Bob the Birder: Tenerife

Sunday 13 September 2015

Tenerife - Sept 2015

I was very fortunate to have the opportunity of a week's Birding on the island of Tenerife last week. In company with Pete, our host, Keith and Steve. We did a bit of Birding, a bit of walking and a bit of lounging and became members of the San Miguel appreciation society. We even managed a couple of sessions in the pool.
We saw most of the endemic species in the first few days with trips to the north of the island, Mount Teide and the Laurel forests. I was surprised to see so many White tailed Laurel pigeons having only seen this species only briefly in flight on a previous visit to Tenerife. I also caught up with other sub-species Tenerife Goldcrest and Tenerife Chaffinch which I hadn't seen before. We also tried various headlands for a spot of Sea watching. Despite the lack of favourable winds there was an impressive passage of Cory's Shearwaters. Numbers totalling thousands on one evening. The Petrels were more difficult with only one confirmed sighting of 2 Bulwer's petrels. Despite our best efforts the only migrants of note were Spoonbill, Glossy Ibis and Osprey. In all we recorded some 50 species including a Long tailed Glossy Starling of unknown origin.
My bird of the week was a single Lesser short toed Lark but White tailed Laurel Pigeon was a close second and the Sheer numbers of Corys Shearwaters was a memorable sight. All in all a very successful week and my sincere thanks to the lads for such an enjoyable time. It were fun!