Birdwatch Batch #2 - Tenerife
I have come back from our week-long holiday at Tenerife, it was truly spectacular and it almost felt like it lasted more than a week, not to mention there was a nice Halloween festival thingy at our hotel. Along my trip I have seen many new species of birds and other animals on my watch, including my first successful whale watch. I will make a relaxing video of my sightings soon. Enjoy! Oh, don’t forget, there isn’t even just animals here!
A collared dove first morning on holiday. Of course the first bird to expect here, as well as many other subtropical areas in the Old World.
My first sightings of the ruddy turnstones. These little waders get their name from their habit of turning stones over to find food on the beach. Though I’m less of an expert on waders and I have not seen turnstones before, I have also known them to be found in the UK, and as you’ll see later, there are many more familiar British birds here.
I was very curious hearing birdsongs at the pool of my hotel very similar to those of the chiffchaffs from home, though more varied in tone. From my research, it actually turned out to be a newly witnessed species called the Canary Islands chiffchaff, and I soon saw the bird myself, in the top-right corner of this photo. There are more down.
While waiting for the Freebird One boat to arrive for our whalewatching trip, I had fun watching wildlife at the harbour, and these fancy crabs were plentiful. They were specifically of the species Grapsus adscensionis, related to the impressively acrobatic Sally Lightfoot crab of the other side of the world. I have also seen these same crabs at the end of my Lanzarote trip a year ago.
The unexpected sight of a zooming Atlantic trumpetfish was just stunning.
A gull, like many others here at Tenerife. Maybe a yellow-legged gull? I’m again not as familiar on seabirds as I am with songbirds.
The grandiose cliffs of Los Gigantes. We were told that its igneous rocks were about ten Miocene million years old as I remember. We had a good swim in the area for a while.
At least presumably a Cory’s shearwater from a distance of the boat. I would continue to see these seabirds throughout my holiday at times. Though the bills were rather pink, I really couldn’t find any other analogue to the birds on my deep research. It honestly makes me happy, because I’ve known of these birds for a rather long time for their unusual "awa-awa-awa" call, although we sadly did not hear it.
I had seen a couple of flying fish at sea, but they were very hard to photograph because of how short their appearance is out of the water, so I am lucky I have this one shot, albeit just a bright streak on my not-the-best camera.
Short-finned pilot whales! Growing up to six metres long, these beauties are one of the largest members of the oceanic dolphin family. It was very delighting to see them on my first successful whalewatch, and luckily, it was not one breach but a whole pod travelling and surfacing slowly for air.
Who needs Loro Parque when you have more responsible whalewatching tours? Honestly, I do not know where to stand on Loro Parque, since I am not a fan of the ethics of captive cetacean shows but do great conservation otherwise. It gets into a SeaWorld situation…
Just a cheap old Deinonychus toy I found hobbling around at a random shop on the street. This pose has become prevalent in cheap toys of the dinosaur like this.
At morning, while doing a bit more of my still unfinished Allosaurus, I would feed the collared doves sesame seeds off my chicken burger. Seeds and fruits are much better for birds than clumps of bread and chips, unlike what the harmful childhood stereotype might have you believe, so take care feeding them.
We went on a dune buggy excursion to the beautiful mountainous Teide National Park, named after its famed volcano. Not to mention the beautiful clouds rolling on the ground, the landscape is exotically prehistoric, right out of the Triassic period, not a shoot of grass in sight. Indeed, an episode of Chased By Dinosaurs was filmed there.
The overshadowing volcano in the distance makes it yet even more prehistoric. I also barely heard a noise here. Just imagine how strangely peaceful it was in ambience before humans populated the Earth with their technologies.
Teide, third largest volcano in the world.
I would love to come back again to this Triassic paradise.
On a night walk down the beach of the town, we unexpectedly saw this young shearwater looking and flapping on the pavement. I don’t know what it was doing here, probably "stranded" itself, but we haven’t saw it since and I hope it’s doing well out there. Maybe it just had a bit of an adventure.
I was seeing these cute little HiperDino stores in places since our arrival from the airport. It’s pretty amusing how the dinosaur looks like it has some feathers, at least on the head, though that might be a coincidence.
A nice conservationist board thing about Tenerife’s special protected marine ecosystem, though sadly aged and vandalised. I really love these kinds of educational boards, as someone who loves nature and its conservation.
On the last full day, I got to study one ruddy turnstone up close, just admiring its movements and behaviours.
Footprints…
At afternoon, we rented a boat to explore the seas ourselves for wildlife, including cetaceans. Though we didn’t see the latter, it was a relaxing safari with other interesting animals across the quiet oceans. We saw a lot of Cory’s shearwaters chilling on the waves, close to our boat.
We were lucky to spot and photograph this turtle, presumably a loggerhead, catching a breath of air.
Before we departed to the airport at 12:00, I would study more of birds inhabiting the hotel. Here’s a better photo of the Canary Islands chiffchaff, hopping around the morning-lit branch.
While tracing its song, I also saw these blue tits pop up from a shrub. These aren’t the ordinary Eurasian species, but another unique variant of African blue tits that call the Canary Islands home.
I had also witnessed both the sounds and sights of the beautiful familiar blackbirds throughout the week. Here’s one of the only media I managed to photograph of a Tenerife blackbird.
Lastly, I saw many introduced parrot species throughout the week, especially by the same beach with the ruddy turnstones, including ring-necks of course, which I occasionally witness in the UK and even at home there sometimes. Here’s a noisy flock of nanday parakeets. Thank you for seeing this blogpost and I can’t wait til I come back on holiday again!