Holiday to Tenerife part 3

[Philzoid]

Hope y'all still with me

Soon after our La Gomeran trip we had to up sticks and move from Club Marina to another resort, Club La Costa's Monterrey at San Eugenio Alto, Costa Adeje. The accomodation was plusher with the balcony half the size of a tennis court. From this balcony one morning I watched two Hoopoes (Hoopi; Hoopaea?) fly over (a first for me).

Although it wou'dve been easy to lounge around the resorts' swimming pool I had other plans. A holiday to Tenerife isn't worth much without a journey to the island's central volcano, Mount Teide which rises to over 12,000ft. On our last visit there three years ago we had taken the cable car to the near summit and had experienced altitude sickness (was all the more galling when all the nicotine addicts were quite happily lighting up and puffing away to countreract the effect of all the fresh air ). So, despite the breath-taking views (literally) it was decided that we'd give the cable car a miss.
At around 6,500 ft altitude in the conifer belt above the clouds, we pulled into a layby by a little side volcano (Samara a mere pimple to the main cone) to enjoy the views and to go for walk. Suddenly a small butterfly came by and landed in the centre of the road . I scrabbled to get my camera ready and made my approach, only for a car to come along and scare it off . There had hardly been any traffic yet at that vital important moment a *loody car had decided to turn up . I was like Basil Fawlty, cursing the gods after that (no nearby tree branches to snap off and vent my frustration)
Fortunately I had managed to get a reasonable look at the insect on approach and immediately thought "Copper" and then "Provence Hairstreak" (Tomares ballus) . However this species is not found in Tenerife but the Small Copper is ... so perhaps

View of area where Copper was seen

Driving through the fantastic lunar landscape of lava fields we came to another stop close to the cable car station. As I was chasing after a dragonfly, my other half Sharon called out to me me that she'd spotted a butterfly but it had disappeared by the time I got wind of it. Unfortunately (as is often the case when asking for a description from anyone who is not interested in such things), I was unable to get a a conclusive picture. After lengthy interrogation I got: "it flew quite fast, was about 'this big' (demonstrated by the distance between thumb and forefinger) and it was brown". I narrowed it down to Cardinal, Queen of Spain fritillary or Painted Lady. The other lady, lady luck wasn't on my side that day .
Leaving Teide national park we stopped in a lay-by of a conifer wood above Vilaflor, where I got another sighting .... this time a definite Canary Blue . Unfortunately it was very alert and flew off on my approach . Later in Vilaflor I was able to get this poor picture of the same species. Also seen at Vilaflor were the Blue Chaffinches flying around in a small ravine (thanks Gibster for your text to keep a lookout for this one ).

My first pic of a Canary Blue (female) in Vilaflor

Around the Resort Complex and over much of the island, there was plenty of waste ground with un-restricted access.

Waste ground area next to Monterrey Resort where I did morning and some late afternoon searching.

I made it a quest before breakfast, or more accurately before the girls had got out of bed, to explore this area of approximately half an acre. Over the next day or two I encountered lots of little butterflies tantilisingly out of camera range .... but enventually I got this Long-tailed Blue:

Nice fresh Long-tailed Blue

Same LTB

The following afternoon I managed another LTB

Second LTB

The morning after that I followed it up by a female LTB laying.

Egglaying female open wing

Same insect laying

Not sure if different insect? This one is on the Vetch foodplant that the female was ovipositing on.

The underside of the third (female) specimen was what I would deem to be 'typical' or 'normal'. After comparing the shots between it and the first example I temporarily deluded myself by thinking the first was actually a Lang's Short-tailed Blue . Obviously this was not the case but there does seem to be some variation in the underside markings?

Another insect I managed to photo was this dragonfly. Dragonflies were numerous on the island (despite a noticable lack of fresh water) and Red coloured Darters (along with Emperors) seemed to be the commonest. This one doesn't seem to be a Sympetrum though?

Crocthemis erythraea perhaps? Apologies for the picture quality

Other butterflies seen in this area was the African Grass Blue again and the aforementioned 'difficult' Canary Blue. This tatty example was the only moderately well focussed shot that I managed.

Canary Blue (tatty example)

After many photo failures (focussing issues and approach issues) I resorted to low resolution camcorder shots where I managed these two passable pictures:

Canary Blue Cyclyrius webbianus

Just when I was thinking it was all butterflies and no moths this fellow turned up just outside our door . I snapped off a photo and then tried to manouever the leaf it was on into a better position, when wallop, without a hint of pre-flight warm up, it was gone .

Golden Twin-spot a noctuid of the subfamily Plusiinae

Overall moths were rarer and when encountered were more dificult to digitally capture than the butterflies. In the early part of the holiday over at Costa Silencio a day flying species similar to a butterfly, led me on a merry dance across the loose boulder strewn spikey bush 'wasteland' never allowing me to get less than 6 ft away from it . Shins bruised and scratched I gave up in the end . The species I later identified as a Crimson Speckled (family arctidae)

So ends my coverage of the lepidopteran species captured in photos. Further time spent in leisure was somewhat wrestled from us as the Resort Sales team went into overdrive to get us to upgrade our membership (and we've ended up signing our financial future away ). During one of these episodes I suddenly broke off a conversation with a rep and ran over to identify a large white-ish butterfly flitting around a jacaranda. I was able to get a good look and identify it as a male African Migrant, species number 9 for the confirmed list

For our final day I drove us to a beautiful place/area called Masca. This was by far the most challenging drive I had had to undertake, what with switchback roads narrowing as they climbed and descended, accommodating coaches as well as cars. You never knew what was around the next corner and the car was rarely taken out of first gear. On reaching a halfway point summit from Santiago del Teide, I got out to stretch my legs and caught sight of a fritillary which I think was a Cardinal. This butterfly was actually nectaring on some star shaped flowers which were also very spiny and when 'dead' were similar to the everlasting ones you can buy. I tried to get near it, scambling over the cliff like terrain, but as with a lot of the butterflies out here, it was having none of it .
Moving on we fortunately managed to get parked at Masca which was fairly inundated with tourists. Close to the car was this blue medium sized dragonfly, an Orthetrum of some description?

Epaulet Skimmer?

It was midday and the weather was hot. The girls were not up to doing much walking so a cafe-bar crawl, with re-feulling stops for ice cold drinks was the order of the day. Whilst in one of the bars enjoying a drink I got my best sighting yet of a Monarch which came close to landing ... (but which didn't of course) .
In one of the restaurant bars I got my final species sighting of the holiday, a Large White, which had flown in under the veranda roof and had got itself temporarily trapped. The butterfly looked just like our Large White Pieris brassicae rather than the Canary Island Pieris Cheiranthi I thought I might get to see .

That final sighting made 10 confirmed with 6 species photo'ed:
Bath White; Geranium Bronze; Monarch; Cleopatra; Small White; African Grass Blue; Long-tailed Blue; Canary Blue; African Migrant and Large White (brassicae / chieranthi?). Unconfirmed sightings in descending order of likelyhood were: Queen of Spain Fritillary and/or Cardinal and/or Speckled Wood; Small Copper; Plain Tiger .

So that's it. I hope the read wasn't too gruelling or too tourist brochure and if you're thinking of going there, I hope you got some useful pointers . If I ever get to go again I'll try and explore some of the North side of the Island and perhaps in spring when it is cooler and 'wetter' and more conducive to butteflies.

So it's goodbye from me

...and it's goodbye from him

And it's goodbye from us.

A couple of bird pics to follow on the identification board later.

[Wurzel]

A great trip report Phil - just a pity that it's over...any chance of you getting away again soon?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

I visited La Palma some years ago and although I found plenty of Canary blues they were well nigh impossible to photograph. Incessantly on the move in the heat of the day they almost completely eluded me and my 35mm SLR (it was before I went digital). I think you did rather well to get what you got!

Guy

[Padfield]

I think the dragonfly must be epaulet skimmer, Orthetrum chrysostigma. There are very few dragonflies in the Canaries and a process of elimination leads to this species, even though the critical features are not really visible (the pterostigma should be yellow, for example, which is not clear in your picture).

There is a very similar male from La Palma illustrated here:

http://home.fotocommunity.de/thomasberg ... d=19126295

Guy

[Vince Massimo]

Great stuff Phil, a very enjoyable set of reports.

Cheers,
Vince

[Philzoid]

A great trip report Phil - just a pity that it's over...any chance of you getting away again soon?

I found plenty of Canary blues they were well nigh impossible to photograph. Incessantly on the move in the heat of the day they almost completely eluded me and my 35mm SLR (it was before I went digital). I think you did rather well to get what you got!

Great stuff Phil, a very enjoyable set of reports.

Thanks for the compliments guys . I'm sure you do the same and keep a lookout for nature goings on, when you are out and about. It's all part of the fun and learning process. Am definitely looking forward to next years holiday, but haven't decided where we'll be taking it. The choice will be governed by funds so possibly we'll be in the UK. I'll try and convince the others to go to Scotland as it might give me a chance to see some of the northern specialists I haven't seen yet .

[Lee Hurrell]

Hi Phil,

Just to agree with the other comments, a really enjoyable read. I've been to Lanzarote, another volcanic landscape, years ago now and can't remember seeing many butterflies, if any at all - so I'd like to go back to the Canaries at some point.

Your excitement in what you saw clearly shone through in your report!

Best wishes,

Lee

[millerd]

I agree, a splendid report, and one that makes me want to go back to the Canaries with a different perspective. Last time, I didn't have as much interest in the butterflies. I have a fuzzy snap of a Red Admiral - which was not just any Red Admiral it turns out - but little else.

Thanks Phil. I must return, and in April when the spring flowers are out in the mountains.

Dave

[grumpy]

Great report Phil ! , you have inspired me and got me all nostalgic ! , we have spent time in Los Gigantes for the last three years stopping in self catering appartments. We usually go in January (wifes Birthday ) but went in April this year.

I have some photos of butterflies, dragonflies, lizards and other creatures taken there during the holidays we have enjoyed and will try to cobble them into some kind of report if people would like a diversion from thoughts of onset of snow and ice. Its great to look ahead to warmer/sunnier times to come next year.


best wishes

Dave C