2023 Birding in Lanzarote

Our first overseas holiday since the Covid came in January of 2023. Our last holiday before Covid was also to Lanzarote and our birding on that holiday can be found here. This time, we did not have Carmen from Eco Insiders as a guide so any birding we did was on out own. This may have reduced the species we saw but we still got all the target species (apart from Stone Curlew) that we hope to see in Lanzarote in winter.

We spent the first few days of our holiday decompressing and chilling out. After a few days we hired a car and started getting about the island. On the 20^th January we went to El Jable to our favoured spot between Munique and So where you can park on the roadside safely.

Where to see Houbara Bustars and Cream-coloured Courses in El Jable., Lanzarote

20^th January 2023

We walked into the “desert” a bit and before long we saw a group of 10 Cream-coloured Coursers. There was also a Kestrel and a pair of Canarian Ravens. We stayed there for about an hour but didn’t see any Houbara Bustards. It was extremely windy (even more so than normal and this was typical of the generally poorer weather than we are used to at this time of year) and a bit exhausting. Also it made it very difficult to hear, and thus locate, the smaller birds – Berthelot’s Pipits and Lesser Short-toed Larks, that you expect to find here.

We continued on to Caleta de Famara where we settled for lunch at Grill la Posada – the café in the main square. After lunch we walked along the promenade and saw a Whimbrel torturing a crab in an attempt either to tire it out or to detach a leg from it. A Kentish Plover also bobbed around a bit, and we also saw a pair of Common Sandpipers. There were other birds but I didn’t have my scope so I couldn’t tell what they were. This is a good spot in general though because the waves crashing of the rocks tends to throw up lots of food for the birds to pick off. We moved on to La Santa, and then returned home via Timanfaya National Park.

21^st January 2023

We drove around a bit to the lighthouse and El Golfo and then ended up at Salinas de Janubio. There are signs that are to deter people walking along the edge of the lake but I am afraid we ignored them. It is our feeling that a few bird watchers isn’t the same as the hordes of dog walkers who used this site as a public dog lavatory for years. Anyway there aren’t too many birders around so the impact is lower than general public access. Continued high winds meant that we didn’t spend that long there but we saw the birds we hoped to see.

As we were getting out of the car we met a couple of British birders about our age and we got chatting about what they ad seen. It turned out that they had just arrived. We mentioned that we had a good spot at El Jable for Cream-coloured Coursers and possibly Houbara Bustards and they were very interested. We told them how to get to the spot and wished them good luck.

On the water was a large flotilla of Black-necked Grebes and around the edges were the familiar waders, Whimbrel, Little Egret, Greenshank, Redshank, Grey Heron and Black-winged Stilts. On the rocks were two pairs of Ruddy Shelduck. A Common Shelduck was on the water. We also got a few Trumpeter Finches. (See below for the full list)

22^nd January 2023

We made another trip out to El Jable to the usual spot and as we pulled in we saw the car and the couple we had seen the previous day at Salinas de Janubio. They had found the spot I had described which was gratifying and we set off together. I had told them that this spot was good for Cream-coloured Coursers and his wife was particularly interested because she had never seen them before. Thankfully, we were as good as our word and we found 6 within 10 minutes. As we were walking down the track a car with  a couple of Norwegian (I think) birders pulled up and we got talking. They said that they had just seen a Houbara Bustard displaying just along the track that leads off to the right of the main path so we took a walk up there and, amazingly because it was a long way away, I found a Houbara Bustard in the scope. This made their day – and ours.

23^rd January 2023

We didn’t do any specific birding this day but just drove around. I did see some Common Swifts but I can’t remember exactly where.

24^th January 2023

Again we did not do any specific birding this day but we managed to see a few birds in various places around the island including Canarian Raven, Southern Grey Shrike, Berthelot’s Pipit, Cattle Egret, Yellow Legged Gull and Spanish Sparrow. In our travels we went to Arrieta where we though we could have some lunch. It was very windy so the idea of being outside was a little bit daunting. In any case, we had a look at the Restaurante El Charcon facing the Casa La Juanita house but it seemed even posher than before so we decided not to bother. We started looking around the town but everywhere was busy. We eventually ended up on the main street, Calle la Garita, where we happened on a rather unimposing frontage of a little gem of a café (El Pasito) at number 48 that, when you walked through, had a room that was covered in but was right on the rocks with the waves crashing on to them. They had another room next to it was open air if the weather was better. It was cheap and the food was good and we had a really nice time there. Definitely one to remember.

El Pasito Calle la Garita 48, Arrieta

We had another outing to El Jable before our car hire ran out. En route I saw som Alpine Swifts at Uga and when we got to El Jable, although we only got 1 Cream-coloured Courser, we got two or three (hard to say of number 2 was the same bird as number 3)_ Houbara Bustards including very good views of one in particular. I only took my small telescope this holiday but I wished I had taken my bigger one at this point. One of the Houbaras, a little bit distant, was displaying as well which made our day. We also got Berthelot’s Pipit and one Lesser Short-toed Lark.

26^th – 28^th January 2023

We returned the car and walked around locally at Playa Blanca. At Marina Rubicon , on the 26^th, we saw a small group of Turnstones at the usual place and on the 28^th Anne saw a Hoopoe in the rising alley on the other side of Kikoland from the hotel.

List of Bird Species Seen Lanzarote January 2023