Madeira

We've recently returned from a holiday in Madeira. Although more of a family holiday I wanted to see the island endemics - Trocaz Pigeon & Madeiran Firecrest. Checking details, costs and old trip reports it soon became apparent that my best bet was to book a one day tour with Wind Birds. See their website here

I contacted Catriona and arranged for her and Hugo to pick me up from my hotel to join the small group of other birders on a day tour.

Following a nice drive across the island where Hugo told us lot about the history and wildlife in general we arrived at a site for Trocaz Pigeon and within minutes we were watching this island endemic high up on the laurels clinging to a cliff face above us.

Not the best shot but all I could manage holding my phone up to Catriona's scope. The first endemic in the bag!

Next up Madeiran Firecrest and we moved to another site where we found a family group of this little regulus.

Whilst at this spot we also had good views of Atlantic Canary and the Madeiran sub-species of Chaffinch.

Another interesting sub-species we saw during the course of the day was the local Grey Wagtails. Quite distinctive with a darker mantle and more prominent supercilium.

Stopping for lunch at a seaside restaurant we had time for short sea-watch and saw Cory's Shearwaters streaming past in the distance. Moving on we went to another site for Spectacled Warbler and Bertholets Pipit and also added Long-tailed Blue butterfly to the day list.

A great day and we ended up with a relatively small list of birds seen by UK standards but one which included both Madeiran endemics and a number of sub-speices. We also saw both Plain & Pallid Swifts, the Canary islands / Madeiran form of Kestrel, Buzzard, Red-legged Partridge (introduced), Whimbrel, Turnstone, Yellow-legged Gull and probably the rarest and loneliest bird on Madeira - a solitary male House Sparrow that was frequenting the grounds of the hotel we were staying in!

I even got dropped off back at the hotel in time for happy hour!