www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

I am going to Tenerife in January, staying in the south-west of the island. Does anyone have any tips for 'hotspots' on the island? I would particularly like to find Canary Islands Blue and Canary Red Admiral. Any help would be much appreciated.

Tony M.

Hi Tony
I'm going in January too, and would be very interested in any advice anyone is able to give
Paul

Hi Tony and Paul,

I paid my first visit to Tenerife in January 2016 and I had no real idea of what I might see and my tactic was to just check any likely habitat I could find and see what was about. We were staying at a hotel in Los Gigantes and the weather was great for our whole stay. Just wandering along the cliff tops past the hotel frontages I found that African Grass Blue and Canary Blue occurred in small numbers. Also during our 10 days I saw 2 Monarchs and an African Migrant in the same area. The best butterfly trip away from the hotel was a visit to the botanical gardens at La Orotava. It is free to enter and has a natural gorge running through it. Several each of Monarch, Indian/Canary Red Admiral, African Grass Blue, Canary Speckled Wood plus a single Canary Large White, Geranium Bronze, Bath White and Cleopatra. If you are walkers, then get a taxi up to La Masca and walk down the gorge to the sea and get sea taxi back to hotel....I saw Canary Large White, Canary Speckled Wood, Bath White, Small White, Painted Lady, Small Copper as well as Barbary Partridge and Canary Blue Tit. I came across Indian Red Admiral at several different places on the island but I only saw a couple each of Clouded Yellow and Long-tailed Blue. Also worth taking a trip from Los Gigantes harbour for Dolphin watching (don't book through travel agent...much cheaper to just turn up on speck) lots of interest to see....Bottle-nosed and Spotted Dolphins, Cory's Shearwater and Portugese man-o-war were my highlights.

Some pictures on my blog at http://eastsussexwanderer.blogspot.co.uk under Tenerife Wildlife label.

Hope this helps, Downland Boy

Hi, Downland Boy,

Very many thanks for your informative post. I shall have a hire car so we shall definitely go to La Orotava. It will be great to see any butterflies in the depths of an English winter .

Tony M.

Tony Moore wrote: ....It will be great to see any butterflies in the depths of an English winter ...
Tony M.

It will be great (for many of us) Tony, to see your report in the depths of an English winter

By the way, nice blog on Tenerife, Nigel.
Chris

Alright Tony?

If I recall correctly Philzoid has visited Tenerife a few times and he's posted his reports from there on UKB - so have a search through the 'Overseas' section, hope this helps.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Many thanks, Wurzel - Wilco,
T.

Tony,
I was in Tenerife in July 2013. I am sure that the butterflies will be different in January, compared with July, but a lot of species fly throughout the year there. There are a couple of pages on my blog about my visit, which may give you a few ideas. I would certainly recommend a walk up in the Anagar area in the north east if only for the views.

http://nickmorgan-butterflypictures.blo ... -2013.html

A little more information about the Monarchs I saw at Masca.
http://nickmorgan-butterflypictures.blo ... ippus.html

I hope you enjoy your trip and I look forward to hearing about what you see.
Nick

Many thanks, Nick, for your suggestions - much appreciated. Hope to have something to post in the New Year - can't come soon enough... .

Tony.

LOL! You can't switch off can you, Tony?

I'll look forward to any posts you make regarding this trip. I'm sure I will tread the same path at some point when withdrawal symptoms are at their apogee!

This is great, thanks very much everyone