Watching Garden Wildlife

Hi all

While there are many great places on the island to visit, my holiday was coming to an end so I decided to have a nice relaxing weekend.

 I sat on the balcony and kept an eye out for birds as they visited the garden

 First to arrive was a blue tit. It looks a bit like the blue tit I see back home but the colours seem brighter and this one has a black line on its chest (like a great tit). These blue tits are endemic which means they are only found on Tenerife and neighbouring islands.  

Then I spotted a kestrel on the telephone wire. It was having a good look around in search of prey which could be a small mouse or a lizard.  Like the blue tit, this is also an endemic species of kestrel.

After a while the kestrel took flight and landed on the telephone wire further down the road.

When animals like these are only found on a few small islands, they can easily become endangered, like the wonderful Nee Nee (Hawaiian Goose) which I saw while on the Hawaiian Islands with Fred the Happy Face Monkey and Ron Hirshi. Either natural, or more often human activities, can reduce the numbers of a particular endemic species and their numbers can become so low they cannot recover and may become extinct.

After all that bird watching I decide to have a snack and then a peaceful doze in the garden.

In the afternoon I have a look for other animals too. I spot a movement on one of the rocks. When I looked closer I could see it was a lizard sunbathing.

 There are lots of spiders in the garden, this one plant is full of spider webs

 I also came across this spider. It had made its web across the path, so I decided to go the other way, just in case!

 This grasshopper locked like a dead leaf until I got up close

I decided to end the day with a bit of tree climbing

 There is nothing like a spot of tree climbing

Bye for now, Ed