Today we leave our cave accomodation and make our way towards the capital, Santa Cruz de Tenerife via Teide. We plan to stop a few times and hike along the way as well as look for birds. The first stop after a long climb on narrow mountain roads is Las Lajas Park a camping and recreation area which has quite a good reputation for finding some rare endemic birds. There are very few people around and most buildings are closed but we hope the birds are still around.
At least there is a panel showing all the birds that we might see but until now they have been quite elusive so who knows. Undaunted we continue towards the small pond near the restrooms where supposedly all the endemic birds hang around.
The forest here is quite nice with tree that provide shade but are not too bunched together so we can’t pass through them and then we sit down and wait for the birds, maybe we get lucky.
And yes we do get lucky we almost immediately find a few Tenerife Blue Chaffinches on the ground, they are quite trusting and fun to watch. Nearby a Canary sings from a tree, quite fun to observe.
There are also woodpeckers all around, the local subspecies being called Tenerife Great Spotted Woodpecker, surprisingly they are also quite trusting and go to work all around us. We enjoy all the birds for some time before deciding to hike a bit more in the area and also find a cache.
The cache is on top of a nearby hill with an easy trail leading towards it. The only problem is that there are no pines protecting the area so the sun is beating down on us, at least that helps with finding lizards who really like the sun.
Soon it is time to go off trail a bit to reach the peak. We really like that there is little vegetation here so it is easy going as we climb the small hill.
At the top to our surprise there is a small peak marker and we also find the cache close by. Then we enjoy the views for a while before returning to the car, it is time to visit Teide National Park.
