Mark and Anne Birding day trip in Gran Canaria

Mark and Anne: Not just birding in Gran Canaria

 

It was such a great day... from Sunrise to sunset. From the summit to the coast. We felt the cold morning Alisium wind while Magec threw its warming bright beams over the volcanic sacred rocks. Roque Nublo was the first central caldera rock to recieve the bright bless... A good flock of beautiful Canary Birds (Serinus canarius) woke up among the pines and brooms and it was the starting signal for our trip.


We managed to find our little winged blue treasures, our very rare Blue Chaffinches of Gran Canaria (F. Polazteki) in our first stop! We wer so lucky! But they were all in the first area, we tried at least in 4 more hotspots and they didn ´t show.

They are always so special, so scarce and unique... greysh blue, strong bill and white shoulder spots... it is so nice when they give us this precious moments flying by and perching at our sight among the pines...

Of course other companions like the Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major ssp canariensis),and the African blue tit (Cyanistes teneriffae ssp hedwigae) were sharing the pinewood
We continued towards Roque Nublo to be surprised by a couple of Black Kites (Milvus migrans) which are not common at all in this island!

We took a short but relaxing stop to savour some local products sitting in the edge of one of biggest volcanic calderas in the world.

After satisfying ourselves with the views and the sights we headed towards the north of the island, to the last laurel forests that still survive in the most green and isolated ravines to look for the Laurel pigeon (Columba junoniae). They were hidden in the first minutes, but our patience was rewarded and afer a while they began to fly by our heads giving us wonderful sights. Even more, they perched in some branches with no cover so that we were able to see them perfectly with the telescope.

As last goal we had to look for the exclusive local endemic ssp of our Robin (Erithacus rubecula ssp marionae). We were hearing them all around but we were not able to spot them in the bush... but in our stop to have a Pata sandwich in Valleseco, just in front of our noses one of this little birds showed off its beautiful dark orange chest! Last one in our list scored!
After completing our day goals we decided to try to find the local gigant lizard of Gran Canaria (Gallotia stehlini), so we descended almost to the coastal level and after some minutes looking for them Mark spotted one into its little cave. So with some patience we managed to see it coming out. It was a big one! Good!

And finally, last but not least, the sunset atop the summit of the island awaited for us to come. No words can describe it... no pictures can describe it... it was just magical... the colours, the landscape, the idea of the ancient Canario´s worshiping their Sacred Mountains more than one millenium ago, the very same mountains that managed to take our breath while the bright and warm Magec went down to his night shelter under the mighty Atlantic Ocean
I hope to to see you again my friends
Do you want to feel the energy!?
This place is full of it!!