Gran Canaria (1 Viewer)

Hi im off to G.C in a couple of days for a hol and was wondering if anyone had any birding sites they could recommend for a few days birding?This island doesnt get much mentoin on the internet seems to be mostly Tenerife and Fuerterventura any help would be great.Also if you have any info on transport between islands/whale watching in that area

There's a lagoon-type backwater thing where a channel runs into the sea next to maspolomas dunes (or there was a few years ago when i was last there), that is very good for waders. Also, get down to maspolomas beach at dawn - there's lots of shearwaters (Cory's) just offshore that vanish at daybreak. You may also pick up sandgrouse overhead there.

Loro park, where they have the parrots etc, is very good for canary, and you'll see bethelot's pipit everywhere in the interior.

The lagoon next to Maspalomas dunes is excellent. I went in June and had Whimbrel, Collared Pratincole, Kentish, Ringed and Little Ringed Plovers. Cory's Shearwaters offshore. This area is also good for introduced Waxbill and the Canary Isles Chiffchaff.

As in all dry areas, golf courses are an excellent place to look for birds, over 20 hoopoe together on the 17th hole was nice, also Southern Grey Shrike.

Blue Chaffinch exists in the pine forests but is rare and I didn't see or hear any. Canary is quite common in these areas however.

Apart from birds, there is the Gran Canaria Giant Lizard, look for this behind the chainlink fences on the roads around Maspalomas, it is quite big!

Also, be aware that there are escaped birds everywhere! Bulbuls, Glossy Starlings, all sorts of Collared type doves and stuff.

mark ridsdale said:

Hi im off to G.C in a couple of days for a hol and was wondering if anyone had any birding sites they could recommend for a few days birding?This island doesnt get much mentoin on the internet seems to be mostly Tenerife and Fuerterventura any help would be great.Also if you have any info on transport between islands/whale watching in that area

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How did you get on in GC? I have read that the weather has been poor, and parts of the dunes are under water.

Hi,
Probably too late, but... I did fieldwork on the Canaries for a total of a few months. Loved all of the five western islands I worked on. You can, of course, look for the rare blue chaffinch on GC. There's a weird plateau of pine forest towards the east of the island which is apparently most reliable.
Inter-island ferries are very easy, cheap, and recommended (and blue chaffinches are extremely easy to find on Tenerife!). They run from Las Palmas to Santa Cruz de Tenerife. I managed to get from El Hierro to Gran Canaria in one day on a few different ferries, but I wouldn't recommend it!

Flying between the bigger islands is cheap and easy too, as long as you don't mind using the infamous Tenerife North Airport (site of the World's worst aviation accident in thick fog - now used only for hair-raising domestic flights!).