Edward
Umimmak
How to see the endemics with the minimum effort
I visited Tenerife for the first time in January on a family holiday, the first time away with our 8-month old twins. While I've been to several places (Australia, Singapore, Trinidad & Tobago, New York City) with my non-birding wife and managed to squeeze in some excellent birding in between more traditional tourist activities, it was clear that having two babies along this time was not going to give me much time in the field at all. Hence Tenerife, with its relatively limited number of species but high proportion of endemics or near endemics, is a perfect place for such a trip. A couple of excursions into the field allow you to see all the target birds. My plan was to make a special effort to see the two pigeons and Blue Chaffinch, and I figured I’d see the other specialties while searching for these three, and so it turned out.
We stayed in the resort of Playa de las Americas, a place filled with such delightful traditional Spanish tavernas as Hooter's and Burger King, and an overwhelming choice of karaoke contests in the evening. Yes, it's a culture-free zone and easily the worst place I've ever been for morning birding walks from the hotel. I'm sure there are infinitely better places for birders to base themselves in Tenerife but it was fine for the purpose of our visit (sun and hassle-free travel with babies).
All numbered site references are those given in Where to Watch Birds in Tenerife by Eduardo Garcia del Rey.
Day-by-day account
Thursday 17 January
After a terrible flight in which we had to refuel in Ireland en route as the pilots couldn't take off with a full load of fuel in Iceland due to the heavy snow and icy conditions, we landed five hours late, just before dawn. The first Blackbirds were already singing but birding was the last thing on my mind as I put two skriking infants to bed. The first lifer came a few minutes after getting out of bed and going out on to the balcony, Canary Islands Chiffchaff, a ubiquitous bird. It did take me a while to see one properly though, not for the lack of birds to look at, but rather my reluctance to use my binoculars near sunbeds full of elderly British, French and German tourists. Other common birds round the hotel were Blackbird, whose alarm call sounded very different from the ones in my garden, Collared Dove, and Spanish Sparrow, a bird I hadn't seen for a few years. Yellow-legged Gulls flew over regularly.
Friday 18 January
On a pre-breakfast walk on the seafront with my daughters I saw two Grey Plovers, and a trio of familiar Icelanders, i.e. Turnstone, Ringed Plover and Whimbrel. In the afternoon I met up with one of my Icelandic birding friends Jóhann Óli Hilmarsson who happened to be staying a few minutes away. We set out at 4:00 p.m. to have a look at the abandoned fields between El Fraile and Punta de la Rasca (TFS7). We are still not sure if we found the area as described in the book as the maps don't quite seem to match what we found on the ground. It could be that another few banana plantations have been put up since the book was written, but where we ended up was undoubtedly the least attractive place I've ever been birding. A man made wasteland of few birds, girded by plastic covered banana plantations, with plastic bags blowing everywhere. Still on the bright side we weren’t long to find the first Berthelot’s Pipit and some convincing looking Rock Doves. We then met two British birders (the only birders we saw on the trip) who said they had just seen a Cream-coloured Courser (!) but then proceeded to give us a perfect description of a Stone Curlew, and my heartbeat got back to its normal speed. In fact we didn’t find the Stone Curlew but we stumbled upon El Fraile Reservoir, and our trip list suddenly reached double figures, with Little Egret, Spoonbill, Black-tailed Godwit, Greenshank, Coot, Moorhen, Wigeon, Tufted Duck, Grey Wagtail and Lesser Black-backed Gull (amongst YLG). On the way back a delightful Hoopoe crossed our paths but the general area was depressingly birdless. Just before the car we stopped to look at a curious shack on the hillside, and as soon as we lifted our binoculars we shouted in unison PLAIN SWIFT!, and there flying over the hillside was our only Plain Swift of the trip, a bird I wasn’t sure we’d see at all. The only redeeming feature of this site was the impressive view up to Spain’s highest mountain Teide (3,718 metres), whose broad mass and profile reminded me a bit of Mt Kenya as seen from Naro Moru, although there was a slight difference in the number of birds in the area.
Saturday 19 January
This was the day I had been waiting for. I picked Jóhann Óli up at his hotel at 7:00 a.m. and we drove on increasingly tortuous roads towards the north-west corner of the islands, and a little over an hour later arrived at our destination, Monte del Agua by the village of Erjos (TFNW3). Various trip reports mention the terrible state of the track through the forest and how difficult it is to drive. In fact this terrible track is better than some sections of Iceland’s main ring road but as there were signs up strictly forbidding any traffic we parked by the radio masts and walked the rest. Another target bird was seen as we got out of the car, Canary, and it was very common in open areas around Erjos. Most trip reports mention the watchpoint over the forest by the rain gauge, 4.5 km along the track, but other trip reports mention one much closer, and directly across the valley from the rain gauge and this is the one we headed for. It’s about 1 km from where we parked the car and as the track takes a sharp left hand turn, a small path leads into the forest and then soon opens up with excellent views over the laurel forest. We spent the next two hours here searching for the endemic pigeons. This is one the most stressful two hours of birding I’ve ever had. Sightings are few and far between, the (distant) pigeons hurtle across the tree tops below you and disappear within seconds over a ridge or back into the canopy so you have a very short time to lock onto a flying bird and identify it (admittedly not rocket science). But in the two hours we had, we saw perhaps 15 Bolle’s Pigeons and after an hour and half I saw my no. 1 target bird, a solitary Laurel Pigeon (Jóhann Óli missed this one but later in the week saw four very easily at La Grimona on the north coast). Back near the car, in the open area just a hundred metres west of the radio masts we saw a Buzzard patrol the hillside, a Kestrel dart over, lots more Canaries, a female Sardinian Warbler, bad views of a Tenerife Goldcrest, and five Bolle’s Pigeons, much closer than from the forest viewpoint. There was just time to check out Erjos ponds (I had promised to be back by midday) where the best bird was an superb African Blue Tit, and a female Chaffinch was the only one of the trip. On the way home just before the village of Chio, with my head still tuned into pigeons, I saw two dumpy birds on the road ahead, and for split second wondered what two pigeons were doing waddling across the road, before I realised they were Barbary Partridges, and after an emergency stop we enjoyed great views of them scuttling up the dry hillside. Superb looking birds!
Sunday 20 January
A flock of 50 Little Egrets on the seafront was the highlight of the morning's walk. Little did I know at the time but if I'd walked a kilometre further I might have seen a Tricoloured Heron. While I’ve seen quite a few in the real Americas, it would have livened up the pitiful birding in Playa de las Americas. I blame the employees of Hooter’s, whose antics ensured that my eyes never went near the beach when I walked past.
Monday 21 January
Another early start, picking up Jóhann Óli at 7:00 for a slighter shorter drive (45 minutes) to the Las Lajas campsite in the beautiful pine forests above Vilaflor (TFC3). We arrived just before eight, and although we suspected it would be cold at 2,000 metres just after sunrise, we still dressed in shorts and sandals (we're used to dealing with every kind of cool weather imaginable in Iceland but we stubbornly insist on shorts and sandals in Spain, no matter where we are) and it was bloody freezing! We were soon warmed up by an unfamiliar call, which could only belong to one bird and after a few minutes of circling a pine tree, our quarry took pity on us and moved and landed right in front of us, a brilliant male Blue Chaffinch. In fact it was the commonest bird in the area, followed by African Blue Tit. We also got better views of Tenerife Goldcrest here and excellent views of Great Spotted Woodpecker. Berthelot's Pipit, Canary and Rock Dove completed the list of birds here, and once we'd enjoyed the Blue Chaffinches, we decided to head on up the mountain into the Teide National Park (TFC5). Teide dominates the island, in fact it could be argued that Teide is the island, and it's no less impressive close up, and the view of the peak when you reach the plateau is magnificent. We were both struck by its similarity to the Snæfellsjökull volcano in Iceland (minus the ice cap) and indeed this was the most Icelandic landscape I've ever seen outside Iceland. The vegetation was a dead giveaway that we were a lot further south, as was the Southern Grey Shrike by the road. I've seen dozens of these in Spain but never had such good views, a much darker bird than in mainland Spain too. Berthelot's Pipit was the commonest bird here but we also came across four more Barbary Partridges, whose evasive flap-glide-drop-like-a-stone flight in a lava landscape had us thinking of Ptarmigan back home. Once again my clock was ticking so we headed back, stopping briefly at Vilaflor, where we saw four Corn Buntings, lots of Canaries, a male Sardinian Warbler, two Kestrels and we eventually managed to coax a Spectacled Warbler on to the top of a bush.
Tuesday 22 January
The last birding session was restricted to the final evening. I had fully intended to check out the Amarilla golf course, but as time was short, I wasn't exactly sure where the golf course was, and the prospect of birding on a golf course was too depressing to contemplate, I ended up at the wasteland from last Friday. This time I managed to make it down to the sea where a few distant Gannets flew by. I disturbed a couple of Barbary Partridges but the area was generally very birdless again, although there were at least three Southern Grey Shrikes in the area, and that was that.
Three habitat shots
1) Monte del Agua - home of Bolle's Pigeon and Laurel Pigeon
2) Teide, Spain's highest mountain. The area in the foreground held Berthelot's Pipit, Barbary Partridge and Southern Grey Shrike
3)Las Lajas - home of Blue Chaffinch
I visited Tenerife for the first time in January on a family holiday, the first time away with our 8-month old twins. While I've been to several places (Australia, Singapore, Trinidad & Tobago, New York City) with my non-birding wife and managed to squeeze in some excellent birding in between more traditional tourist activities, it was clear that having two babies along this time was not going to give me much time in the field at all. Hence Tenerife, with its relatively limited number of species but high proportion of endemics or near endemics, is a perfect place for such a trip. A couple of excursions into the field allow you to see all the target birds. My plan was to make a special effort to see the two pigeons and Blue Chaffinch, and I figured I’d see the other specialties while searching for these three, and so it turned out.
We stayed in the resort of Playa de las Americas, a place filled with such delightful traditional Spanish tavernas as Hooter's and Burger King, and an overwhelming choice of karaoke contests in the evening. Yes, it's a culture-free zone and easily the worst place I've ever been for morning birding walks from the hotel. I'm sure there are infinitely better places for birders to base themselves in Tenerife but it was fine for the purpose of our visit (sun and hassle-free travel with babies).
All numbered site references are those given in Where to Watch Birds in Tenerife by Eduardo Garcia del Rey.
Day-by-day account
Thursday 17 January
After a terrible flight in which we had to refuel in Ireland en route as the pilots couldn't take off with a full load of fuel in Iceland due to the heavy snow and icy conditions, we landed five hours late, just before dawn. The first Blackbirds were already singing but birding was the last thing on my mind as I put two skriking infants to bed. The first lifer came a few minutes after getting out of bed and going out on to the balcony, Canary Islands Chiffchaff, a ubiquitous bird. It did take me a while to see one properly though, not for the lack of birds to look at, but rather my reluctance to use my binoculars near sunbeds full of elderly British, French and German tourists. Other common birds round the hotel were Blackbird, whose alarm call sounded very different from the ones in my garden, Collared Dove, and Spanish Sparrow, a bird I hadn't seen for a few years. Yellow-legged Gulls flew over regularly.
Friday 18 January
On a pre-breakfast walk on the seafront with my daughters I saw two Grey Plovers, and a trio of familiar Icelanders, i.e. Turnstone, Ringed Plover and Whimbrel. In the afternoon I met up with one of my Icelandic birding friends Jóhann Óli Hilmarsson who happened to be staying a few minutes away. We set out at 4:00 p.m. to have a look at the abandoned fields between El Fraile and Punta de la Rasca (TFS7). We are still not sure if we found the area as described in the book as the maps don't quite seem to match what we found on the ground. It could be that another few banana plantations have been put up since the book was written, but where we ended up was undoubtedly the least attractive place I've ever been birding. A man made wasteland of few birds, girded by plastic covered banana plantations, with plastic bags blowing everywhere. Still on the bright side we weren’t long to find the first Berthelot’s Pipit and some convincing looking Rock Doves. We then met two British birders (the only birders we saw on the trip) who said they had just seen a Cream-coloured Courser (!) but then proceeded to give us a perfect description of a Stone Curlew, and my heartbeat got back to its normal speed. In fact we didn’t find the Stone Curlew but we stumbled upon El Fraile Reservoir, and our trip list suddenly reached double figures, with Little Egret, Spoonbill, Black-tailed Godwit, Greenshank, Coot, Moorhen, Wigeon, Tufted Duck, Grey Wagtail and Lesser Black-backed Gull (amongst YLG). On the way back a delightful Hoopoe crossed our paths but the general area was depressingly birdless. Just before the car we stopped to look at a curious shack on the hillside, and as soon as we lifted our binoculars we shouted in unison PLAIN SWIFT!, and there flying over the hillside was our only Plain Swift of the trip, a bird I wasn’t sure we’d see at all. The only redeeming feature of this site was the impressive view up to Spain’s highest mountain Teide (3,718 metres), whose broad mass and profile reminded me a bit of Mt Kenya as seen from Naro Moru, although there was a slight difference in the number of birds in the area.
Saturday 19 January
This was the day I had been waiting for. I picked Jóhann Óli up at his hotel at 7:00 a.m. and we drove on increasingly tortuous roads towards the north-west corner of the islands, and a little over an hour later arrived at our destination, Monte del Agua by the village of Erjos (TFNW3). Various trip reports mention the terrible state of the track through the forest and how difficult it is to drive. In fact this terrible track is better than some sections of Iceland’s main ring road but as there were signs up strictly forbidding any traffic we parked by the radio masts and walked the rest. Another target bird was seen as we got out of the car, Canary, and it was very common in open areas around Erjos. Most trip reports mention the watchpoint over the forest by the rain gauge, 4.5 km along the track, but other trip reports mention one much closer, and directly across the valley from the rain gauge and this is the one we headed for. It’s about 1 km from where we parked the car and as the track takes a sharp left hand turn, a small path leads into the forest and then soon opens up with excellent views over the laurel forest. We spent the next two hours here searching for the endemic pigeons. This is one the most stressful two hours of birding I’ve ever had. Sightings are few and far between, the (distant) pigeons hurtle across the tree tops below you and disappear within seconds over a ridge or back into the canopy so you have a very short time to lock onto a flying bird and identify it (admittedly not rocket science). But in the two hours we had, we saw perhaps 15 Bolle’s Pigeons and after an hour and half I saw my no. 1 target bird, a solitary Laurel Pigeon (Jóhann Óli missed this one but later in the week saw four very easily at La Grimona on the north coast). Back near the car, in the open area just a hundred metres west of the radio masts we saw a Buzzard patrol the hillside, a Kestrel dart over, lots more Canaries, a female Sardinian Warbler, bad views of a Tenerife Goldcrest, and five Bolle’s Pigeons, much closer than from the forest viewpoint. There was just time to check out Erjos ponds (I had promised to be back by midday) where the best bird was an superb African Blue Tit, and a female Chaffinch was the only one of the trip. On the way home just before the village of Chio, with my head still tuned into pigeons, I saw two dumpy birds on the road ahead, and for split second wondered what two pigeons were doing waddling across the road, before I realised they were Barbary Partridges, and after an emergency stop we enjoyed great views of them scuttling up the dry hillside. Superb looking birds!
Sunday 20 January
A flock of 50 Little Egrets on the seafront was the highlight of the morning's walk. Little did I know at the time but if I'd walked a kilometre further I might have seen a Tricoloured Heron. While I’ve seen quite a few in the real Americas, it would have livened up the pitiful birding in Playa de las Americas. I blame the employees of Hooter’s, whose antics ensured that my eyes never went near the beach when I walked past.
Monday 21 January
Another early start, picking up Jóhann Óli at 7:00 for a slighter shorter drive (45 minutes) to the Las Lajas campsite in the beautiful pine forests above Vilaflor (TFC3). We arrived just before eight, and although we suspected it would be cold at 2,000 metres just after sunrise, we still dressed in shorts and sandals (we're used to dealing with every kind of cool weather imaginable in Iceland but we stubbornly insist on shorts and sandals in Spain, no matter where we are) and it was bloody freezing! We were soon warmed up by an unfamiliar call, which could only belong to one bird and after a few minutes of circling a pine tree, our quarry took pity on us and moved and landed right in front of us, a brilliant male Blue Chaffinch. In fact it was the commonest bird in the area, followed by African Blue Tit. We also got better views of Tenerife Goldcrest here and excellent views of Great Spotted Woodpecker. Berthelot's Pipit, Canary and Rock Dove completed the list of birds here, and once we'd enjoyed the Blue Chaffinches, we decided to head on up the mountain into the Teide National Park (TFC5). Teide dominates the island, in fact it could be argued that Teide is the island, and it's no less impressive close up, and the view of the peak when you reach the plateau is magnificent. We were both struck by its similarity to the Snæfellsjökull volcano in Iceland (minus the ice cap) and indeed this was the most Icelandic landscape I've ever seen outside Iceland. The vegetation was a dead giveaway that we were a lot further south, as was the Southern Grey Shrike by the road. I've seen dozens of these in Spain but never had such good views, a much darker bird than in mainland Spain too. Berthelot's Pipit was the commonest bird here but we also came across four more Barbary Partridges, whose evasive flap-glide-drop-like-a-stone flight in a lava landscape had us thinking of Ptarmigan back home. Once again my clock was ticking so we headed back, stopping briefly at Vilaflor, where we saw four Corn Buntings, lots of Canaries, a male Sardinian Warbler, two Kestrels and we eventually managed to coax a Spectacled Warbler on to the top of a bush.
Tuesday 22 January
The last birding session was restricted to the final evening. I had fully intended to check out the Amarilla golf course, but as time was short, I wasn't exactly sure where the golf course was, and the prospect of birding on a golf course was too depressing to contemplate, I ended up at the wasteland from last Friday. This time I managed to make it down to the sea where a few distant Gannets flew by. I disturbed a couple of Barbary Partridges but the area was generally very birdless again, although there were at least three Southern Grey Shrikes in the area, and that was that.
Three habitat shots
1) Monte del Agua - home of Bolle's Pigeon and Laurel Pigeon
2) Teide, Spain's highest mountain. The area in the foreground held Berthelot's Pipit, Barbary Partridge and Southern Grey Shrike
3)Las Lajas - home of Blue Chaffinch
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