Tenerife pt 3, butterflies, kestrels, dots and bad wine

 

The third section of our three weeks in Tenerife. Featuring a walk up a ravine and some local wildlife safaris in Puerto de la Cruz. 

The weather was nearly perfect for much of the first half of our holiday. A little too warm for the running training we had planned, so that mostly happened early morning at the nearby track. We often returned, after showering, to the track as the flowering shrubs around the circuit attracted all sorts of insect life; butterflies, dragonflies, kestrels and pipits. Or walked a mile and a half up the steep hill towards La Orotava where we had found a piece of waste ground only ever used by occasional dog-walkers which was fairly good for painted ladies and clouded yellows. We also found emperor dragonflies there one particularly hot day despite the lack of any ponds nearby.

very fresh Painted Lady

geranium bronze

small copper

long-tailed blue
Lang's short-tailed blue (thanks Brian for the heads up!)

geranium bronze

painted lady

Canarian red admiral

The Canarian Admirals were very scarce this year (and last.) This was the second of only 2 we saw in the three weeks. I was glad Mary was along as she didn't see the first one and seeing another was no sure thing. We only got a couple of shots before it flew up and over the flowering hedge it was feeding on. We hung about but it did not return.

Vanessa vulcania #2

Canarian speckled wood

Since we were halfway up the hill to La Orotava we decided to go all the way up there and check out the gardens. There is a large Victorian garden which is formal and a bit dry (despite the fountains and ponds!) and then the nuns' garden next door where we have seen an abundance of monarchs, a terrapin and some interesting insects. On the way we passed these egrets. They are not like the little egrets at Aberlady nor the recent influx of Great egrets. A bit of googling suggests they are either Medium egrets, or cattle egrets, or maybe both are the same. Anyway they hang about in ones and twos but also in 10s and 12s. They seem to find plenty of edibles in the long grasses of the barrancos and waste ground terraces on the outskirts of town and make charming scenery. You can get fairly close and then they up and fly over to the far end of the field and continue searching like a slightly random police line hunting for bullet casings. 

a favourite landmark near the autopista

There is a pedestrian walkway on the autopista flyover but it is more like an afterthought than a well planned right of way. The camber on the one person width pavement leans heavily towards the 40 foot drop to the hectic motorway and when it has been raining you feel it is only willpower keeping you from slipping under the railing edge and over the drop. Despite the fact you get a similar rush to that of a rollercoaster, crossing above the whizzing traffic, the walkways are never busy!

butterfly public sculpture along with plastic children
(I will take a better photo on the way back once changed to my short lens.)

blooming tree

Just before the church we stopped at a cafe for lunchtime beers and a couple of courses. Walking up that hill gives you quite the appetite, and the prices at this place were good. In fact it was only 2 or 3 euros for Lemon Cake which I presumed would be a carton of lemon yoghurt or similar. But it turned out to be a good-sized slab of home baked lemon cheese cake with meringue topping which was outstanding.

lemon meringue cheese cake
and (following photo) the score it got out of ten

Mary and the butterfly sculpture with small lens on camera.

We were so overwhelmed by beer and cake I think we forgot to go to the gardens and just rolled down the hill again. We did repeat the process a few days later and checked out the gardens. The cafe was closed at the weekends so no beer and pie again, maybe a good thing, although we didn't think so at the time. The Victorian garden was a bit of a snore as we had remembered, and the Nuns' garden was closed due to the stormy weather bringing down some branches and requiring a clear up. Technically it isn't a Nuns' garden but the grounds of a redundant abbey which is now a small park/garden. 

On the way back down what looked like an ancient cobbled cattle track with banana plantations either side, (and some new swanky developments), the kestrels would sit atop telephone poles until we got within photo reach then, before we got too close, lazily swoop off and along to the next tree or streetlight. It was frustrating but also delightful to see so many of these dynamic birds on every acre of scrub on the city outskirts. To my untrained eye they seem very similar to the ones we get in Edinburgh although the head markings (blue grey for male, brown for female) aren't as pronounced as the Scottish birds, making identification more tricky. Again I have not been able to find websites covering any of this.

time to leave

Mary found a nice route back via the barranco (jungly gully running through the town) pavement, where we saw more egrets in the fields opposite. And a very obliging collared dove let me get right in close for a portrait. I left a handful of birdseed where I'd been standing but I'm not sure if it understood the transaction. I took a large bag of peanuts and sunflower seeds and while over there bought another bag of birdseed from a pet shop. I came home with most of the peanuts but managed to tempt quite a few lizards and some pigeons with the rest. I like how interactive pigeons can be - happy to sit on your arm for a feed - and collared doves are so pretty. However they did seem a bit slow on the uptake sometimes. 

back to the track and some dragonflies
I have found it tricky to identify

this looks like a female from the cerci
but I cannot find a likely female red dragonfly (with partial blue eyes)

so if a male then likely broad (scarlet) darter, Crocothemis erythraea

spilostethus pandurus

red potter wasp, Delta dimidiatipenne

female red-veined darter?

geranium bronze
(far more of these than I had remembered!)

some sort of bush cricket

monarch in front of Queen Mary

I wish I had taken more architecture photos as the blue skies and
brilliant light lends itself to sharp edges and colourful buildings

on the barranco sidewalk

Calle Luis Rodriguez Figueroa:
an unlikely spot but rich in insect life and kestrels

African grass blue

speckled wood

Long-tailed blue, Lampides boeticus

small white

stink eye from the kestrel
as I crept quietly to directly below the lamppost

also spent a long time creeping up on clouded yellows

they did seem greatly distracted by these modest yellow flowers

monarch

fields of whites like July in the Lothians
we had to remind ourselves this was December!

Acokanthera oblongifolia

(says google lens)

Back at our apartment; and we were reminded, if we left out dishes unwashed, of these tiny creatures. When we first encountered them (maybe last year on the 6th floor) we called them dots as they are scarcely more substantial than a fullstop in a paperback. If left unattended and they find a foodstuff to their liking, one or two will become a dozen and then 2 dozen. They move fairly quickly in zigzags and if they sense danger - if you move the plate they are on - they will stop what they are doing and run in all directions like the keystone cops. Which we found really charming. Being so small they are easy to dispose of by wiping up like something spilled, however we tried to neither leave stuff out to attract them, nor kill them. I read somewhere they give off an aroma of coconut if you smudge a large number of them, but we did not try that. I believe they don't like lemons (and whatever our maid was mopping the floor with!) That said, I left half a lemon out on a plate and they were definitely doing exploratory missions to check it out. 

After googling photos I found they are called Ghost ants and live in and around buildings in warm climates. They are small - 1.3mm~2mm - and their semi-transparent bodies make them look even less substantial. I posted some photos on facebook and a couple of folk asked for something to give a sense of scale. Since a banana is too large I reckoned a coin would give an idea. The coin I used was about the size of a pound coin although I didn't have one for comparison. Then I remembered I had a section of measuring tape in my camera case for exactly this purpose - measuring the length of static insects when taking their pic with the macro lens to help with identification. I put some honey smears near where we had seen the dots but they refused to play - as if they knew to how to foil my plans. Eventually one or 2 appeared after I set various honey traps in likely places. And I got pics with them next to the large (!) millimetre markings on the tape: showing that they are just under 2mm long.

photos taken with the 90mm macro lens

I had been really looking forward to using my macro lens this trip; it had been put away with the disappearance of the last of the hoverflies sometime back in October and I had imagined using it most days in Tenerife to capture praying mantises and weird bugs in the brilliant sunlight! (None/very few about that I could find.) However these ghost ants (and the magic beans) were almost the only occasions I actually used it. I also used a subdued flash to light the pics as they were all indoors.

Virtually all the other stuff outdoors I covered with my 100~400 lens, except for street photography and scene setting where I'd use the 12~60 kit zoom. I realised pretty quickly that all the birds and most of the butterflies would fly off before I got close enough to use the macro. Similarly the lizards and bugs. They just weren't hanging about as I approached and it made me really appreciate the longer lens. Which performed brilliantly. I kinda take it for granted sometimes, as it arrived on day one with the camera body and works so well I sometimes forget the advantage it gives over camera set-ups I had in the past. Combined with the animal detection it caught so much of the stuff I was out hunting, and rarely let me down, producing some cracking photos in situations I had expected only so-so results.

I got the macro lens out for a stationary dragonfly and the clouded yellows but it was not an easy option and although the results were sometimes slightly better, I was getting far fewer hits and much less satisfaction. I didn't even get it out for the Plain Tigers, (which will appear on the subsequent blog), even though I was getting reasonably close to where they were flying and landing. Spoiler alert: it was probably the highlight of the holiday, or one of many highlights. 

50 cent piece for scale (size of a pound coin)
Hope this meets with approval Joanie and Sonia!

just hold still sir while I take your measurements

just shy of 2mm!

not a wood(bine) pigeon
but one found on many Benches and Hedges

pretty collared dove

love this male dove just happening to land on the top of this lamp
which was already occupied than a less-than-totally-thrilled female

This wasp spider kicked off a trip up Barranco de Ruiz. The forecast was great, alas reality was not quite up to it and much of the wildlife we saw last year (in hot sunshine) didn't materialise. We had done a similar hike 2 years ago in similar weather (warm, but cloudy) and so we realised that what brings out the plain tigers and brimstones is hot sunshine. However we still had a decent day out and went to a few new places that were fairly awesome. 

you shall go no further
normally I'd go round but it was pretty extreme countryside

The second part of the (long haul climb up through) Barranco de Ruiz was marked on maps and guides but when we got there, there was a large impassable gate blocking the way and saying the trail down into and back out the other side of the ravine was closed. We found a dirt track nearby going approximately parallel to the route which we both had in our gps wrist-watches. We followed that with trepidation and although there were a few sections of pavementless road with large drop offs we managed to get roughly where we were going. (With only one or 2 wrong turns and remarkably little shouting!)

alternative dirt trail with Teide in the background

those gaps were certain death drop-offs

roads weren't too bad

and some awesome places/sights along the way

Thai eggplant or Tamarillo

I was surprised to see photos of myself wearing red! I thought this top was brick-red but when you get back from it, it looks far nearer pillarbox. I am not a huge fan of primary colours. Especially red. A cheerful reddy-brown though, works. 

Eventually we came back into civilisation and a small town El Lance, which had a mirador that seemed to be nearly a vertical mile above and back from the coast where we had started. It was an incredible viewpoint and felt like looking out from an aeroplane or hot air balloon. We then hiked back down the vertical mile towards the coast and once down, caught a bus back into town.

video at mirador El Lance, (viewpoint)

long way back down a steep winding path

an avocado tree

lemon or orange tree

great use of blues

odd mural on gable end

photo: Mary

the extreme gradients lead to some weird winding streets
and unusual buildings perched on vertiginous drop offs

there's been el mordor

I was in too lazy to lean down to take a photo of these pigeons, looking through the evf; or flip out the screen to check when I held the camera low to take the photo. Now, while it has some obvious shortcomings I rather like the composition, and the sharpness of the pigeons feathers. 

castol oil plant

There are castor oil plants growing wild all over the place. I had noticed the jaggy seed pods but thought very little of them until I noticed the amazingly pretty beans lying underneath one. I collected a couple of dozen and took them back to our hotel in my back pocket. I took photos of them then googled them to see what they were. I was surprised and not a little alarmed to find they contain ricin. Ricin is a protein toxin found in the pulp of the castor bean plant. It's many times more toxic than the most lethal nerve agents and can be fatal if ingested, inhaled or injected. Holy shit! I read that 8 beans can be a fatal dose. I had three times that. I kept them in a sandwich bag for a few days then binned them. So pretty, so deadly! Who'd have thought?

magic beans!

one of your eight-a-day

butterflies on the label means it must be good, right?

Talking of food and drink we had very little luck with wine this trip. In Edinburgh, Mary is nearly tt and I make a bottle last a week, though sometimes less. On holiday we will buy a (supermarket) bottle of red most days and drink half with an evening meal. The first 4 or 5 bottles were of such underwhelming quality that we switched to white and semi-sweet in search of something drinkable. At least that came cold out the fridge. As we have found here before, the price rarely seems to reflect quality and taste. But previously we have been quite lucky. This time they were all average or worse. The whites were slightly better but we never found anything great and most of the half-remaining reds went down the sink.

Given that we were also drinking quite a few lunchtime beers maybe it was fate helping us to avoid becoming indulgent lushes and the holiday just nosediving into drunken hedonism. Since we were out most days and every day put up at least one session of walking or running on strava, we still managed to return home at least the same size as we left. Probably just as well we didn't find a delicious wine. They did exist - Colin and Joan had tracked one down last year (around the 2 euros mark?) and there was an excellent red in the Indian restaurant. (Highly recommended; the restaurant AND the wine.)

Next day at the track on my own (butterfly mode, not running) and I see this striped hawk-moth. It is the first one I have ever seen and is flying much the same as a humming-bird hawk-moth; kind of hovering at the flowers, wings beating faster than the eye can see, while it drinks nectar from them. It is fawn and pinkish in colour and by the time I raise my camera and get a couple of shots it is gone. I didn't see from where it came nor where it disappeared to - they are really swift fliers. The couple of record shots will confirm the species which I check off against the identification board at the Mariposario. Striped Hawk-moth seems to best fit the bill. I reckon it was the extreme temperature of the morning (around 30'?) that brought it out. We have never seen one in the previous 5 trips here. I am really stoked and hope that more turn up. 

It has been quite stormy over the last couple of days and council lorries were out collecting all the fallen palm tree debris that has collected under the trees. It is impressive to see a rapid response keeping the place ship-shape. 

canary

Canarian chiffchaff

Back up the road to C. Luis Rodriguez Figueroa to hunt yellows and kestrels. You can chase the butterflies about the waste ground. The kestrels are more a case of waiting till they decide to visit you. The best photos were when a youngster flew over and sat atop one of the lampposts right next to where Mary and I were sitting. About 22 feet directly overhead. That is my kind of bird watching. The clouded yellows - normally a quite flighty species - were about as good as yellows get. Being more interested in the modest yellow and white blooms which they would sit on for 10seconds while I scurried over and tried to get a photo. They weren't keen on you scootching right up to them but if you stopped six to eight feet away and zoomed in from there, they wouldn't get freaked out. They were in mostly great condition although the female below (egglaying) had a large bit missing rear left. 

female with wing section missing

small copper

It was delightful to have such reliable access to these handsome butterflies. They occasionally come to Scotland as migrants but much prefer to have you visit them in Europe where it is warmer. You hear reports once every 5~10 years of a Scottish sighting, so this trip represents about 840 years of Scottish clouded yellows! 😆 It was impossible to tell if there was a constant stream of different specimens passing through as they all looked nearly identical apart from the female with the notched wing. I suspect there were maybe 4 or 5 doing circuits round an area of about a football pitch. And there was more waste ground beyond that so there might have been dozens. We never saw more than 3 at one time. At the next best site for them, the sports track, we would only ever see one every hour or so, and only on super-hot days, making this the premium place for mellow yellows.

We only ever met one other butterfly enthusiast; a French or German woman we spoke to briefly in passing. I did meet a Finnish woman at the track. She was wearing binoculars and recognised from my camera that like her, I was also looking for birds and butterflies. She called me over to point out a kestrel on a post. We chatted for 20minutes about the local wildlife. We both enthused about hoopoes despite M and I not seeing any in Tenerife in several years. Like ourselves she was escaping the cold weather at home, while looking for birds and wildlife in warmer climes. She was staying at the huge (adults only) hotel beside the sports track. I asked her about the no children policy. It turns out it is not a racy over 18s only thing so much as being full of ancient Germans who don't want to be annoyed by other people's children screaming and running about the place. I am now getting to that age bracket where that doesn't sound all bad. Mary and I (due to sports wear or hiking kit) often got mistaken for Germans, or worse, old people.

I bumped into a charming German couple Petra and Bernt(?) We were all heading along Rambla de Castro and we got chatting. Bernt was the double of Johnny L. The aptly German doppleganger of Johnny. He did not like having his photo taken and did not want it on the internet, Petra told me, so you'll have to take my word for it. He was laughing at how Petra was having trouble chatting and breathing while we all climbed up the steep path. This also reminiscent of J and Y banter. It was uncanny. We did a couple of miles together enjoying the scenery before I headed off piste to search for butterflies and snakes. There are no snakes in Tenerife but there used to be none in Gran Canaria till they were introduced. Results on the next blog. Teaser: I found a reptile I'd never seen before. 

three kestrels in one photo

Every now and then I'd look up from the clouded yellows when I'd hear a high pitched screeching and the kestrel family would be up to something. As far as I could tell either another kestrel was moving in on their turf or (more likely) a youngster was being shown the door, told to be independent and get its own food. There was something going on and I wasn't that far away so I crept forward and shot the video below. I reckon the kestrel on the left for the second half of the video is an immature one and the others are parents. But I could be wrong. There was defo something being sorted out and while it never came to blows it looked not far off. The terrible teens? Your guess is as good as mine. It made an interesting change from the yellers!

you've not tidied your room and you could do with a shower!

but dad I'm hungry!

the youngster

video - click twice

back to the butterflies!

Clouded Yellows almost always sit with their wings shut. So the best way to get upper wing shots is to catch them taking off. This happens very quickly so I use pre-burst mode to capture the moment. I keep my finger half-down on the shutter release and as soon as they take off I push it fully down. The rolling buffer then starts taking photos from a full second before you push the button and you catch the moment you'd be too slow to catch otherwise. It works well although I tend to get maybe 40 photos of which 8~10 are useful. You have to frame the butterfly at the bottom of the frame and hope it flies upwards and outwards and not just straight out of image and out of focus. If you go in too close you don't get many shots before it leaves the frame and the depth of field is too short. Too far away and you miss all the details. It takes a bit of bodging but I enjoy the process when you have an agreeable subject. I ran some of the better results together into a short video. The last clip shows the approach of an Ammophila wasp which chases off the yellow. However it returns and the 2 vie for ownership of the flower.

ammophila wasp and clouded yellow stand off

small copper

small whites

long-tailed blue

getting the stink eye from a small copper

It's almost as if the small coppers knew we would move on as soon as they landed on the gravelly floor. Every time we approached them on a flower to take a photo they would fly and land somewhere with an aesthetically bankrupt background.

instead here's a sunny pic of a kestrel on a lamppost

just measuring the distance before it flies off

wings open mid-air yeller!

This is the unusually friendly kestrel who flew over to hear what M and I were chatting about. Possibly lunchtime beers and where to get them in this neck of the woods. It sat on the lamppost nearest to where we were, about 20 vertical feet above. Very pleased!

a super fresh Painted Lady
they have a salmon pink about them when newly out the packet

more yellow fun

Mary says this is a rubbish photo, but when do you ever get a painted lady,
3 whites, a small copper and a clouded yellow in the same shot?

photo Mary

clouded yellows taking off