My last major travel outside of London, which was to Scotland, yielded no new bird sightings for me. It's not that Scotland doesn't have some different birds there from what we have down south, only that where we went didn't seem to be a habitat for anything new for me. This was definitely not the case for Gran Canaria, where we spent a week. It was pretty exciting for me considering I didn't even try to find them. I didn't go on any special birding tour. It was simply by being there and paying attention that I was able to find a number of new birds: 11 to be exact - the Monk Parakeet, Island Canary, African-Collared Dove, African Blue Tit, Spanish Sparrow, Whimbrel, Great Grey Shrike, Yellow-legged Gull, Little Egret, Sandwich Tern, and the Canary Islands or Iberian Chiffchaff. The latter was the only one I could not positively ID. Unfortunately, I couldn't get photos of all of them. The terns, I only saw in flight, and I don't have professional camera equipment to get them like that, and same for the gull, although I was able to get a quick and distant flight shot with my phone camera. And the egret was one I saw flying while I was on a bus on the highway, so there's no way I'd get a photo of it that way. So the ones I do have photos of are below.
Monk Parakeet
These parakeets were all over the place. At first I assumed they were ring-necked parakeets, the introduced species in the UK, as they are a similar size and green colour, but after photographing them and analysing the photo, I learned that they are Monk Parakeets. However, like the ring-necked parakeet, they are not native to the region either. They come from South America. Apparently they had also been introduced in the UK and US, but efforts were made to cull them (humanely) as they were causing damage. It seems this hasn't happened in the Canary Islands, so they continue to live. There appeared to be a large nest of them (they seem to nest in small flocks) in one of the palm trees at the hotel outside our room, so that helped me get some photos of them. To be frank, I was a little disappointed that the first new bird I saw wasn't even a native species, but ultimately, it's exciting to see something new. One interesting thing I learned about these parakeets is that they are considered a true parrot, and one of their characteristics is eating seeds and nuts with one of their feet, grasping food in their claws. I was able to get photos of them doing that.
Island Canary
I mentioned this briefly in my travel blog, for those of you who clicked here from there, but the Island a.k.a. Atlantic) Canary is the iconic bird of the islands. It is actually named after the islands, not the other way around, because this bird originates in the region. The original colouring of the bird is the brown and yellow mix you can see in my photos or in the link I attached here. It seems that canaries have been bred to be fully yellow as pets, so wild canaries have a distinctive appearance from the domestic ones. And they do sing beautifully. It's no wonder people want to keep them as pets because you would be serenaded with sweet chirps and singing all the time. I spotted these little sweeties in a few locations. I was first able to photograph them at Pico de las Nieves, the second highest peak on the island. It had spectacular views of the island, but I was equally excited to see and photograph the canary. I was also able to photograph more of them on the journey back from the mountains in a town called Mogán where we had stopped for a bite to eat. The music in the courtyard of the restaurant where we ate was a little too loud to really hear them much, but at least I was able to get some good photos. There's also a video under the videos link in the menu at the top of the page so you can hear some of its vocalisations. The video is a little shaky because I was at maximum zoom and didn't have a tripod for stability.
African Collared Dove
There were many of these hanging out at the hotel, with the odd pigeon. I thought they were Eurasian Collared Doves, which are seen here in the UK but also in Alberta was an introduced species, and I first saw them there. While I was excited to get a chance to get some close-up shots of them because they are pretty, it wasn't until later that I plugged a photo of one into my Merlin ID app that I learned they were not what I thought! I was surprised how numerous they were, so I had plenty of chances for photos, assuming they would sit long enough for that. The ones at the hotel were quite active, picking up food that falls off the breakfast tables outdoors, and they would also drink water from the pool. I thought that was odd and wondered if that was good for them, but I guess it's better for them than ocean water. African Collared Doves sound similar to wood pigeons and have a soothing cooing sound.
African Blue Tit
When we were driving up the mountains to get to Pico de las Nieves, we stopped for a quick break near our initial destination of Tejeda as we saw a parking spot open at a scenic viewpoint. It was great to take photos but also take a rest from the crazy roads we had been driving on in our rental. It had been a really stressful drive with having to drive a standard after several years of not driving one and then doing a lot of sharp turns and uphill treks, so it was nice to rest for a few minutes. After enjoying the scenery, I noticed some birds flitting about. I started taking photos, and I realised that it was a blue tit, so I didn't try to hard to get too many photos because I thought it was the same bird that I see in the UK. But as has happened to me with so many other birds that look similar in the different countries, I was wrong--yes, it's a blue tit, but the African Blue Tit, a different species from the one in the UK. While I wish I would have got more photos, I'm thankful I got one good one. Not only is it a beautiful bird with bright colours that I love, it allowed me to ID it correctly using the Merlin ID app, so I can enjoy seeing the bird as well as learning about a new-to-me species.
Spanish Sparrow
In Canada, at some point, you may learn that house sparrows are an invasive species, brought over by the English. They are pretty common, so it's often easy to dismiss a bird that looks like it when you see one. While in the UK, it appears that there is only one type of sparrow, the house sparrow, my birding life in Canada has allowed me to realise that there are over a dozen species of sparrow in my own province, and I'm not so dismissive anymore of what appear to be "boring brown birds." As a result, I knew I had come across something different with the Spanish Sparrow when we were in Mogán. There as a lovely spot near the restaurant where we ate that was a little park with a few trees and shrubs. It attracted canaries, these sparrows, and some type of butterfly that looked like a monarch. What I found interesting about the Spanish Sparrow was that the males look almost exactly like house sparrows, only that they have mottling on their breasts. According to what I read online, the females are almost indistinguishable from the female house sparrow, but the males have that one defining difference. In this case, I tried to get several photos of them, but they were moving around so much that it was hard to do, and I ended up with just one decent one. It's still better than none, in my opinion! I've included a photo that shows his back as well, even though it's not the best angle, but it gives you an idea.
Whimbrel
The first morning we were at the hotel and out to see the sunrise, I thought I had seen some shorebirds near the edge of the beach. I wasn't sure as the light was poor, and I hoped I would see them during the day. That was not to be, but toward the end of our trip, I noticed one lone bird shuttling around the shore again near the rocky edge, so as the sun was closer to rising, I thought I'd take the chance and see if I could get some decent photos and identify the bird as well. As I've seen pigeons and doves on the beach, I half expected it to be one of those and have my excitement dashed, but I was rewarded instead. It was a Eurasian/European Whimbrel. We have similar species in Alberta, a curlew and an ibis, but I've never seen them myself, so I was pretty excited to see the whimbrel. It was sticking its beak into the sand and pulling up small crabs, its favourite meal. How it finds the crabs is beyond me. It was fascinating to watch. I also learned I'd been hearing them from the hotel room in the morning. I listened to what they sound like after I had ID'd it and realised that the interesting sound I'd been hearing and curious about was one of these birds. The Whimbrel was so named in Britain for the sound the bird makes, so it's meant to be an onomatopoeic name.
Great Grey Shrike
We had visited the Maspalomas Sand Dunes on the island. I had seen what were likely canaries here and there, but I was surprised to see something that looked really unique as we were leaving, something that looked black and white out of the corner of my eye. It turned out to be mostly grey, but it sat still for several minutes in three different locations, and I was able to get several excellent shots of it that allowed me to successfully identify it: the Great Grey Shrike. We have shrikes in Alberta, too, two different species of them, but I have never seen them. They are songbirds, but they are also surprisingly vicious considering their size--and we always think songbirds should be sweet. Shrikes are known to impale their prey on something and come back to it later, so you'll sometimes see small birds or mammals such a vole or mouse impaled on a barbed wire fence. I've only ever seen that in photos. Anyway, it was pretty exciting for me to see such a bird, and apparently it's not that common in the region to see them, so it was pretty exciting to have encountered it.
Yellow-Legged Gull
I wasn't too aggressive in seeking out gulls. The ones I saw flying around looked the same as the ones in the UK, so I didn't really look at the them too much. Besides, I only ever saw them flying, so I couldn't really see one sitting for a length of time to determine if it was something I'd seen in the UK. But it turned out it was new to me: the Yellow-Legged Gull. They do exist in the UK, but I may or may not have seen one. So far, I believe I have not, but I may have to go back through some of my herring gull photos since there is now a distinction between the two. I can't say much about these, but I did get one photo of them on my phone while they were flying. Their white bodies against the blue sky looked so bright and lively.
Canary Islands Chiffchaff
EDIT (20/01/22): Since my original post below, I've since learned that the Iberian chiffchaff tends not to be found in the Canary Islands. I had a conversation with a birder in the UK who informed me of this, so I can more confidently say this is the bird I initially suspected is a Canary Islands chiffchaff. It's nice to feel more secure it making a correct ID!
The last birds to include are the chiffchaff. I'd seen quite a few of them and was able to get some decent photos, but in the end, I still couldn't tell which chiffchaff I had. Both the Iberian and the Canary Islands species are likely to see, but the differences between them are minute enough that only an expert would be able to tell the difference, or I'd have to see both side by side, and neither of those are options for me, so I just have to be satisfied that I saw a type of chiffchaff on the island, both of which would be new to me. They are pretty birds, not all that different in appearance from the canary, but the beaks are quite different. The canary has more of a finch-like, triangular beak, whereas the chiffchaff has more of a toothpick-shaped beak. Keep in mind I'm not using birding lingo here--there are proper names for these shapes, but I don't know them. They also chirp quite cheerfully, and I would love to listen to them all the time, if I could.
I am so grateful to have encountered as many new bird species as I did. I wished I could have seen other wildlife more, but I can't complain about my new discoveries and learning.
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