulls proved interesting with 2 mediterranean gulls among the more numerous black headed gulls a few yellow legged gulls and more lesser black backed gulls including two more colour ringed birds green left tarsus n 8j2 ringed in the nest at carlisle 16 7 2025 and read at coibra portugal on 27 10 blue right tarsus v hx9 ringed in denmark in 2010 in the town and around the walls and gardens we encountered the only woodpigeon of the trip 2 collared dove 1 common kestrel 22 jackdaw 2 common bulbul 3 common chiffchaff 10 spotless starling 1 blackbird 2 black redstart 2 stonechat 2 house sparrow and 3 house bunting european stonechat saxicola rubicola common woodpigeon columba palumbus essaouira a direct four hour train journey from rabat to marrakech where the main bird interest was around the casablanca area there is a huge cattle egret roost next to the railway line near casa voyageur station and noted 7 glossy ibis just to the north of the city the remainder of the trip was by 3 hour connecting bus which provided the only maghreb magpies of the trip with 8 along the p2006 road west of marrakech the third rocky port town of the trip and another change in the make up of the gulls here yellow legged gull dominated with at least 400 and only smaller numbers of lesser black backed and black headed gulls i was unable to locate any colour ringed birds yellow legged atlantic gull larus michahellis atlantis our accommodation had a high vantage point where some seawatching was possible and this produced 1 arctic skua south 17 sandwich tern south and a count of 77 gannet south in 90 minutes one afternoon not including more distant feeding birds also on the shoreline were 9 oystercatcher 3 grey plover 3 ringed plover 1 whimbrel 2 common sandpiper 20 turnstone 2 knot 73 sanderling on the sandy beach just north of the port 3 cormorants 1 spoonbill 1 little egret and 2 grey heron there were also common bulbul common chiffchaff spotless starling house sparrow and house bunting around the port sanderling calidris alba little egret egretta garzetta eurasian spoonbill platalea leucorodia i made one fairly short visit to the reserve naturelle on the edge of the town inland where a few freshwater pools and a lot of scrub attracted a little more variety 1 garganey 8 shoveler 9 mallard 5 moorhen 4 black winged stilt 3 common redshank 2 common kestrel 3 barn swallow 2 sardinian warbler 1 blackbird 25 house sparrow 1 white wagtail 2 african chaffinch and 3 house bunting garganey spatula querquedula another fabulous sighting here was this tiny half edged wall jumping spider which crept out next to us as we ate on a rooftop restaurant overlooking the main square half edged wall jumping spider menemerus semilimbatus finally a great grey shrike on the main road and a few maghreb magpies on the outskirts seen from the bus returning to marrakech posted by brian at 2 52 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest older posts home subscribe to posts atom uk eire natural history bloggers about me brian husband father son musician lover of live music climbing instructor tour operator and guide wildlife enthusiast birder photographer and blogger love travelling real music and good food and drink from around the globe view my complete profile links uk and eire natural history bloggers my green year gary the biking birder peterborough bird club sightings pbc gallery cambridgeshire bird club cambs moth gallery weedon s world of nature steve dudley s 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