THE BOBOLINK AT TÍAS GOLF COURSE. FIRST FOR THE CANARY ISLANDS AND SPAIN

by Juan Sagardía Pradera

In the afternoon of 21/X, when I was at Tías golf course, I could detect a Bobolink Dolichonyx oryzivorus.

I made a quick telephone call to Francisco Javier García Vargas, who arrived to the golf course some minutes later.

I met him at the entrance of the golf course and I showed him the pictures that I have taken, and he could confirm that the initial identification of the bird was correct.

We went inside the golf course and after some minutes, we could relocate the bird, seeing it together for some minutes and taking new pictures.

We made a telephone call to Antonio Unquiles Cobos, who visited the course after we left it.

He has success and could observe the bird and take some photographs too.

On 22/X, I looked for the bird in the morning and F. J. García Vargas and A. Unquiles Cobos in the afternoon, but we could not find it.

But surprisingly, on 23/X, and when we have started to think that the bird was gone, I relocated it again, into a flock of Trumpeter Finches.

This is the first observation of this mega on the Canary Islands and Spain, our first observation of a nearctic passerine in Lanzarote and one of the few ever made in the archipelago.

Now, we have a real big reason to remember October 2010!