Madeira birding trip, 12th - 20th September 2018

We visited famous portuguese island called Madeira for one week in September. For me as a keen birdwatcher and lover of nature the main goal of this journey was to discover as much wildlife as possible occuring in this area.
Madeira is pretty small island with 750 square kilometers area. It lays in Atlantic ocean and goes up to 1862 meters with the highes peak Pico Ruivo. The island has extremely rich nature habitats, you can walk through hot rocky area at Ponta de Sao Laurenco and then after 20 minutes of driving to the mountain area you'll find mild climate of laurel forest. It is a paradise for all landscape photographers.
Focusing on birds, you can find a few interesting resident species, including three endemic - Trocaz Pigeon, Madeira Firecrest and Zino's Petrel. First two are pretty easy to find in suitable areas, the third bird is very hard and you have to hire a guide to help you, if you want to observe this species. The island has great conditions for seawatching, but for me it was impossible to do any seawatch because of the lack of great scope.
During the week I saw 39 bird species, including 11 lifers. Some abundant birds were hard to be found because of bad period of the year (birds were mainly silent), but we had the advantage of autumn migration, which brought us for example Whichat, which is uncommon in this part of the world. 

A view from a path to Pico Ruivo

September 12th

We started from the Prague airport with a flight to Lisaboa at 20:00, the flight took a little more than three hours. From Lisboa we took a plane to Madeira and after 1hr and 45min we landed on the island. Took taxi from the airport and arrived to our Boutique hotel Santa Cruz in about 5 minutes. The taxi costs 7 euro. We checked-in in a hotel and got to bed very early in the morning.

Waiting at the Prague airport.

September 13th 

After a short sleep I woke up to check out the neighborhood of our hotel from a balcony. We had a nice view of the sea, so I was also trying to find some of the seabirds. Unfortunately I left my scope at home, so I had to stuggle only with my 600mm lens and 10x50 binocular. That was a huge disadvantage and probably the reason, why I was not lucky to find any interesting seabirds. Anyway, I found some birds from a balcony, including my first two lifers (Plain Swift, Cory's Shearwater).


After a breakfast we did a short walk around the Santa Cruz to see what is around us. We checked the city and a valley that lays nearby. There were three species of raptors and we found two blackcaps in a bush. We also visited the coast, that produced some more Cory's shearwaters.

Santa Cruz church.

Gray Wagtail (Motacilla cinerea)

 Then we took a bus to Funchal (5 euro for a return ticket for one person) and had a lunch there. After lunch we checked the Funchal marina to find some waterbirds. The walk was quite hard, because of a very hot weather and also the birds were not active. There were some common terns, a few Turnstones and our first Goldfinches on the trip.

Common tern (Sterna hirundo) in the Funchal harbor.

Funchal harbor

After a walk in the Funchal city-center we decided to go to a garden called Santa Catarina Park, which takes place over the Funchal harbor. This is a very nice place to relax and have an ice cream or coffee and it is also quite good to see some common resident birds, such as Blackbird, or Goldfinch. This place also holds a great number of Island Canary, which was lifer for me. 

Then we took a bus and went back to Santa Cruz. The first day on Madeira produced 18 bird species and 3 lifers. I also discovered the challenge of birding on an island whoose fauna has developed independently for a long time and was discovered only by a few species - very short checklists in a comparison with my homeland. 

Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) in the Funchal city center. 

September 14th

View from a cabin on a way to Monte.

We woke up early and took a bus to Funchal again. Our aim was to take a cabin and visit the Monte Tropical garden. Although we tried to be there as soon as possible, we arrived after 10:00 (the sunrise was around 7:50). Monte gardens are really beautiful as it is a combination of nature and architecture and we were highly fascinated by them. These gardens are also full of birds. In the first minute in the garden we had our first Madeiran Firecrest calling. This bird is very hard to be seen and photographed, even though it is very common in every suitable habitat, which are the forests in a higher altitude. The garden is full of Madeiran Chaffinch, Blackbird and Robin. We were surprised by the Chaffinches in a local Caffee, that lost their wildness and you could feed them almost by the hand! Another surprise was a pair of Trocaz Pigeon, another Madeiran endemitic species.  

Madeiran Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs maderensis)

Trocaz Pigeon (Columba trocaz)

September 15th

Next day we hired a car. We had a Peugeot 208 and it was quite OK, but I recommend you to take some stronger car, as the island has a lot of difficult roads, especially in the inland. I also warn you not to take any shortcuts, that are possibly recommended by navigation systems. These shortcuts are often very dangerous for someone, who is not experienced with driving in the mountains.

A view during the walk to Balcoes.

Our first ride from Santa Cruz headed to Ribeiro Frio where we parked our car and took a short walk to a viewing point called Vereda dos Balcoes. This viewing point is well-known by tame Chaffinches. These are very easy to photograph and observe and if you have something to feed them with, you can try to feed it by your hand. On the way we heard and seen a lot of Firecrests and it was a great opportunity to take some pictures of them. Despite the fact, they were not shy at all, taking a good picture of this species was almost impossible, as they were moving very fast in the shadows.

Madeiran Firecrest (Regulus madeirensis)

Madeiran Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs maderensis)

After visiting Ribeiro Frio we decided to go to the easternmost part of the island, called Ponta de São Lourenço. This part of the island is almost without any trees or bush and in this time of the year it seems pretty much empty. Anyway, we had some interesting species of birds on our way, which was quite long (9 km) and tough, because the path goes up and down all the time, also the sunshine was extremely strong. On the way there were dozens of Canarys, we had some herons and egrets on the hatchery in the sea. I was surprised by a few Whimberels sitting on a cliff. Finally we found our first Berthelot's Pipit. Almost at the end of the penisula there is a small bistro, which is a perfect spot for observing and taking pictures of Canarys. 

September 16th

Next day we decided to do a whole-day birding. We were following some birding sites on Birding Madeira webpage (http://madeira.seawatching.net/sites.html). Our first stop was in Machico. We checked the river mouth and the harbor. River mouth was very good, we had many Turnstones and one Sanderling. Also in the reeds we met some Common Waxbills. In the bush next to the river mouth, there were Blackcaps and Blackbirds. 

Harbor itself was empty with some Yellow-legged Gulls only. 

Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres)

Common Waxbill (Estrilda astrild)

Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres)

We did a quick transfer to Canical, city right next to Machico. Unfortunately, there was some festival happening, so there was a huge amount of people everywhere. This probably caused, that we could not find any Spanish Sparrow, that should have breed here near the harbor. Anyway we found some Turnstones, Sanderling and one or two Lesser Black-backed Gulls in the harbor. The city is also full of Collared Doves.

Sanderling (Calidris alba) in Canical harbor

Whinchat (Saxicola rubetra), Lugar de Baixo

In the afternoon we continued to the west of the island. First we visited Lugar de Baixo, which is supposed to be a good spot to observe waders and other species of waterbirds. Unfortunately this place is now fully covered by reeds and so there is no chance to see shorebirds at all. However, we found first and the only Mallard of our trip and we also found one Whinchat. I was surprised, that it was second record in eBird on Madeira, so it became the first "rare" sighting we had here. It is very ironic, because Whinchat is very common bird in our country.


Afterwards we arrived to Prazzeres. We parked at the parking lot near the Jardim Atlantico hotel, got through the hotel area and then we took a small path leading down to the valley. Before we entraced the hotel area there was a lot of finches and canarys eating seeds of sunflowers. In the walley there was normal species distribution with Plain Swifts, Kestrels and Canarys. We also had one Trocaz Pigeon and our first Red-legged Partridge calling from the grass.

Prazeres

Last location for that day was Ponta da Pargo. This place is known by its great observations of migrating birds, but we were not succesful there. We could not enter the garden next to the lighthouse and so we had to go to a grassland area nearby. The land was quiet and we saw just a few common species. But at least we had some good views of Berthelot's Pipits.

     

Berthelot's Pipit (Anthus berthelotii), Porta da Pargo 

September 17th

Next morning we took a bus to Funchal, which is in my opinion the most comfortable way to get to the capital ciy. We have booked a boat trip (40 euro pro person) to see some of the ocean wildlife. The trip started at 1100 but we were in the harbour quite early. During waiting in the harbour we saw a few common species like Common Terns, a few Yellow-legged and one Black-headed Gulls.

Cory's Shearwater (Calonectris borealis)

As we started the boat trip from the harbor, we saw numbers of Yellow-legged Gulls and Common Terns. After a few minutes of travelling on the boat we were surprised by a quite huge shark near the boat. First time in my life I saw a shark in wild. We were very lucky, because some ship nearby found a very rare mammal - the Monk Seal. This species is one of the most endangered mammals in the world with just a few breeding sites left on the entire planet. Unfortunately no dolphins or whales were seen during our trip, but I was satisfied by having the opportunity to take photos of Cory's Shearwaters and seeing one Bulwer's Petrel. Also the Monk Seal became one of the highlights of the trip.

Bulwer's Petrel (Bulweria bulwerii)

Monk Seal (Monachus schauinslandi)

In the afternoon we took a car and parked in a nice village called Santo António da Serra. Next to the village we found huge park (or garden) with a pleasant atmosphere and with any tourists around. The garden was also full of birdlife - classical madeiran species composition - Firecrest, Chaffinch, Canary...

September 18th

Next morning we decided to reach the highest peak of Madeira, which is Pico Ruivo. On the way from the parking to Pico Ruivo, there is a breeding site of the famous Zino's Petrel, one of the rarest birds in the Western Paleartic. Unfortunately this seabird visits its breeding site only under the cover of night because of the danger of predation by gulls. If you want to see (or rather hear) this bird, you have to pay for a guide (circa 50 euro pro person), who takes you to the breeding site, where you wait for their special "whooooa" calls. As a poor students we unfortunately did not have enough money to do this journey.

Pico Ruivo track

Owing this fact, we wanted at least see this site, which is also a famous tourist attraction. We parked at Pico de Arieiro 9 o'clock and followed the stream of tourists. On the way we didn't saw many birds, but the views of mountains were amazing. Also the way was very hard following all the stairs and up-and-downs and we had to return in about half of the track to Pico Ruivo.
The most interesting bird we saw were the Red-legged Partridges. We heard at least three birds calling and met four fearless individuals on the path. There was also a lot of Berthelot's Pipits, Plain Swifts and a few Kestrels.

Plain Swift (Apus unicolor), Pico Ruivo track

Red-legged Partridge (Alectoris rufa), Pico Ruivo track

On the way back from Pico do Arieiro we went to Ribeira da Janela and after a brief visit of the town and one ice cream, we drove to the river delta called Praia de Janelas. Between a few Plain Swifts I finally found one Pallid Swift, new species for our travel. On the cliff in the sea I found one Great Cormorant sitting within a little group of Yellow-legged Gulls. This bird seems quite uncommon on Madeira. In the waves I recognized one Cory's Shearwater.

September 19th

Last whole day on Madeira. I dedicated this day to catch up the two birds, that I still missed on our travel, although they should be pretty common around the island. It was Rock Sparrow and Spectacled Warbler.

At first we did a little stop to visit Ribeira de Machico for the last time. We had common species on the way to shore and on the coast and river delata we had some Turnstones, two Sandelings and one Common Sandpiper. 

  

Next step was finding the Rock Sparrow. After reading a few articles about this species on Madeira, it seemed to me, that the best opportunity to find this amazing bird is in the rocky area on the way from Canical to Ponta de Sao Laurenco. I was moving with a car slowly with the windows open, trying to listen to every single bird call. We did a few stops on the good places to listen and look around. With any success.
I was frustrated, when we arrived to the end of the road and had to return back. While driving back to the central island I decided to do a last stop in front of the hotel complex. Suddently I heard some voices - yes, it was a Red-legged Partridge near the car. I followed the voices and suddently another bird made a noise from different direction. But this voice belonged to anything I heard before. After a few minutes of searching I took my first photograph of the Rock Sparrow. It was a little group of six birds.

Rock Sparrow (Petronia petronia)

A pair of Island Canary (Serinus canaria).

After successful hunt for Rock Sparrow I wanted to find the second species of Sparrow occuring on Madeira. The only reliable place to find this bird on central island is Canical, they say on the web. Unfortunately after a half-hour trial, we did not see any Sparrow in the city.

I had the last chance to find the Spectacled Warbler. I was considering the best place, where to try, and after reading all reports I decided to do one more try at Ponta do Pargo. After about fifteen minutes of searching I heard the notorious "rattle call" from a bush nearby. Yes! Now I had to find the bird and try to take some picture. I continued on the path to the direction, where I heard the call. Suddently there was a bird, that jumped out of the shelter in a bush, did its "rattle call" and flew away.
I tried to follow it and when I heard the call again, I have hidden in a bush and waited for a while. After a few minutes I spotted the bird in the next group of bushes, just about five meters from me. It has slowly moved higher and then the bird appeared on the top of the bush and began to sing. Great ending for our trip - lifer number 11 of this week!

Spectacled Warbler (Sylvia conspicillata)

September 20th

Taxi picked us up at the hotel and took us to the airport. It was time to say goodbye to Madeira. We had a safe flight home, again with a stop in Lisaboa. Interesting moment of our flight was observation of Flamingos collony in a huge wetland near the city.