North Cave & Blacktoft

Not back to work till next week so took advantage and had a couple of afternoon trips out, a nice sunny day on Thursday tempted me out to North Cave Wetlands for a bit of photography, it was a quiet start but things picked up a bit when I found a pair of mating Migrant Hawkers by the the Dragonfly Pool then ended very well when I got back round to the Main Lake where a juv Black and adult Arctic Tern were flying around.

 On Friday as the forecast heavy rain didn't materialise I nipped to Blacktoft for a couple of hours, again it was fairly quiet the only wader of note was a single Spotted Redshank on Marshland Lagoon however a few Snipe were feeding right in front of the hide, its been a while since I've had any at a decent range for photography and also a young Hare came out and fed on the grass for a while.

 

Tenerife

Just back from a 10 day break on Tenerife, a sunshine Holiday with Dawn but I managed a bit of birding, as per usual there were not many birds around the resort, Playa de las Americas, the commonest being Collared Doves and Canary Islands Chiffchaffs, a few Plain Swifts were seen around the Hotel most evenings although the only Hirundines were a couple of Swallows through one evening, also a few Spanish Sparrows and Monk Parakeets plus the Canary Islands races of Kestrel and Grey Wagtail were seen, a lot of the coast was rocky and a few Waders were seen around the rock pools although nothing out of the ordinary but the biggest surprise and my first new bird of the holiday was a Barbary Falcon that drifted over the resort one evening, I also got a Butterfly tick  when a Monarch flew past the Hotel balcony. I took a Boat trip out from Los Christianos one afternoon, got really good views of Bottlenose Dolphins and Pilot Whales plus loads of Cory's Shearwaters but no hoped for Petrels, lots of Yellow Legged Gulls as usual and a few Sandwich Terns plus loads of Little Egrets perched on some tall cliffs (almost thought they were Gannets at first). The next day I took a trip that went up to Mt Teide then dropped back down to the North of the Island and ended up at a little village called Masca in a hidden valley, it was a good trip with some fantastic scenery but as is usual on these trips I didn’t get a lot of time for birding and even though we stopped at the Las Lajas picnic site, the best place for Blue Chaffinch I failed to see one, highlights were Spectacled Warbler and Berthelot's Pipit, plus Canary Blue Butterfly at Mt Teide, Sardinian Warbler and the Canary Islands race of Blue Tit at Santiago del Teide where we stopped for lunch and Canary at Masca. On the last afternoon I caught the bus over to Los Abrigos a bit further along the coast then walked across to the nearby Golf del Sur complex, as I had read in a few trip reports it is an excellent area for Barbary Partridge and I flushed several small parties giving me tick number two but apart from a couple of Spectacled Warblers there was nothing else even the Golf Course surprisingly held very little, a Cattle Egret wandered around a small pond there and there was also a small flock of Fulvous Whistling Ducks but as they were accompanied by a Bar Headed Goose I think they were a bit suspect.

the two commonest birds

predominately rocky coastline

a few Waders

immature Yellow Legged Gulls patrolling

Kestrel on the look out

Tenerife Lizards

Bottlenose Dolphin

Pilot Whale

Cliffs near Los Christianos

Mt Teide

distinctive rock

Canary Blue Butterflies

view to Las Palmas

the road winds down to Masca

Barbary Partridge country near Los Abrigos