Gran Canaria, July 07 (1 Viewer)

Hi
I'm going on family holiday late July/early Aug 07 and was wondering if there was anywhere on the island to get in a bit of birding during our holiday? We're based in the North West of the island but will have a car for some of the time.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I went to Gran Canaria (Maspalomas) about the same time a few years ago. Sadly didn't find it to be brilliant for birding, though thoroughly enjoyable all the same. Try and get to the Pajonales national park to try and see the blue chaffinches, it's a bit of a difficult drive (I wasn't driving so it was fine!) and we didn't see anything but turtle doves. There are some easier forests and reservoirs and suchlike in the interior of the island, where things such as canary, plain swift, sardinian warbler and berthelot's pipit should be easy. If you're on the coast, check out any rough areas for trumpeter finches. ALWAYS stop to have a quick look at golf courses - oases in most parts (23 hoopoes all together is not to be missed!)
If you're based in the North West, you should see some good things, as it's a lot greener than the South East. If you do go around the island the oasis de
Maspalomas is good, though only practical before all the sun worshippers turn up, here I saw whimbrel, kentish plover (breeding) little ringed plover and one collared pratincole. Cory's shearwaters on the sea.

Admittedly, GC is perhaps the least visited of all the islands, as all of its birds and more can be seen on Tenerife. But it's still a beautiful island and I was more than satisfied with the things I saw.

Thanks Nick,
I've just noticed an error in my original post...we're SW of the island rather than NW as posted. But we'll have a car...but your statement about not driving being fine...are the roads bad or is it the drivers?

Southwest (if I remember right) is quite nice. Mostly rocky little coves. It's not the roads that are bad (unless you go for the blue chaffinches -don't tell the hire company where you've been!) it's the fact that some of them are quite high up on the edges of cliffs etc, if you're not good with being near the edge, try and do a clockwise route round, that way you're not near 'the drop'. The best strategy for finding birds in the drier parts of the island is to try and find water, such as irrigated plantations, golf courses, sewage plants, drains etc. Bigger hotels and zoos turn up some very good wild birds in their gardens. One of the best places I found for small birds was in a garden centre on Lanzarote, very odd to see a decent number of birds using all the potted plants as good hunting grounds.

I am going back for the 1st time (13 years) since my honeymoon. Will be out there 1st week in August as well. Didn't think about bird spotting to be honest but the thought of seeing a hoopoe really interests me. We are staying in Playa Del Ingles. I have planned for a guided walk in the hills one of the days so wonder the likehood of seeing owt then? Where would the best place be to see the hoopoe?

Hoopoe is quite a common bird down there.

Take a look at Charca de Maspalomas (and the hotels that are around it): Hoopoe, at least a pair of Streptopelia senegalensis (Laughing Dove?), Plain Swift, Spanish sparrow, Canary Island Chiffchaff... are (almost) always there.
Southern Grey Shrike ssp. koenigi and Berthelot's Pipit are not difficult to find in the area.

I live at Navarra (N Spain), but I visit GC once or twice every year. My next visit 19-28 July. Will update with fresh news if you want.

PM me for details...

Just waiting for the bus to pick us up from the hotel....what a hot week this was......and yes saw a hoopoe - more to follow.

I managed to get Plain swift, Berthelot's pipit, Spanish sparrow, CI Chiffchaff and the ubiquitous canary in my 2 weeks, along with the CI subspecies of quite a lot of common birds. Sadly the fires on the island put paid to my trip into the interior and not having my scope meant I failed to positively id 2 species of shearwater