Tenerife trip part 2

Hi all

Today we have traveled inland and visited an ancient laurel forest. We are in the north west of the island where it is often enshrouded with clouds or mist; however this is the perfect requirements for the forest to thrive.

How amazing, we are walking in a cloud.

I stopped to read the information sign and the others walked on without me. It said.

'65 million years ago Laurel Forest covered large areas of the planet – although back then the volcanic Canary Islands had not yet been born. The laurel forests adapted to major geological and climatic changes that made many ancient species extinct. One of these adapted species, Macaronesian Laurel forest, lives here at Monte del Agua'.

The cloud makes the air very damp and a little spooky. It would be easy to imagine that we had traveled back in time to some prehistoric would and any minute one might expect to hear the roar of a dinosaur.

There are lots of ferns and flowering plants growing by the rocks. It was an amazing place, I wonder if the Amazon Rainforest where Bella visited was anything like this? Soon I heard voices in the mist and then shapes and I realised I had caught up with everyone. Phew.

 I had a really amazing time in Tenerife, an island that is like several island joined together. Hot dry desert in the south, stunning volcanic rock coastline in the west and ancient forest. Wow

Bye for now
Ed

A great time in Tenerife part 1

Hi all


Its been a busy year so I have just been on my holidays with my buddy Steve. We went to Tenerife, you may remember I visited in 2012 to find out about the island and its wildlife. Also because the volcano, Teide, is a World Heritage Site


I thought it would be a great place to visit to relax.

This is Los Gigantes Beach, and the Los Gigantes Cliffs are awesome. It was peaceful sitting on the beach enjoying the hot sun on my fur. 

The sand is black because it came from the volcanic rock as it has eroded and become sand. A shadow was cast over me and I looked up to see an osprey circled low over the beach.

It is a magnificent bird, but it wasn't interested in anything on the beach - the osprey is a fish eater and a pair nest on the rugged cliff face overlooking the sea.

I ran down to the sea for a paddle, the reason I ran was because the black sand gets very hot. I stood in the shallows cooling my paws when I saw a shoal of fish swim by.

Then a seabird called a tern flew past and after circling it dived into the sea to catch a fish.

On the rocks were bright red crabs. Some where eating the green algae that had been exposed at lowtide.

Others seemed to be sunbathing!

As I paddled in the sea I noticed that there were a number of plastic bags in the sea and also other items such as a plastic spoon.

Sadly these items come from people using the beach.


So the next day I took part in a beach clean to collect some of the plastic. We collected some plastic items but not as many as I thought that we would. I found out why 2 days later when I visited another beach called Medano. Its often very windy of the beach and its perfect for the wind surfers and kite surfers.

I saw a man on the beach with a special net. It was like a fishing net but he was scooping up the sand. Because the hot sun dries out the sand it soon become very powdery. The man was wearing a yellow t-shirt that said Socorrista. Then another man came by with the same t shirt and picked up some plastic bottles. 

I asked him what he did and he said he was a life guard. I don't speak very good Spanish but luckily he could speak quite good English.


He told me that part of his days work was to pick up plastic bottles or scoop up small bits of litter that people leave on the beach. This means it gets removed from the beach before it can get washed into the sea.  I thought this was a great idea.


Later on I found out that this only happens on the beaches that are tourist areas or sandy beaches for swimming. On the rocky beaches people drop plastic and cans and they either stay in the rock crevices or they end up in the sea.

I walked the sandy beach. I did not find any litter (which was good) but I did find this beautiful crab shell. 

Crabs shed off their old shell after growing a new on underneath. So maybe the actual crab was still alive and living in the sea.

More about my trip soon


Ed the Bear

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

Whales, dolphins and Fiesta

Hi all

We all woke refreshed and headed off to a small seaside village called Los Gigantes, named after spectacular sea cliffs. The cliffs are one of my buddy Steve's favourite views on the island. Xena helps out with one of the whale and dolphin watch boats moored in the harbour at Los Gigantes. Xena was working today. She dropped us off in the town and said she would meet us later. I was really excited as Steve said we would all be going out on the glass bottom boat to see dolphins and pilot whales. I have not seen pilot whales before so I was really looking forward to this. We met up with Xena and we were soon settled down and ready to go.

I found somewhere out of the way while they readied the boat and we were soon on our way.

As we headed out to sea, waves broke against the bow spraying us with sea water. I was disappointed however to see some marine litter floating past, including a white plastic bag. As we continued on we all got wetter and wetter, but was a hot day and it helped to keep us cool. I looked towards the shore.

Towering above the island was Teide – it looked spectacular.

Steve pointed out a bird skimming low over the waves. He told me it was a Cory’s Shearwater.

Steve said they feed and catch food for their young out at sea and return to the nest at night. The adults call to their chicks – which sounds like cackling witches.

All of a sudden two pilot whales surfaced on the left side of the boat. The boat captain slowed the boat being careful not to get too close when suddenly two whales surfaced right next to the boat.

These whales were amazing to see. After taking a breath they dived, but the water was very clear and you could see them swimming beneath the water.

The whales surfaced, swam alongside the boat and then dived again. There were several other pilot whales a short way off.

The pilot whales were beautiful and graceful. It was a privilege to see them close up.

A large whale swam past, and spouted as it breathed out before taking in fresh air before diving again

After we had enjoyed watching the whales for a while, we slowly turned and headed back towards the shore. However the tour wasn’t over yet. We were heading for a bay called Masca where we would anchor and people could get of the boat and swim.

On the way we eat Tortilla (Spanish omelet) and drank Sangria. I watched the dark line of cliffs in the distance get higher as we got closer.

Soon the cliffs were towering above the boat and made me feel very tiny. Sharon and Amber went for a swim but I stayed on the boat with Steve. The water here was very deep and I did not have my diving bubble.

I sat and admitted the view of these stunning cliffs.

When everyone was back on board he headed back to the marina. On the way back we stopped at some fish farm where they farm two species of local fish for the restaurants on the island.

I thought this was a great idea, farming fish instead of catching from the wild – because many fish species have been over fished. However, my buddy Steve told me that the fish farms can be harmful. He said that a lot of fish waste in one area and uneaten food can be a big problem as it upsets the water chemistry. A diver buddy of Steve’s had told him that the area around the fish farms has become polluted and not much lives their now.

Steve was about to say something else when I interrupted him. I had seen a dolphin surface next to one of the enclosures. I pointed excitedly to the dolphin but Steve seemed less pleased.

This is another reason the boats stop here – to see the dolphins. Steve told me the dolphins were attracted by the fish. When the fish farms were first set up, the dolphin learned to leap into the enclosures to catch the fish.

Now the dolphins swim round and round the fish farm continuously and the fish get very stressed at these large predators being so close.

Steve said that when he had visited in previous years the boats had to head out to see to find the dolphins, just like we had done to see the pilot whales. When the boat reached the dolphins they were often inquisitive and playful. They would swim over to the boat, leaping and splashing or riding the bow wave at the front of the boat. Even I could see that the dolphins had no interest in us being there.

They just swam round and round, even a mother dolphin with a calf. I felt sad for these dolphins and how their live had changed. I was glad when the boat turned and headed off to the marina.

When the trip was over we went back to Xena’s house. I had a shower to get the salt out of my fur. We had a meal and then slept. But the day wasn’t over yet. It was a local Fiesta (festival) at Alcala and tonight there would be a big fire work display. Xena drove us up the mountain a short way, over looking the village of Alcala and watched a breath taking firework display.

Bye for now, Ed