We landed at 8.00pm on Sunday the 11th of September so as night had fallen no birds were seen until the following day. Our resort hotel was the Club Del Carmen in Puerto Del Carmen, situated to the Eastern end of the resort and just across the road from the beach.
Monday 12th
First bird of the trip was a Eurasian Collared Dove that seemed to really like our balcony, it turned up every-day and one morning even had the cheek to nick some of my bread! I spent the whole holiday looking at collared doves’ backsides, not once finding an African version.
We had a resident Kestrel that was always hanging around the complex, one day even feeding from an ornamental rock in the street behind the complex. First ‘proper’ foreign bird was Spanish Sparrow of which we saw hundreds over the 10 days of the trip. The next bird was a goodie, my first lifer of the holiday, a Southern Grey Shrike, another bird that I was to see many times over the time on the island. We had one that included the hotel complex in its territory as we saw it several times, usually on the TV aerials. There were numerous parrots that flew over the complex morning and evening, I’d originally id’ed them as rose-ringed parakeets but on looking at the couple of pictures I managed to get of them I’m not so sure now. I’ve started a thread HERE about them.
A short walk to the supermarket to stock up on grub gave me Plain Swift and also Swallow, with the first of many Yellow-legged Gulls showing up as we arrived back at the resort. Over the next 10 days I grew a little jaded with these gulls, at one point saying to my wife that a black-headed gull would be a nice change. As the rest of the day was spent lazing around the pool area nothing else was seen other than some pale waders on the beach as we walked down to the central area to get our evening meal. Sadly no optics with me so my best guess would be Sanderling.
Tuesday 13th
We walked along the beach Eastwards today and as we reached the area of Jameos Plaza and Matagorda, we found many waders on the rocky foreshore. Sanderling, Turnstone and Ringed Plover were easy to call without optics, not so easy was the Whimbrel, until it turned it’s head, or the Little Egret but looking at the pictures later gave me that one. A heron flying East out over the sea was more than likely a grey heron but couldn't rule out purple so that one is lost.
Wednesday 14th
Little new seen today other than a small group of mallard x something birds in the harbour at Puerto Del Carmen. We walked the 6 Km from Puerto Del Carmen to Puerto Calero unintentionally, it was a case of ‘what’s around that corner?’ When we realised how far we’d gone there was nothing for it but press on to the P. Calero and hope for public transport back as the heat was just too much to contemplate walking back. We did find a Grey Heron feeding on rocks close to P. Calero as well as a couple of naturist sunbathers
