Arriving in the early afternoon we had a week’s birding with Barbara and Derek Etherton to look forward to as we drove to our large one-bedroom apartments at the nearby Parque Verde development on Tenerife’s Costa del Sur golf complex. In terms of accommodation, probably only up to the local hostal quality in Malaga province but at a little over 9 (nine) Euros per person per night were we complaining?
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| Kestrel - the common raptor of Tenerife |
So to our first full day yesterday (Saturday) as we
set off towards Mount Teide with the aim of finding the picnic area near KM59
on the TF21 where, according to our guidebook, we were guaranteed to find the
endemic Blue Chaffinch. Twisting and
turning ever upwards in the sunny weather with a lovely warm interior even if
the outside temperature was gradually falling, especially after passing above
1500 metres, we experienced sun and cloud along with our first common birds
including Collared and Rock Doves, Blackbird and then our first Canarian Chiffchaff. All was going swimmingly until we reached Vilaflor and found the road blocked and
a queue of pedestrians stretching back a couple of hundred metres on the feeder
road. Having been forced to take a right
turn onto the same road we found the accompanying cars and, on making further
enquiries, were informed that the road was closed at the week-end with free bus
transport to Teide. All very well but we only wanted to go a further ten metres
to reach our destination.
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| Berthehol's Pipit |
Change of plan and the need to look elsewhere for
our birds. At the lower end of the
village we had our first challenge as stopped to identify an LBJ on the
wires. Very pale below giving a
Bonelli’s Warbler appearance but too large.
The bird flew across the road to settle n a stone wall giving a closer
look as it was joined by a second bird.
But this was a definite Meadow
Pipit so we started think Rock rather than Water Pipit but somehow
wrong. Try and check later when we
looked at photos and consulted better illustrations.
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| Raven at the picnic site |
Next on to a side road towards San Miguel where first we stopped to find the calling Chaffinch and
(Derek and I) had our first sighting of a Blue
Chaffinch, and my word it was very blue in the sun, whilst above a Common Buzzard was making lazy circles
in the distant sky. A quick sighting of
a pair of Stonechats as they crossed
the road and then on to the nearby picnic site where we picked up a pair of Ravens and a couple of Common Kestrel. Around the corner we stopped o search the
scrub and were soon rewarded with
Sardinian Warbler and a number of (true) Canaries. Then on down the
mountain where we came across a group of five restless Little Egrets before finally hitting the coast for a late lunch
break.
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| Canary |
The afternoon saw us on the coast itself at Las Galletas, slightly west of our base
for the week, and amidst what could only be described as a “hippy colony” with
a large assortment of tents and not-so-young residents in a range of attire –
or not! It was here that we to have our
best sightings. First a Canarian Grey Shrike was flushed and
came to perch on a nearby cabin giving excellent views and where was the
camera? Don’t ask! Camera now in hand we set off on a short walk
along the volcanic rocky coast where we had regular sightings of the local Yellow-legged Gulls and then a Berthelot’s Pipit that simply refused
to fly away as it gorged itself on something and enabled us to take scores of
photos from, at times, less than five metres.
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| A very friendly Berthehol's Pipit |
Back to the car and as we looked at the photos
Barbara pointed out that there were hirundines coming over the bank towards us.
Back out of the car to discover that we
were experiencing a sudden fall of Common
Swifts but accompanied by at least a couple of House Martins. What a great
way to end our first full day and including the Grey Wagtail that had come down to bathe at the edge of the
swimming pool when we arrived at our hotel, we had now reached 20 species, four
of which were not just new for the year, plus with the Common Swift, but also our first endemic species of the Canaries. And, weatherwise, we had seen sun and cloud
(as forecast) and a temperature range from 10 to 24°C.
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| A fresh fall of Common Swift |
Birds
seen:
Little Egret, Buzzard, Kestrel, Yellow-legged Gull, Rock
Dove, Collared Dove, Common Swift, House Martin, Meadow Pipit, Berthelot’s
Pipit, Grey Wagtail, Canary Stonechat, Blackbird, Sardinian Warbler, Canary
Chiffchaff, Canary Grey Shrike, Raven, Blue Chaffinch, Canary
Check out the accompanying website at http://www.birdingaxarquia.weebly.com for the latest sightings, photographs and additional information.
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