The product of the explosive marriage of fire and water, the Canary Islands offer a range of both pelagic and land-based delights for the travelling naturalist. Here there is an opportunity to see some exciting endemics and the opportunity to see some pelagic birds and mammals that only just creep into European Waters, that is if you can truly regard islands off North Africa as European!

The archipelago has gained a reputation as one of the pre-eminent whale-watching locations in the Western Palearctic with thousands of sun-seekers parting with a few euros for the chance to see Short-finned Pilot Whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) of which hundreds are present for much of the year. Although many of these enterprises are unregulated, recent efforts by the WDCS in drawing up protocols for safe observation will hopefully prevent any potential disturbance. The deep waters around the islands are also important staging areas for a number of other cetaceans - both temperate and sub-tropical dolphins (including the sort-after Atlantic Spotted [Stenella frontalis] and Fraser’s [Lagenodelphis hosei] Dolphins), various beaked whales and occasional rorquals (including Bryde’s Whale [Balaenoptera edeni]). I spent a week in January 2003 on a “holiday” with my girlfriend Lynsey Smith with the focus of the trip being on the endemic landbirds of which there are a range of distinctive taxa to see. Having found all the sort-after species including the spectacular Blue Chaffinch (Fringilla teydea), diminutive Canary Island’s Kinglet (Regulus teneriffae) and globally threatened White-tailed Pigeon (Columba junoniae), we decided to spend one day taking the ferry to Gomera and back.