I have recently returned from 17 days in Tenerife. The first week was with three birding colleagues, we cleaned up on the endemics in three days leaving us scratching around for the rest of the week. It was good fun and we all enjoyed the experience. Highlights include: Bolle’s Pigeon, White-tailed Pigeon, Blue Chaffinch, Island Canary, Canary Island Blue Tit, Canary Island Chiffchaff, Plain Swift, Barbary Falcon, Barbary Partridge, Monk Parakeet, Spoonbill, Cattle Egret, Glossy Ibis, Long-tailed Glossy Starling, Spanish Sparrow, Lesser-short Toed Lark, Spectacled Warbler and Sardinian Warbler. Plus but by no means least 1,000’s of Cory’s Shearwaters.
I dropped the lads off at the Airport with Joy arriving on the flight they were returning on. She needed the rest having had a hectic week at work. We generally just relaxed although we did a little birding only really adding Knot and Common Sandpiper. In fact we didn’t even use the car for the last few days. But I really enjoyed it.
Today at Shustoke I had a year tick with a Little Egret, there was a bit of passage today with 50-80 hirundines a fly over Yellow Wagtail, 2 Blackcap, several Chiffchaff. It was good to see getting on for 50 species – to put it into perspective in the 17 days on Tenerife I only managed 55 species.
