CANARIES Tenerife, July 1979

2 July.  I got a bus from Puerto de la Cruz along the coast to Icod and then another up to Erjos although thanks to my very poor pronunciation no one in Icod knew where ErJos was.  I eventually caught the bus to ErHos.  From there I walked into the hills to the south-west searching for a lookout over the laurel forest.  This was greatly hampered by low cloud and inadequate, for me, directions.  I finally found the right place but visibility was very poor and I only saw one unidentified pigeon.  I made camp and crashed out early having seen a heady 20 species including 4 Turtle Doves, 2 Canary Islands Crest, 2 Ravens and 50 Canaries.  Despite sleeping on leaves it was a hard (and damp) night.

Drago milennia at Icod. 1000 year old tree, supposedly

3 July.    It was still cloudy at dawn but fortunately it soon cleared giving me an excellent view over the laurel forest.  I started scanning and eventually had a good view of a Laurel Pigeon.  I also convinced myself I could pick out a Cory's Shearwater on the sea, about 6 km away!  I had no success with the tail-banded Bolle's Pigeon and with the clouds closing in again early afternoon decided to leave the site and head for Los Cristianos in the far south of the island where there were ferries to Gomera. In the laurel forest I also saw 10 Canary Island Chiffchaffs, Canary Islands Crest, 6 local Blue Tits and 25 local Chaffinches.    I'm not really sure why I left with the pigeon unseen as, realistically, it was the last new bird for me on the islands.  Impatience probably!  I'm also not sure why I decided to take a clockwise route round the island which was three times as long, perhaps as it was served by buses and the shorter route wasn't (I wasn't a great hitcher).  In the event I had to walk 15 miles to Icod, arriving too late for the last bus to Puerto de la Cruz.  I found somewhere quiet to sleep in the town centre but had another bad night on hard concrete.  Although long, the walk to Icod was quite productive, passing by cultivated hillsides where I saw 8 Turtle Doves, Hoopoe, 11 Canary Island Chiffchaffs, 200 Spanish Sparrows and 44 Canaries.

view west from Erjos

La Gomera from Erjos

view south to Santiago from Erjos

4 July.   A day circumnavigating Tenerife by bus - Icod east to Puerto de la Cruz, northeast to Santa Cruz then the long journey south to Los Cristianos where I arrived at 14:00.  I saw a Kentish Plover, 2 Bar-tailed Godwits and 4 Whimbrel on some saltpans on the edge of town.  I found a headland and spent from 19:00-21:00 watchinng/counting passing Cory's Shearwaters: 241W & 15E in 15 minutes from 19:00; 106W & 20E in 5 minutes at 19:45; 207 in one scan at 10:10; 288 in 135 degree scan at 20:40 (when gettinng closer in) with numbers thinning out by 21:00.  Also 2 Little Shearwaters flew west.  Very impressive.  I slept on the edge of the saltpans, my best night so far.

Yellow-legged Gulls at Los Cristianos

Bar-tailed Godwits on the saltpans

5 July.  A morning at Los Cristianos where Kentish Plovers had increased to 3 and by chance I met Mick Alibone crossing the beach.  He'd flown to Fuerteventura, been successful with both pigeons on the first attempt (at least I confirmed that I'd been looking in the right place) and had effectively cleaned up on the land birds in four days.  We caught the 14:00 ferry to La Gomera arriving at 15:45, spent just over two hours in San Sebastian seeing a Raven and 2 Spanish Sparrows and caught the 18:00 ferry back getting in at 19:45.  Going to La Gomera we saw 235 Cory's, one and a probable Bulwer's Petrels and an unidentified Storm Petrel.  The return was better with 150 Cory's and 4 Little Shearwaters, 5 Bulwer's and 3 unidentified Storm Petrels.  A distant Little Shearwater and perhaps 400+ Cory's were noted in the evening off Los Cristianos.  Another good night on the edge of the saltpans.

Berthelot's Pipit, common in all arid habitats visited

didn't seem to mind litter either

6 July.  A repeat of yesterday. A morning at Los Cristianos, ferry to La Gomera where again one Raven was seen, return ferry, evening seawatch from Los Cristianos where slept on edge of saltpans.  The ferry crossing out was poor - 50 Cory's and a distant petrel considered most likely Madeiran.  The return was better with 100 Cory's and 8 Little Shearwaters and 3 Bulwer's Petrels.  The evening seawatch produced 250 Cory's and 5 Little Shearwaters.

Pico de Teide above the clouds from La Gomera

Pico de Teide above the clouds from the ferry

7 July.  Mick left at dawn to return to the airport and get a flight home a week early.  The Canaries had little attraction when the birds had been seen.  After a quick look on the saltpans, 2 Kentish Plovers again, I caught a bus 25km north to San Juan.  What appeared to be a sandy looking collared dove type seen from the bus was a bit of a surprise.  There was no bus past San Juan so I hitched the 9km to Guia.  I bought a few supplies and from there caught a bus to Erjos, walking back into the laurel forest and the viewpoint.  The weather was very much better and I had a very successful afternoon watch seeing 7 Bolle's and at least 2 Laurel Pigeons, an adult Egyptian Vulture and excellent views of a female Goshawk (thought to be new for the Canaries).  One of the Bolle's Pigeons, my last new bird on the Canaries, even perched for me. I camped out on the hill again.

view from the laurel forest and to the sea

Laurel forest from the viewpoint, the track back starts bottom right and ends top left

me at camp, day 12.  Hard ground, pillow wasn't that comfortable either

8 July.  The day started off a bit damp with low cloud so I headed back to Erjos.  I wasn't sure when the next bus was so started walking down to Icod hoping I could catch it when it came past.  I ended up walking the whole way, enlivened by 150 Plain Swifts, a Hoopoe, three Sardinian Warblers and 75 Canaries.  At Icod I caught a bus to Puerto de la Cruz where I saw a Little and 50 Cory's Shearwaters during an evening seawatch.

view from laurel forest to the sea

lizard sharing breakfast

Canary race of Chaffinch

juvenile Canary

I'd seen one like this on Tresco in October 1977

9 July.  My last day produced 8 Little and 307 Cory's Shearwaters and a lot of hanging around before catching an evening flight back home.  It had been a successful trip as I saw all 10 new birds I'd hoped to, at a cost of £100 all in.  However I'd only seen 54 species during two weeks and seemed to have spent a lot of time hanging around and retracing my steps.  Not that time was something I was short of but with better planning I could have seen as much in a week. 

[blogged October 2013]

CANARIES Tenerife & Fuerteventura June/July 1979

In summer 1979 I had a couple of spare weeks while doing an MSc dissertation.  I wanted to go somewhere where I could see some new birds but nobody I knew was free at that time so it had to be somewhere that wouldn't be too expensive to do on my own.  Return flights advertised to Tenerife for £49 caught my eye and a couple of weeks later I was on my way.  I took just hand-baggage, a change of clothes, light sleeping bag and plastic sheet.  I camped out the whole time (it was generally very mild) and spent £50 in two weeks including ferries.

This blog is part one of two and mainly covers a rather laborious visit to Fuerteventura.

On 26 June 1979 I arrived in Tenerife at 02:15 (the disadvantage of a cheap flight) and slept outside the airport until dawn.  I then got a bus to Santa Cruz where I waited an hour in a queue to get a return ferry ticket to Fuerteventura but as it made on progress I became impatient and left!  I caught a bus to Puerto de la Cruz ad walked to the botanical Gardens where I saw canary, Plain Swift and lots of Spanish Sparrows.  I then got a bus back to La Laguna and from there started to walk up the rad into the hills.  After 2km a bus came and I got a lift 6km to La Esperanza where it stopped.  I walked another 4kms and a car came past and offered me a lift.  They were a bit surprised when I said I was going to km 15 and got out in the pine forest in the middle of nowhere.  I waited until they had gone before climbing up above the road and finding somewhere to sleep out, but not before seeing a male Blue Chaffinch and several Canary Island Crests.  I would have slept better if I'd found a more level patch of ground!

Spanish Sparrow, probably an immature male, at Puerto de la Cruz Botanical Gardens

adult male Spanish Sparrow at Puerto de la Cruz Botanical Gardens

Canary at Puerto de la Cruz Botanical Gardens

On 27 June I saw 6 Blue Chaffinches and 7 Canary island Crests around km 15, I then walked down to La Laguna, in pines to km 9 seeing 8 Canary Island Chiffchaffs, 11 more crests, Canary races of Chaffinch and Blue Tit and Sardinian Warbler.  From km 9 down it was more open and dry with Hoopoe, Spectacled Warbler and 400 Spanish Sparrows.  In La Laguna I got a bus the short way to Santa Cruz, arriving at 13:40 to find the shipping office closed.  I waited around until dark seeing a Gull-billed Tern and 60 Yellow-legged Gulls and reading the Field Guide before finding a bench to sleep on.  It was very hard.

looking down on La Laguna from near km 15

looking down on Santa Cruz from above La Espernaza

I finally got a ferry ticket to Fuerteventura at 08:20 on 28 June.  I visited the market, bought some food, water and postcards but could not find a toilet anywhere (and wasn't desperate enough to ask, not at I knew any Spanish).  Never mind, it was only a 3 hour wait on the quay before the ferry sailed.  This time there were 3 Gull-billed Terns in the harbour.  The ferry sailed to Gran Canary being at sea from 12:00-16:30.  From the boat I saw 4 Maderian Petrels, two very well following in its wake.  Also 196 Cory's Shearwaters and 3 distant Bulwers Petrels. The boat was docked for 5 hours at Las Palmas on Gran Canary, setting off at 22:00 to sail through the night for Lanzarote.  I slept on deck.

Dawn broke off Lanzarote at 07:15 on 29 June.  I saw 18 Cory's Shearwaters flying north and a Grey Heron that flew east towards Africa before having second thoughts and returning.  At 08:00 we docked at Arrecife.  I had 6 hours to wait before the ship sailed and spent it around the harbour and salinas seeing 11 Kentish Plovers, 4 Hoopoes, 5 Berthelot's Pipit, 2 Great Grey Shrikes, and 75 Trumpeter Finches.  We departed Arrecife at 14:00 for the four hour crossing to Puerto del Rosario on Fuerteventura.  On this crossing I saw 48 Cory's Shearwaters and 10 Storm Petrels, 10 Dolphins, 2 Flying Fish and 3 Sharks.  Once off the ferry I walked 4 km to the Airport Barranco, a site found by Dave Willis.  Here I had good views of a male and two female Canary Island Stonechats, Hoopoe, 2 Spectacled Warblers, Great Grey Shrike and 55 Trumpeter Finches.  The last hour of daylight I spent on the flat desert plain to the west of the airport seeing at least two Black-bellied Sandgrouse (flying over and on the ground), 400+ Lesser Short-toed Larks and more Hoopoes, Great Grey Shrikes and Trumpeter Finches.  Unfortunately no Cream Coloured Coursers despite covering a fair bit of ground.  I slept on the middle of the  plain under an amazingly clear sky with loads of stars, easily my best night yet.

Berthelots Pipit on Lanzarote

Great Grey Shrike on Lanzarote

looking back to Lanzarote

male Canary Islands Stonechat in Willis's Barranco on Fuerteventura

female Canary Islands Stonechat

female or juvenile Canary Islands Stonechat

my camp on Fuerteventura

30 June was decision day.  I could either catch the morning's ferry back to Tenerife or wait 4 days for the next one.  Cream-coloured Courser was the main bird I could hope to see on Fuerteventura - Houbara might be difficult on foot - but neither were new. There were two pigeons still to see on Tenerife in an area renowned for bad visibility and perhaps some more seabirds from the Gomera ferry.  I decided to get the morning ferry back and have a final dash around the plain and Barranco first.  The Black-bellied Sandgrouse were still present, and 150 Lesser Short-toed Larks but I couldn't refind the stonechats.  I quickly returned to Puerto del Rosario, counting the distance between km markers as 1028.5 paces, one way of not being too distracted!  I managed to hassle my way onto the ferry and buy a ticket.  It was then 4 hours back to Lanzarote seeing 20 Cory's Shearwaters and an unidentified storm petrel on the way, another 5.5 hours wait at Arrecife where the Great Grey Shrike was singing and Kentish Plovers had increased to 19.  We set off for the overnight crossing to Gran Canary but came across floating gin palace that had lost power and had to tow it back to port. Frustrating for me as it cut short my counting a passage of 114 Cory's Shearwaters.  Another night on deck.

1 July.  We docked at Las Palmas on Gran Canary.  Four hours wasn't really long enough to get anywhere and back for the next ferry but I did not want to spend any longer on Gran Canary so hung around the quay again.  This was getting quite boring.  We left Gran Canary at 14:00 and arrived on Tenerife at 17:30 having seen a Little and 50 Cory's Shearwaters, 2 Bulwer's Petrels and 5 flying fish.  I caught a bus to Puerto de la Cruz and seawatched on the beach from 19:00 to dusk when I found somewhere quiet to sleep out.  45 Cory's Shearwaters were milling around offshore.

approaching Gran Canary

approaching Santa Cruz on Tenerife

to be continued ...

ISRAEL April 1979

This is the concluding blog recounting a two week trip to Israel in early spring 1979.   Rupert Hastings, Andrew Moon, Pete Naylor, Tim Norris and I travelled around in a hire car in some discomfort (at least in the back it was) seeing as much as we could.

1 April.  We looked for Hooded Wheatear around Nueba and soon saw 5 (3 males) as well as 3 Hoopoe Larks.  We continued north to Elat seeing another female Hooded Wheatear on the way.  At Elat there was a summer plumage Sociable Plover in the north fields, although it always kept its distance, and 3 Caspian Plovers.  Other migrants were a bit thin on the ground although we did see 3 Baillon’s Crakes, 3 Bluethroats, a Savi’s Warbler and an Ortolan Bunting.  We heard two Nubian Nightjars close to the Jordanian border at dusk and I had a brief view of a shape which was probably one of them, even worse than a Hume's Tawny Owl!  We slept on the beach.

summer plumaged Sociable Plover on the fields at Elat.  Despite its name it wasn't very approachable

Tawny Pipit

2 April.  We started at Taba, just outside Elat, where we saw another male Hooded Wheatear.  It was a species I has been a bit anxious about finding but we’d now seen 7.  We spent the rest of the day at and around Elat visiting the ringing station in the fields where the ringers kindly showed us some nice birds in the hand, best being a female Little Crake.  Also at Elat we saw 72 Collared Pratincoles, the Sociable and a flock of 53 Caspian Plovers (with another 21 possibly being different) and both Common and Thrush Nightingale. During the heat of the day we visited the Underwater Observation Station and saw some fish and late afternoon we tried the Water Pumping Station just south of Elat where we had good views of 2 Lichtenstein’s Sandgrouse before it got dark.  After a meal we returned to the beach for another night.

Little Crake in the hand, seen during an enjoyable visit to the ringing group

Blue-headed Wagtail

Ortolan Bunting

Masked Shrike

views from the underwater observation tower





just like being in a posh aquarium

3 April.  At Elat we saw the Sociable and 20+ Caspian Plovers but the fields and canal seemed comparatively quiet and we headed north to Qetura, stopping on the way for views of a Lappet-faced Vulture over distant hills.  The Glossy Ibis was still at Qetura and we saw migrant Wryneck and Wood Warbler while 12 Bee-eaters flew north.  Yotvata was quieter, just 2 Masked Shrikes, so we headed back towards Elat for the afternoon seeing a Short-toed Eagle from the car.  Back at Elat we stayed around the beach (Brown Boobys were not restricted to being offshore!) and the canal seeing an impressive flock of 450 Garganey and another male Baillon’s Crake.  An evening walk along the border eventually produced a decent view of Nubian Nightjar, and a close encounter with the Israeli army on our return in the dark.  A patrol on the lookout for insurgents crossing from Jordan so it was just as well that we were not being particularly quiet!

4 April.  We again visited the ringing station in the fields at Elat where the 2 Scops Owls and a male Cretzchmar’s Bunting were the highlights. The 20 Caspian Plovers were still present while a Merlin was a bit of a surprise and a Sooty Shearwater was seen offshore.  We then visited the Moon Valley Mountains for some raptor watching seeing 700 Steppe Buzzards, 50 Steppe Eagles and 3 Egyptian Vultures.  A small accipiter was almost certainly misidentified as a Levant Sparrowhawk (far too early in the season we later realised) while I was also getting excited by a falcon that in hindsight almost certainly wasn’t a Saker.  Raptors have never been my favourites!  Back at Elat 7 Thick-billed Larks flew north over the beach without stopping (frustrating views but at least i'd seen them very well in Morrocco two years before) while a single Black Stork and 2 Baillon’s Crakes were seen somewhat better.

Brown Booby off the beach at Elat

Western Reef  Egret

Elat

Scops Owl

hand to be able to turn one's head like that!

brilliant

5 April.   In a two hour watch from the Moon Valley Mountains we saw 20 Black Storks, 400 Black Kites, 1200 Steppe Buzzards, 2 Egyptian Vultures and Imperial, Short-toed, Bonelli’s, 3 Booted, 4 Lesser Spotted and 50 Steppe Eagles.  Even an ardent raptor-phobe couldn’t remain unimpressed for long.  Back at Elat an estimated 4500 White Storks were on the move, perhaps we’d left the mountains too soon, while the Sociable and 2 Caspian Plovers were still present.  We left Elat and headed back north, stopping briefly at Qetura on the way – Glossy Ibis still present.  In the mountains west of the southern end of the Dead Sea we had excellent views of 2 Lammergeyers and another male Hooded Wheatear with a male Pallid Harrier and a Barbary Falcon on the way to En Gedi.  Another search until well after dark failed to produce any sightings of Hume’s Tawny Owl for me, no matter how dodgy, and after a meal we left to drive into the desert and find somewhere there to camp near El Sharuhen (lights and noise on the near horizon suggested a military base close by that we were keen to avoid any contact with).

White Storks over Elat

Dead Sea

Wadi near the Dead Sea

me and the Dead Sea. Close to the Edge? Yes

Chukar

Desert Lark

Lammergeyers

6 April.  Our last full day was spent in the Negev.  We started at a wadi near En Sharuhen, to the north of Ze’elim, where a pair of Eagle Owls were resident.  We had excellent views of them on the cliff face and then drove to Ze’elim, Revivim and Nizzana stopping regularly to scan or walk across sections of desert.  We were particularly looking for Crowned Sandgrouse which we never did find although a flock of 77 Caspian Plovers near Ze’elim was some compensation.  We also flushed a pale Booted Eagle, saw 2 Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters and Cream Coloured Courses were widespread.  From Nizzana we headed southwest but hadn’t gone far when we saw a male Houbara Bustard from the car.  We then continued for about 10 kms, seeing more courses and 2 Hoopoe Larks, before returning.  The drive back to Ze’elim, and a final look around there, produced 29 more Cream Coloured Coursers (taking my day total to 51), male Pallid Harrier, another pale Booted Eagle, Little Owl and a flock of 25 Bee-eaters.  We left the Negev wanting more but had unfortunately run out of time and had to drive back towards Tel Aviv, camping out near Lud.

Eagle Owl (photo by Andrew Moon)

Houbara Bustard

Booted Eagle

Cream Coloured Courser

with film scratches

 

part of the Caspian Plover flock

and then I ran out of film ...

 

7 April.  We had an hour around Lud seeing 3 Chukars and a male Blackbird before returning to the airport, dropping off the car (very dusty by now), getting a wash and brush-up ourselves (also quite dusty) and flying home.  It had been a very enjoyable trip, nice species (including most targets), some spectacular migration and excellent companions.

[blogged February 2014]