Lanzarote : 12th February 2015

Lanzarote : 12th February 2015

On Thursday 12th February we headed up north with the idea of seeing some of the wild flowers growing there in profusion, particularly after the heavy rains of December.  We weren’t sure exactly where to go but we thought that if we headed for the Mirador del Rio in the far north of the island we would come across them somehow. I had also read in Gosney’s book that there was an interesting reservoir near Mala –  Presa de Mala.

The reservoir was in quite an elevated position relative to the LZ1 road and we missed the correct (hairpin) turning off the road and actually came off at the next roundabout which led us to a dirt track where we had to give up on the car and go on foot from there. Where we were at this point was in fact under the reservoir where the overflow from it falls in small waterfall down the rocks into a pool at the bottom.  This itself overflows and develops into a little stream that runs down the hill and under the road to the sea. It was at the point where it goes under the main road that we picked up this trickle of water. This is actually the lower reaches of the Barranco Valle del Palomo underneath the reservoir.

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Following this trickle uphill we came to a wall with some small shrubs where we got our first sight of a Spectacled Warbler showing very well and keen to see us on our way. After getting a few ID shots we continued to follow the rivulet uphill until we got to the small pool. It is easy to imagine this rare source of fresh water on the island being a great attractor of birds in the Spring but there wasn’t much there for us. We scanned around the impressive rocks and eventually heard the mewing of a Kestrel. It wasn’t long before we located it. We walked back down the path to the car encountering the same Spectacled Warbler again, still ticking us off. When we got back to the car we did manage to find the road to the reservoir but a car wasn’t going to work on the rough track so we gave up and headed up north.

We stopped off at the Cuervo de los Verdes to look around on the heavily vegetated lava around the caves (the Malpais de la Corona) but to out surprise it was very quiet except for the odd Berthelot’s Pipit so we got back in the car and drove up to the Mirador del Rio. We parked up and took a walk around but a Kestrel on a wire was about it for us. There were, however, beautiful flowers in abundance,  rather like the Machar of the western islands of Scotland.

Inside the Mirador we had a quick drink and then went out onto the balconies to look down on the salt pans below. There were plenty of birds but without a scope it was hard to distinguish exactly what was there. Things were a little bit better looking at the cliffs to the right where we saw a pair of Ravens and a few Barbary Falcons all flying just above the cliffs.

We drove around the road a bit to the next mirador,  the one just past the entrance to the Guinate Tropical Park. This was potentially a great site and one that, unlike the Mirador del Rio, was free to view. We did see a few birds there but they were not nearer than at Mirador del Rio as Gosney had suggested. Still, a promising site for a future visit.

By this time it was getting quite late so we returned via La Geria to Playa Blanca. We had a new lifer in the Spectacled Warbler and had had another fine day on Lanzarote.

Bird Sightings : Bird List Lanzarote 12th February 2015