Family desires for warm but not too hot weather and also a place suitable for teenagers meant that I found myself heading for Southern Tenerife for my summer holiday. I had read a couple of trip reports, such as Edwards recent one from just 6 miles down the road and it filled me with a little dread, birding wise.
So the question was how to get some decent birding in and not divert too much from family duties. We had a car for a week and plan A was for me to get up early and get out and about. Good idea but sunrise is 7am and with low cloud often present the reality was that it was often 7.30 before any birding could be done. I had Collins/Clarkes book and it is sad to say that many of the sites he mentions are/have disappearing under concrete as more and more apartments are being built. Birding in the area we stayed, Costa Adeje, is generally uninspiring- a mix of volcanic rock, cacti, abandoned dusty tomato and banana fields in amongst all the development. So in the limited time I had…..
Costa Adeje
So what was about locally? In the region of where I stayed plain swifts abounded and could be seen from the coast to near the top of Mt Teide. Blackcaps seemed to sing from any tree. Warblers were generally scarce but I saw a few Sardinian warblers and a solitary Spectacled warbler. The subspecies of chiffchaff were very common and I heard a couple give their strange mangled song. Berthelot’s pipits could be found fairly readily in the scrub once I tuned in to their calls. Great grey shrikes were common as were Spanish sparrows-I tried to get pics of the sparrows-the easiest spot would have been the hotel pool where they came to drink but it would not have been wise to have been toting a 400mm lens where there was a lot of bared flesh…
..which leads neatly to…..
Hooters, Playas De Las Americas
I did not realise until I got to Tenerife and read a BF report that a Tricoloured heron was present-and as it was only 10km from where I stayed so I thought it positively rude not to have dropped by and say hello. For some reason the bird has chosen to stay outside Hooters (an American chain where the food is served by unfeasibly chested young women and describes itself as delightfully tacky yet unrefined-you get the drift) in Playa de Las Americas-the busiest, most touristy part of the coast. Maybe he just likes the girls.
So a Sunday morning at 7.30 found me getting lost in the one way system. The setting was a bit surreal and was awash with returning clubbers, comatose drunks and enough discarded bottles, cans and fast food wrappers to disgrace Rose Street in Edinburgh on a Saturday night. Even more surreal were the looks I got and the responses when I asked for directions to Hooters-“eh, I don’t think it’ll be open mate”(subtext you old pervert). But I got there and the bird flew in right on cue to the lido just up from Hooters.
The Mountains
I had one morning up in the mountains and had plans to head for Las Lajas renowned as the place to go to see blue chaffinches. On the way up I saw a couple of rock sparrows on wires near Vilafour and a couple of barbary partridges. I stopped at an area that Clarke/Collins call “the leaking pipe site”. Well the leaking pipe has been replaced by plastic ones and leaks no more. However the area was stuffed full of birds. Most of the pine forest has no scrub due to the acidifying effect of the fallen pine needles but this area had a lot of broom like bushes. There were many chiffchaffs, some of the local ssp of blue tit and 2 Tenerife goldcrests with their distinctive black markings across the forecrown. A Blue chaffinch was feeding a youngster. There was an old broken concrete drainage box and it must have held water as I saw birds flying down into it. I sat quietly in the scrub for 15 minutes and saw a slow but steady stream of canaries and blue chaffies coming in to drink just 5 metres away-magical. On up to Los Lajas where the attraction for the birds were the drinking fountains. There were at least 5 of the ssp of GSW, a couple of turtle doves and rock doves. Blue chaffinches were singing and there must have been around 10 present coming down to drink by the fountaions
The sea
We went on a catamaran trip to Los Gigantes-quiet on the way up apart from a few Cory’s shearwaters and one star bird-a little black bird flitting over the ocean showing a white rump-a storm petrel. It was hard going at this point as the boat was pitching in a considerable swell and about a third of the passengers were throwing up into bin liners (including my good lady). On the way back there must have been in excess of 500 Cory’s. The birds were definitely overshadowed on this occasion by the Atlantic spotted and bottlenose dolphins and the short finned pilot whales. We also took the Ferry to La Gomera and I was quite excited at the prospect as Bulwers petrel and little shearwater have been seen before. However there was only a relentless stream of Cory’s present though 6 sightings of Dolphins helped
Erjos-the laurel forest
I went up late one afternoon to the laurel forest the attraction being Bolle’s and Laurel pigeon. On arrival at the site there was a notice saying in Spaish “Entry forbidden except to workers” with pictures forbidding driving and walkers. The track now apparently leads to a desalination plant. After looking at alternatives I decided to go anyway, especially as it was a Saturday. The track was very smooth and has obviously been resurfaced recently. As time was short I stopped at the first vantage point and c looked over the forest-very nice except lacking in hot pigeon action. I stayed for an hour and had about 6 or 7 sightings of birds usually going like the clappers out of trees. Finally one bird took off just below me giving good viewsand I was able to satisfy myself that it was a Bolle’s pigeon-at this point the low cloud rolled in and it was time to go-all rather frustrating and it perhaps sums up Tenerife birding-some really good bits but an awful lot of dross in between
Hi Mark
What you refer to as sub-species are normally regarded as full species in the cases of Blue Tit, Chiffchaff and Goldcrest.
Strange about the Erjos track: are you sure you found the right one? I can't imagine a desalination plant up the one I have been along.
Steve