British Isles Birding

15^th February 2008

Playa de las Americas was no more than fifteen minutes drive from the airport. We ditched the car at the point by the Santiago III and IV hotel complexes and, with gen in hand, got to the coastal strip and started scouring the rocky coastline. We had to be a little careful where we pointed our scopes but needless to say there was a fair amount of scantily clad talent to be seen with the naked eye anyway. All good stuff but the heron wasn’t playing ball. Andy and I split up – I went one way towards Los Cristianos and Andy into Playa de las Americas. We met up after half an hour or so both having a fruitless search. Knowing the bird had been seen the previous day outside Hooters Bar we headed up that way to check the area out.

Walking along the main walkway northwards, we were stopped by a continental touristy chappy who immediately announced ‘are you looking for the Three-banded Heron’. Yes we certainly were and without further ado got to the area between Hooters and McDonalds… and there sitting unobtrusively on the shore was the first-winter Tricoloured Heron. Absolutely magic! Though it’s a relatively common species that I’ve encountered a lot the other side of the pond, there’s something about vagrant birds wherever they may be that make them that bit special.

We watched the bird for the next three hours, occasionally answering questions as to what we were looking at, how rare it is, why has it come all the way from America etc but on the whole we had the bird to ourselves and it often approached us to within a couple of metres. As well as the heron, the shore area held good numbers of Whimbrel, Sanderling, Grey Plover, Ringed Plovers and Turnstones. A few Little Egrets were seen during the afternoon with c.15 seen heading west just prior to dusk. Spanish Sparrows, Collared Dove and Canary Islands’ Chiffchaff were all noted in the adjacent trees and hotel complexes.

So after three hours of solid views of the heron, being the sophisticated guys that we are, we headed the few steps up to the McDonalds and got amongst it. When we were finished at this establishment it was dark. With a full day of birding in store the next day, we drove the hour or so to the north coast and found a reasonably priced hotel (50 euros for the room) in Puerto de la Cruz. After the hustle and bustle of Playa de las Americas we found a quiet bar and sunk a few jars before hitting the sack.

16^th February 2008

We woke up just after 6am to find that we’d been given some duff gen about when it got light – in fact it wasn’t until well after 7am that you could call it birding light. It didn’t matter too much so we proceeded down to get some breakfast, being briefly disrupted in the hotel reception by a couple of last night’s revellers burping their way back to the their room.

I hadn’t visited Tenerife since 1995 (when I was 14 years old) and it had been a good few years since Andy had been too. So, with a bit of recent gen and a lot of what we already knew from the Gosney Guide and Tony Clarke’s book, we set off to reacquaint ourselves with the endemic species and subspecies that can be seen around the island.

Our initial plan was to head off early morning to the north-east of the island to look for Bolle’s Pigeon at Mirador Pico del Ingles. Although the sun was shining in Puerto de la Cruz, there was a distant mass of cloud over these mountains so we chalked it based upon the fact we’d need decent visibility for the pigeons. So we headed west a few kilometres along the coast from Puerto de la Cruz and stopped at a site we knew for Laurel Pigeons at Mirador de la Grimona. Within a matter of minutes, we were getting quality views of this rare Macaronesian endemic both in flight and perched. 3+ birds performed admirably in trees on the hillside whilst this site offered us with a load of other Tenerife specialities – a couple of superbus (Tenerife) Robins, several teneriffae Blue Tits as well as lots of Canaries and Canary Islands’ Chiffchaffs.

Laurel Pigeon (left) and Canary (right)

We headed west with the next stop being Los Silos where we took a narrow road signed ‘Monte del Agua’. Though it ended quickly in a dead end a brief walk here produced a Buzzard as well as more Canary Islands’ Chiffchaffs, teneriffae Blue Tits, Canaries and a Blackcap. Heading around the road south from Buenavista to Santiago del Teide we saw a Sparrowhawk near El Palmar, lots of Canaries and a good number of Kestrels. Whilst duding around taking scenery shots just west of Santiago del Teide we encountered our first Berthelot’s Pipit of the trip as it scurried around on rough ground adjacent to the Mirador (viewpoint).

Everyone appreciates the odd dudey scenery shot like this

North of Santiago del Teide, we headed west off the main road on the western fringes of the village of Erjos. I went to this site in 1995 and Andy saw Bolle’s here on his visit but we had been given some duff info regarding the site being burnt down by the fires of the last couple of years. Unfortunately the pinewoods along the main road do seem to have been severely damaged but we were pleased to find that after driving the 4km or so along the rough track to the obvious rock (described in Gosney under ‘Erjos’), the laurel forests remained unblemished. And within 15 minutes of looking over the vast area we’d had 3 or 4 views of Bolle’s Pigeons including one perched at decent range. Driving back along the track, another Bolle’s Pigeon showed at very close range albeit briefly before realising our presence and promptly flying off. A couple of tintillon Chaffinches in amongst large numbers of Canaries where the track met the main road were our only ones of the day.

By now it was early afternoon and, after driving around Mount Teide and its spectacular scenery, we arrived at Las Lajas picnic site. Being a Saturday the place was packed with people having picnics despite the rather raw temperature and cloud rolling in. As soon as we got out of the car the distinctive call of Blue Chaffinch could be heard and we quickly got to reacquaint ourselves with this endemic. At least a handful were seen in the hour we spent at the site along with a Great Spotted Woodpecker, several Berthelot’s Pipits and lots of teneriffae Blue Tits and Canaries. Shortly after leaving this site in the direction of Vilaflor a roadside stop produced half a dozen teneriffae Goldcrests and another couple of Blue Chaffinches.

Blue Chaffinch (left) and Berthelot's Pipit (right)

By mid afternoon we were back in the heart of the action and again walking along a bustling Playa de las Americas seafront. In no time at all we found the Tricoloured Heron on the rock pools below McDonalds. The place was heaving with people but again the bird just got on with its business fishing out small black fish from the rock pools and tide line. Several sun worshippers became fascinated by the bird and it wasn’t long before we weren’t the only people taking shots of the bird…

Why can't all the SLR boys look like this? 

And the Tricoloured Heron showing well again stalking fish in the rock pools

As our flight back was not until late evening the plan was to go and get a decent meal at a restaurant. Just as we were leaving though we bumped into a rather panicky Rafael Armada who had just flown in from Barcelona and, knowing the bird was near a McDonalds, had found two others before finding the right one and looked rather pleased to see a couple of birders. So we forfeited the meal, helped Rafael search for the bird and watched it until pretty much the sun went down. And there you have it - a quality trip with a star bird and the bonus of seeing the Tenerife specialities again after such a long time. The only bum note was having to change a punctured tyre on arrival back at Gatwick in sub zero temperatures at three in the morning.