opisska
rabid twitcher
We have first visited the Canary islands 11 years ago, way before we became real birders, but we still managed to randomly identify a Berteholt's Pipit in the photos from the trip, which we thus had on our list before we had a Yellowhammer! Many years later, I visited La Palma twice in short succession for work reasons and then we went together to Fuerteventura for the Dwarf Bittern last year. Despite all of this, we still had a lot of unfinished business there, with 6 possible targets for me and 11 for me wife, so when she had a conference on Tenerife, slapping a short birding trip on it was a no brainer. We eventually managed to get everything off the lists except for Barolo's Shearwater.
The plan was for five days, the first two being dedicated to sailing from Tenerife to Gran Canaria, getting to the top of the island and back by public transport and sailing back to Tenerife; for the next three we rented a car there. This turned out to be more than enough, as, especially on Tenerife, the target birds really did actively try to be seen. As we already knew many of the places and there are very little birds of interest beyond the targets, we were even a bit bored the last day.
The first tick for my wife came immediately after landing on Gran Canaria, where a very loud Canary Island Chiffchaff sung in the trees in the harbor - these turn out to be really common, despite my previous relative difficulties to find them on La Palma. Already in Las Palmas we started the weird activity of checking the bottocks of all Collared Doves, but we had to wait until our bus change in San Mateo to get one with the perfect pattern for an African Collared Dove, a tick for the both of us. From there we took the bus as high as it gets to Cueva Grande, where my wife could tick Plain Swifts to her heart's content (those were also super common everywhere from then on), and eventually walked the rest of the way to Llanos de la Pez. There we spent several hours scouting good looking areas and locations of ebird sightings until we found a very showy Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch (tick for both) next to the Bailaco campsite. Satisfied, we descended to Cueva Grande, slept in the open a bit above the village and returned to Las Palmas.
Before the ferry was due to leave, we had just enough time to take another bus to the "ponds" between San Lorenzo and Tamaraceite to get the Common Waxbills for my wife. The site also had some very easily observed Stone Curlews, Red-legged Partridge and only the second ever Quail I have actually seen (not just heard) in my life. We had high hopes for the ferry and there was indeed a lot of pelagic birds, but almost every one of them was a Cory's Shearwater - except for one Bulwer's Petrel, another tick for my wife.
Back on Tenerife, we took TF24 along the spine of the island and randomly stopped at a Mirador (probably de Ortuño, but it's hard to tell), where immediately a Tenerife Blue Chaffinch (tick for both) appeared. We reached Las Lajas in the late evening and the Blue Chaffinches there were numerous and not at all vary - overall, this species was much more common that I would have thought. Las Lajas is a part of the awesome network of campsites on Tenerife that you can just book online for free - I still don't get how is it possible that we were the only ones there, because it's so awesome!
The next day we started with some seawatching at Punta la Rasca. Contrary to the Opus description, the access from the east is now completely blocked even for hikers and the best way is to walk 2.5 kms from El Palm-mar. There were again only Cory's, but a large pod of Short-finned Pilot Whales well visible from the coast made up for that. Also a very friendly Berteholt's Pipit paid us a visit at the lighthouse, walking meters from us; more of those were seen along the access path.
After reading on the local ornithology club's facebook that the colony of Nanday Parakeets is down to three birds, I did not hold my hopes high. First we tried a golf course where our friend saw them two years ago, then we moved to a nearby location given in a BF thread. There we sat down on the square and after a few minutes two Parakeets flew by - as those are on the Canary list (which is separate from the Spanish one), we both tick them as Cat. C.
In Erjos, Google Maps is quite confused as to what constitutes a road, but the track that turns off the main road 300 meters south of the village is easily driveable for about 800 meters to a small parking. Just a few steps of walking further behind a corner next to the radio tower, we saw our first Bolle's Pigeons. We visited the same area the next day and this "amphitheatre" turns out to be really brilliant for those as you can watch them flying here and there and sitting on branches for hours if you wish.
No Laurel Pigeon was seen neither here, nor further down the "accessible path". For those, we had to go to the famous Mirador la Grimona on TF5 - and there it was a question of a few minutes to see some flying around the slope above the road (a tick for my wife). Frankly, we were not very happy with the experience of watching the pigeons next to a loud busy road, amidst a sea of rubbish, so we scouted the northern coastal slopes for a more romantic spot, but could not find them elsewhere. At least La Grimona has a lot of lizards as a redeeming quality.
The remainder of the time was spent mostly seawatching in the vain hope to see Barolo's Shearwaters. We wanted to follow the advice from the Stubbs report about looking for them in the evening at Punta Teno, but the access is not straightforward - the road is closed to individual cars from 9 am to 8 pm. This leaves more than an hour of sunlight on either side and that seems good (as that is the time to focus on anyway) but we had no luck. Also, there was a locked gate to the lighthouse itself, so we had to add some 100 meters to the observing distance. The last day, we wandered a bit around El Medano, where the only shorebird was a singular Whimbler - there were again a lot of Cory's, but no last-minute Barolo surprise appeared.
In general, getting the local specialities on the Canaries seems quite easy, maybe with the exception of pelagic birds and possibly Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch and the disappearing Nandays. Together with the omnipresent Atlantic Canaries, a birder with no previous Canary list contamination can relatively easily get up to 12 ticks in a few days on the two main islands (and that's not even mentioning the possibility to go also to Fuerteventura for the Chat and maybe Tropicbirds or Bustards), which is a respectable number for a location in the WP. Considering there are also some non-endemic species, such as the Waxbills, but also possibly Spectacled Warbler or Barbary Partridge (none of which we tried to see, as we already have them from elsewhere), the potential is even bigger, all the while at a location that is one of the easiest to visit for even the least experienced traveller. Sadly, the benefit of Canaries as the easiest site for Barbary Falcon no longer holds since the IOC demoted it to subspecies.
The plan was for five days, the first two being dedicated to sailing from Tenerife to Gran Canaria, getting to the top of the island and back by public transport and sailing back to Tenerife; for the next three we rented a car there. This turned out to be more than enough, as, especially on Tenerife, the target birds really did actively try to be seen. As we already knew many of the places and there are very little birds of interest beyond the targets, we were even a bit bored the last day.
The first tick for my wife came immediately after landing on Gran Canaria, where a very loud Canary Island Chiffchaff sung in the trees in the harbor - these turn out to be really common, despite my previous relative difficulties to find them on La Palma. Already in Las Palmas we started the weird activity of checking the bottocks of all Collared Doves, but we had to wait until our bus change in San Mateo to get one with the perfect pattern for an African Collared Dove, a tick for the both of us. From there we took the bus as high as it gets to Cueva Grande, where my wife could tick Plain Swifts to her heart's content (those were also super common everywhere from then on), and eventually walked the rest of the way to Llanos de la Pez. There we spent several hours scouting good looking areas and locations of ebird sightings until we found a very showy Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch (tick for both) next to the Bailaco campsite. Satisfied, we descended to Cueva Grande, slept in the open a bit above the village and returned to Las Palmas.
Before the ferry was due to leave, we had just enough time to take another bus to the "ponds" between San Lorenzo and Tamaraceite to get the Common Waxbills for my wife. The site also had some very easily observed Stone Curlews, Red-legged Partridge and only the second ever Quail I have actually seen (not just heard) in my life. We had high hopes for the ferry and there was indeed a lot of pelagic birds, but almost every one of them was a Cory's Shearwater - except for one Bulwer's Petrel, another tick for my wife.
Back on Tenerife, we took TF24 along the spine of the island and randomly stopped at a Mirador (probably de Ortuño, but it's hard to tell), where immediately a Tenerife Blue Chaffinch (tick for both) appeared. We reached Las Lajas in the late evening and the Blue Chaffinches there were numerous and not at all vary - overall, this species was much more common that I would have thought. Las Lajas is a part of the awesome network of campsites on Tenerife that you can just book online for free - I still don't get how is it possible that we were the only ones there, because it's so awesome!
The next day we started with some seawatching at Punta la Rasca. Contrary to the Opus description, the access from the east is now completely blocked even for hikers and the best way is to walk 2.5 kms from El Palm-mar. There were again only Cory's, but a large pod of Short-finned Pilot Whales well visible from the coast made up for that. Also a very friendly Berteholt's Pipit paid us a visit at the lighthouse, walking meters from us; more of those were seen along the access path.
After reading on the local ornithology club's facebook that the colony of Nanday Parakeets is down to three birds, I did not hold my hopes high. First we tried a golf course where our friend saw them two years ago, then we moved to a nearby location given in a BF thread. There we sat down on the square and after a few minutes two Parakeets flew by - as those are on the Canary list (which is separate from the Spanish one), we both tick them as Cat. C.
In Erjos, Google Maps is quite confused as to what constitutes a road, but the track that turns off the main road 300 meters south of the village is easily driveable for about 800 meters to a small parking. Just a few steps of walking further behind a corner next to the radio tower, we saw our first Bolle's Pigeons. We visited the same area the next day and this "amphitheatre" turns out to be really brilliant for those as you can watch them flying here and there and sitting on branches for hours if you wish.
No Laurel Pigeon was seen neither here, nor further down the "accessible path". For those, we had to go to the famous Mirador la Grimona on TF5 - and there it was a question of a few minutes to see some flying around the slope above the road (a tick for my wife). Frankly, we were not very happy with the experience of watching the pigeons next to a loud busy road, amidst a sea of rubbish, so we scouted the northern coastal slopes for a more romantic spot, but could not find them elsewhere. At least La Grimona has a lot of lizards as a redeeming quality.
The remainder of the time was spent mostly seawatching in the vain hope to see Barolo's Shearwaters. We wanted to follow the advice from the Stubbs report about looking for them in the evening at Punta Teno, but the access is not straightforward - the road is closed to individual cars from 9 am to 8 pm. This leaves more than an hour of sunlight on either side and that seems good (as that is the time to focus on anyway) but we had no luck. Also, there was a locked gate to the lighthouse itself, so we had to add some 100 meters to the observing distance. The last day, we wandered a bit around El Medano, where the only shorebird was a singular Whimbler - there were again a lot of Cory's, but no last-minute Barolo surprise appeared.
In general, getting the local specialities on the Canaries seems quite easy, maybe with the exception of pelagic birds and possibly Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch and the disappearing Nandays. Together with the omnipresent Atlantic Canaries, a birder with no previous Canary list contamination can relatively easily get up to 12 ticks in a few days on the two main islands (and that's not even mentioning the possibility to go also to Fuerteventura for the Chat and maybe Tropicbirds or Bustards), which is a respectable number for a location in the WP. Considering there are also some non-endemic species, such as the Waxbills, but also possibly Spectacled Warbler or Barbary Partridge (none of which we tried to see, as we already have them from elsewhere), the potential is even bigger, all the while at a location that is one of the easiest to visit for even the least experienced traveller. Sadly, the benefit of Canaries as the easiest site for Barbary Falcon no longer holds since the IOC demoted it to subspecies.
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