We started off however doing a little bit of sea-watching. That is pointing the scope at a patch of water in the distance and staring at it. I take my hat off to folk who do a lot of this, I don't know how. We did however, in fifteen minutes, spot at least ten Shearwaters, at a guess I'd say Little Shearwaters due their size and behaviour but it was my first attempt and I'm not confident enough in what I say to be certain. (On our last day we 'sea-watched' a large school of dolphins which was an unexpected bonus!)
Approaching the cable car station we spotted a tern flying along the front back and forth, and I managed to get the best photograph of a Common Tern I have managed thus far:
The beak shows some trace of red but is mostly black and the black cap has 'receded', in effect the bird is taking on its winter/non-breeding moult. I really am very pleased with this picture :)
Also on the seafront a small group of Turnstones were foraging or just mooching around, including this juvenile, who did take a quick peek at us and wondered quite what we were doing:
The cable car ride to the tropical garden was frankly tricky it being a large plastic bubble suspended by a thin piece of metal at points 50 metres above some very hard looking ground. I was delighted to arrive at the top and head into the tropical gardens (the tickets are 22 euros per person for the car and the entry). The gardens are very formal and lack real variety and interest. I though the overall price steep. However we did see, briefly, a moth that looked like a miniature humming bird, which was completely unexpected. I reached for the camera but it didn't hang about, and we didn't see it again. We left the gardens after about an hour, having seen Grey Wagtails and a Robin and headed along to the cable car to the botanical garden.
This trip was truly horrible, I really struggled as the drops are at least twice as high, if not more so, a wind was blowing and the car shuddering. I won't be doing that again. We decided on the way across that we'd walk down or get a cab as I couldn't face the two cable car rides back to the front.
The gardens themselves are very attractive and have much more of interest to them. The entry fee of 3 euros compares very favourably against the 10 euros for the tropical gardens, this no doubt reflects the government interest in it rather than just being a private concern which the tropical gardens are.
My only really concern with the botanical gardens is the aviary (the tropical gardens had a smaller one too), which contains approximately 400 species of captive 'exotic' birds. Thankfully the trade in these birds is now banned across Europe so hopefully this kind of 'exhibit' will one day be a thing of the past.
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