We only stopped off at a couple of sites in the central region of Tenerife. These were:
Las Lajas picnic site,
the area around the base of el Teide and
Masca village.
Las Lajas Picnic Site
This site is probably the most famous site for seeing Blue Chaffinch and is very easy to find following directions in either site guide. However, the site is located off the TF21 heading north towards el Teide.
On our initial visit on a weekday, arriving at the site it was warm and sunny with very little wind and Blue Chaffinch and Canary could be heard in the pine trees. We met up with a couple of Belgian Birders who had visited at the weekend who mentioned that the birds were all around the feet of people picnicking. We wondered where they all were as we could see very few birds and these were pretty distant. However, after trying to coax the birds down with biscuits we eventually started getting good views of Canary, Blue Chaffinch and the Canary race of Great Spotted Woodpecker. After a few hours the birds grew in confidence and came to drink at the picnic site
taps that were dripping, especially at one that had recently been mended leaving a large pool of water. Birds also spent some time picking up scraps of food that were on the ground.
We eventually got some great photos and video of Canary, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Blue Chaffinch and the Tenerife race of African Blue Tit which has a very blue back and tail.
There were also many Tenerife Lizards around the picnic site which were quite confiding allowing their photos to be taken.
On our second visit to this site it was cold and windy and there were no birds in evidence at all so we scarpered fairly quickly.
A note of warning about the restaurant on the site if it is open. Don't be fooled into buying anything there as we were severely ripped off here. We picked toasties off the menu which seemed reasanoble at 3.75 euros although a bit on the small side. However, without checking the menu we ordered a couple of small bottles of coke and some chips to go with the toasties. I was not impressed with the bill which came to over 22 euros. The coke and the chips were charged at 4.5 euros each so beware of the rip off merchant who runs the bar.
