I took a trip to Tenerife with my better half for a week at the end March. To be honest I do not consider myself a birdwatcher, it is bird photography where my interest really lies. So I did a bit of research on the web to see what was likely to be on offer during the trip. The photography is really a secondary part of the holiday and I have try to fit in short sessions where I can. However, I did have one plan for the week stay, as I always like to try and set myself a target bird to photograph and for this holiday it was the Blue Chaffinch.
We stayed in a hotel (the Riu Garoe, which incidently was excellent) on the outskirts of Puerto de la Cruz. A smile came to my face when I walked out on the room balcony for the first time to see an area of parkland gardens next to some scrub habitat around the back of the hotel. This would give me ideal opportunity for popping out with the camera for half and hour here and there during the week. The smile widen further as a Canary island blue tit and chiffchaff promptly landed in the bush below :).
So this is a photographic record of my stay. For those interested I took with me the Canon 1Dmk2N body and my trusty travel lens the 100-400mm. So I will start with the birds that could be found around the back of the hotel. I managed to photograph most of the species present.
Large numbers of Canary provide plenty of photo opportunities of which this is a very small selction.
Canary Island Chiffchaff, which sound different to the UK version, were also plentiful and usually quite oblivious to my presence with the camera.
Meadow Pipit were present on the scrub area
It was also good to have the opportunity to photograph Turtle Dove there as I have only ever seen one in the UK.
The bird that really kept me on my toes around the back of the hotel during the stay were the Sardinian Warbler that only twice showed themselves clear from the vegetation to allow a photograph to be taken.
Other birds seen around the back of the hotel were Blue tit, Blackbird, Kestrel, Spanish Sparrow and Blackcap.
The Botanic Gardens is located about 250m from the hotel and this provided a couple of additional species to photograph. These were the Canary Island Blue tit
and the introduced Monk and Ring necked Parakeets
Moving down the hill into Puerto de la Cruz itself there were plenty of rock dove along the the coastal cliffs
and as is usual for a hot climate the fountain in the town squares provided a draw for birds including collared dove, spanish sparrow and a grey heron
We hired a car for two days and on one day headed up Mount Teide which is quite a tortuous drive but the main reason for going, apart from enjoying the stunning scenery, was to head to Las Lajas picnic site which seemed to offer the best chance of a Blue chaffinch encounter. We stopped at the foot of the summit of Teide at an altitude of 2500m were several of the endemic Berthalot's pipit were present
and then onwards to Las Lajas. The only problem was by the time we reached Las Lajas the patience of my better half, who has an aversion to twisting roads and heights, was waning rapidly so I had about 15 minutes to try and get some shots of the target chaffinch. Fortunately the birds here seem very accustomed to people and a crushed packet of biscuits soon brought a bird down from the trees.
I would have liked to stayed longer to get some better shots but like to retain my ability to walk :). Other birds at the picnic site included the Canary island version of the Great spotted woodpecker, canary and more blue tits.
So I cannot to claim to have completed long lists of birds or even probably been anywhere near a Laurel of Bolles Pigeon but it was certainly an enjoyable trip from a photographic point of view.
Cheers
Rich
P.S I did want the photos to appear in the text but it appears it is just giving links for some reason....