Flora Majoreno

A selection of wild plant photos from Fuerteventura. Not all of them endemic to the islands, but most of them are...aplogies now for any misidentification but I'm not a trained botanist and the only field guide I had was the excellent, but very German, Die Kosmos Kanarenflora.


Lotus lancerottensis


Asphodelus tenuifolius


Fagonia albiflora


Reichardia tingitana

Fumaria montana

Echium bonettii

Eruscastrum canariense

Plantago asphodeloides

Heliotropium erosum

Lobularia canariensis ssp. marginata

Matthiola bolleana

Senecio glaucus

Frankenia laevis

Polycarpaea nivea

Zygophyllum fontanesii

Birding 500 ratings...

As I don't seem to be able to lift above the 500 mark I expect the reason why is that my blog does not contain reference to the UK twitching scene (quite deliberately). I must however say a huge thankyou to those of you from foreign shores who have visited my pages (even if by accident). Please do leave comments if you wish, don't be shy - I do read them and it means a great deal to know that at least someone besides me and people googling 'Bonnet de Douche' are visiting this blog.

Fuerteventura - February/March 2009

A fantastic two-week trip to Fuerteventura, managing to catch up with nearly all the key bird species plus a few migrants.

The first week was spent birding and ringing, based at a Government Research Station in La Oliva arranged by Eduardo Garcia-del-Rey. The second week was more relaxed and spent with my wife in a lovely house in the mountains at Rosa del Taro near Triquivijate.

Winter 2008/9 had been a wet one in Fuerteventura, with many days of rain and some cold weather. This had left the island looking extremely verdant and allowed us to do a great deal of botanising.

Male Fuerteventura stonechat - this has got to be one of the best birds ever...


Cistanche phelypaeum

Cheer up! Miserable Stone curlew

Guirre (Egyptian vulture)


Barbary partridge running away as usual

Female Kentish plover

Juvenile Guirre

Gronk

Confiding Turnstone

Another Gronk

Spanish sparrow

Female chat

Houbara

Crean-coloured courser

Gallotia atlantica

For news on ornithology in the Canary Islands check out Juan Jose Ramos' excellent Birding Canarias blog www.birdingcanarias.blogspot.com

and the website of the Sociedad Ornitologica Canaria www.avescanarias.com run by Eduardo Garcia-del-Rey contains some of the latest research on the evolution and breeding biology of Canarian bird species.