Fuerteventura, 8-10 December

Fuerteventura is a cheap place to visit in the depths of winter and, with its targets all relatively easy to see, it can comfortably be cleaned up in a weekend. With little else on for the second weekend of December, I'd booked flights with Jet2 from Stansted (£130 return including a hold bag) at the end of November.

Fortuitously, a few days after booking, the Western Palearctic's fifth Dwarf Bittern was found just a stone's throw from the airport, and it was no surprise then that this proved the first target on arrival on Friday afternoon. I was accompanied by Ed Stubbs, who'd been tempted to book his flights when the bittern broke, and we were enjoying this mega Afrotropical vagrant within minutes of arriving on site on Friday afternoon.

Dwarf Bittern, Llanos Pelados, Fuerteventura, 8 December 2017

Also here were a couple of pairs of the local race of African Blue Tit, at least five Fuerteventura Chats (the first I'd seen since I was a young lad on holiday with my parents), several Egyptian Vultures and a variety of waders including Green Sandpipers and Little Ringed Plovers. As it transpired, this was actually one of the birdiest spots we visited on the entire island - no wonder it's produced both the bittern and (apparently) Allen's Gallinule in recent weeks.

Ed had booked a very reasonable apartment in Puerto del Rosario (£20 pppn) - dodgy door aside, it was excellent value. After some tapas and a few cervezas with Ed and Alan Lewis, we got our heads down.

We were at Tindaya for first light and had soon bagged a couple of Houbara Bustards - a new bird for both of us. We saw a total of five, but none was really close enough to be well photographed. Just a single Cream-coloured Courser was seen plus a handful of flyover Black-bellied Sandgrouse and the usual Southern Grey Shrikes, Berthelot's Pipits, Lesser Short-toed Larks and Trumpeter Finches. It was then back to the airport to collect Rich Bonser and chauffeur him to the bittern which, again, was showing on arrival - sounds like we've been quite lucky as there are stories of birders waiting for hours. The bittern showed terrifically, albeit in the strong early afternoon sunshine, as did a pair of Fuerteventura Chats.

 Dwarf Bittern, Llanos Pelados, Fuerteventura, 9 December 2017

Fuerteventura Chats, Llanos Pelados, Fuerteventura, 9 December 2017

We spent some time searching sites along the coast, all of which turned to be absolutely pants, so we headed over to the reservoir at Los Molinos. Here there was a throng of noisy Ruddy Shelducks, a male European Stonechat and a few Spoonbills and Snipe.

Ruddy Shelducks at Los Molinos, 9 December 2017

Another pleasant evening of Spanish cuisine and beers followed, with another early morning start at Tindaya on the Sunday producing at least four more bustards and, finally, a showy one that walked across the track in front of us.

Houbara Bustard, Tindaya, Fuerteventura, 10 December 2017

The less said about the rest of the weekend (i.e. waiting in airports for delayed flights), the better.

Weekend, 16th-17th

My weekend has actually been reasonably productive. Woke up quite early on Saturday and found out the Little Bittern at Stocker's Lake had been seen again. As the site is only 16 miles from my house, I had no reason not to head over. In short, views were alright (but mainly obscured), though certainly not digiscopable during my visit. Wanting to catch the second half of the Wales rugby match, I headed home for around midday - only to hear the boys lose in injury time. Gutted! Three good performances this weekend from the home nations though; the gap is certainly closing between us and the Southern Hemisphere powerhouses.

For the afternoon, I headed over to east London meet up with Rich. Scored his two Egyptian Geese on Greenland Dock en route to his flat, then we were off to Cross Ness. This hybrid Ruddy x Common Shelduck was one of the first birds seen; it's been around a week or so now but this was the first time it has been seen on the south side of the Thames:

Otherwise the visit was dominated (as is often the case) by gull action. I picked up a first-summer Little Gull daintily picking at the water surface off the incinerator outfall, where there were also three first-summer Mediterranean Gulls floating around, each in different stages of moult.

First-summer Little Gull; just a bit of black speckling around the head.

The best of three 2cy Med Gulls.

Heading back towards the car, we picked up four Yellow-legged Gulls on the mudflats (tide way out). Three gorgeous first-summers are portrayed below; it was nice to get my eye back in with this age class after an enjoyable stint back on Peterborough's rubbish dumps last summer.

Same bird in the two shots above. Note how f*cked the coverts are, although the rest of the bird isn't much better. This individual shows off quite nicely how some 1st-s michs can be look almost reminiscent of Great Black-headed Gull - at least in the face - look at those lovely white eyelids, long bill and mask around the eye etc.

A streaky-headed (and generally mucky) 2cy. Presumably from Portugal (emphasis on presumably).

Another mucky bird with a cleaner head, but rather dark 3rd-generation feathers coming through in the mantle, and dark greater covert bar. Look how much that (and the tertials) contrast with the very clean, very white undertail and rump.

This morning, I headed back to the bittern in the hope of improved views in sunnier conditions. The bird was in view for the majority of the time I was there (07:30-10:30 or so), although almost always obscured by reeds. Saw it in flight a few times too today which was nice; it proved pretty mobile and got hacked off with the local Moorhens more than once. Best of a bad bunch of shots below.