Tenerife Shenanigans (Part 1)

So, I never intended for this to become a travel blog so please forgive me for telling you about my recent field trip to Tenerife. Which was by the way absolutely awesome. 

Before we get into what I got up to a bit about Tenerife itself. It is the largest of the seven Canary Islands measuring around 800 km sq with a population of about 900,000. The Canary Islands lie about 250 - 400 km of the coast of Morocco but are actually part of Spain. 

The Canary Islands were formed through volcanic activity, the oldest islands being those in the east (Lanzertote & Fuerteventura) and the youngest to the west (Palma and Hierro). Tenerife itself is around 7 million years old, originally it was three islands but continued volcanic activity shaped it into the island we see today.  Today the highest point on the island (and in Spain) is Mount Teide at 3718 m above sea level. This volcano actually formed as a result of a massive eruption of an even large volcano, Las Canadas, around 250,000 years ago. The eruption caused a massive landslide forming the Vale of Orotava and leading to a Tsunami on America's eastern seaboard.  Tenerife is considered volcanically active, with eruption occurring around once every 100 years. 

Tenerife is also important ecologically, containing many endemic (or near-endemic) species. This includes thousands of invertebrate species, 140 species of plants, 7 species of bird and several reptiles. The main reason for travelling to Tenerife was to study these unique species and how they were adapted to and interact with the environment. 

The scene is set, let’s find out about what I got up too.......

Day One - Mount Teide & the Pine Forest

Mount Teide

So the week began with a bang (if you’ll pardon the terrible pun) when we spent the day on Mount Teide. We arrived at the Rocks of Garcia and spent some time looking at the geology of the formation as well as the different types of lava flow found on the volcano. We walked around some of the caldera (volcanic crater) of Las Canadas and studied and made field sketches of some of the native flora. Due to the harsh conditions the plants found here are highly adapted and unique with many being endemic. 

Southern Grey Shrike

Whilst on the mountain I was keeping my eye out for birds, the highlights were very good close views of both Southern Grey Shrike (Lanius meridionalis) and Berthelot’s Pipit (Anthus berthelotii).

Bethelot's Pipit 

The Pine forest was also a very interesting place to visit. It was good to see a large area of completely natural pine forest as opposed to the plantations we are so familiar with in the U.K. The forest itself was also amazing due to the fact the it was so species poor. The pine trees (the native tree Pinus canariensis) actively inhibit the growth of other plants. Within the forest we saw a tunnel which is used to drain water from the volcanic aquifer under Mount Teide.

The Native Pine Forest

In the Pine forest I had fleeting views of Tenerife Kinglet (Regulus (regulus) teneriffae) as well as African Blue Tit (Cyanistes teneriffae) and Blue Chaffinch (Fringilla teydea).

Male Blue Chaffinch

Day Two - Malpais de Guimar

Canary Islands Spurge (it was at least 2.5 m tall)

We spent the second day undertaking transect surveys of vegetation at Guimar This is an area of lava flow produced by a small volcano on the southern coast. We were looking at the changes in vegetation from the coast inland. We found that in general the species diversity increased inland due to the lower levels of salt found there. Whilst we were here we had our first proper encounter with Euphorbia. These are a genus of plants that look similar to cacti but are not related to them (Cacti are found in the new world and Euphorbia in the old world). The most spectacular of these was the endemic Canary Islands Spurge (Euphorbia canariensis). 

In terms of bird life I had encounters with a Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) which had predated a lizard as well as a Spectacled Warbler (Sylvia conspicillata). 

Stay tuned for part 2, coming very soon.......