MADEIRA 9th - 16th July 2000
Mark Marshall

This was a family holiday with some birding tagged on, but might prove useful as an update on sightings of some of the better species.
Arrived on the evening of 9th July, with the first birds of the trip being Plain Swift (also known as Little Madeira Swift) around the airport buildings. However, nothing else was seen until next morning. We were based in the hills to the west of Funchal at Estreito da Camara de Lobos. An early morning walk on Monday produced good numbers of Canaries often in loose groups of 6 to 10, with Blackcap being ubiquitous. Kestrel and Buzzard also regularly flew overhead during the day. Grey Wagtail, Robin and Blackbird were all in the hotel grounds. Groups of Plain Swift were in view all day. Otherwise, it was a very leisurely day taking in the sun. However, my other half did spot best bird of the day, with a "What's that?", pointing to an adult Purple Heron that drifted over the hotel and off towards the massive cliffs of Cabo Girao.
Tuesday was another relaxed day. However, tip - if you want to go to the Botanical Gardens, start in the centre of Funchal - the only place it is sign-posted from. We had a less than entertaining time trying to find it from its location on a map. Nothing much new by way of birds were seen here, except an elusive Firecrest seen high in the trees, but you can get excellent views of the Plain Swifts flying below you from the view point overlooking the motorway. However, the main purpose was to collect a permit for the evening - 5,000 Escudos, about £15.
I had managed to find out that Frank Zino was going to take a couple of people up to the Petrels that night. I had organised this in advance, sending name, address and passport details for security and obtaining the permit. I drove up that evening. The drive up to Pico de Areeiro did not look promising, with low cloud and heavy drizzle allowing no views of anything at all. However, in the last mile or so, I drove above the cloud to reveal a gorgeous evening in a truly wild place. Apart from the guest-house/restaurant and a couple of radio masts, there was virtually no sign of humanity. The only birds to be seen were a kestrel and a couple of plain swift; and far off in one of the valleys a brief view of a dark shape that was probably a Trocaz Pigeon.
Frank Zino and his wife Buffy arrived at 9.00pm. They were accompanied by a young warden called Nunes. They also had a visiting Australian, Nick, who had been involved in saving Gould's Petrel. This group had been up to the mountains a few days earlier and had caught and ringed two birds, and had also seen another sat just off one of the pathways.
I was clearly ill equipped for this trip. As an absolute minimum you need a torch, good footwear, and various layers of clothing to cover a considerable range of cold and wet conditions. A drink would be useful, as you are going to be out for about five hours. It is also not to be undertaken lightly - the walking is not particularly hard, as you are on tracks, but you are above 1800 metres and so the altitude does start to tell on some of the climbs, particularly the last half mile back. You also need a good head for heights - whilst there are some handrails at the start, later you have precipitous drops of many, many hundreds of feet.
I was lucky in that the weather was relatively benign, not particularly cool, but with occasional severe gusts that would test the best wind proofing. I puffed and wheezed my way along behind the others. After a fair while, we stopped close to a sheer drop, and the guys put up a mist net. They were not particularly hopeful (rightly, as it turned out), because there was a fair amount of moonlight and they believe the birds readily see the nets. Then we sat and waited for the birds to come in.
It was a truly beautiful location, with the last daylight giving way to moonlight. At about 10.50 p.m. we heard the first calls. It was dark by then. The birds were never seen other than as an occasional shape against the clouds below or above the cliffs, but for the next two hours we had several Madeiran Petrels (also known as Zino's Petrels) flying around giving a range of calls. Frank Zino is very aware of the different calls and gave a superb commentary. The walk back was knackering and I didn't get to bed until 2.45 am, but well worth doing to be so near to such rare birds, even if they did retain their mystery by staying out of the nets.
This is not a trip to undertake on your own. Firstly, it is not allowed (quite rightly given the tenuous grip these birds have); secondly, it is damned dangerous to be wandering around these mountains in the dark; and thirdly, you wouldn't know where to go anyway.
After a bit of a lie in, off to the eastern tip of the island, Ponta de Sao Lourenco. The island is distinctly different terrain here, being much more arid to sea level. Just west of Prainha you can't miss six large wind turbines. The arid slopes between these and the road were scanned with a scope and revealed several Rock Sparrows, including juvenile birds. The yellow breast spot on the adults was much more obvious than I had expected. There were also large flocks of Canary (200+) as well as several Goldfinch. A possible Spanish Sparrow around the houses on the south side of the road vanished before I could get to grips with it.
A little further on is a signpost for a "Mirador" to the left. Pull in by the sign, and the area was particularly good for Berthelot's Pipits, with a number of showy birds.
At the car park at the end of the road, there were two more Rock Sparrows in flight and again good numbers of showy Berthelot's. Large numbers of Yellow-legged Gulls breed towards the point. There were also several Plain Swifts as well as a very obliging Pallid Swift (the only one of the trip) low around the car park. Scanning the sea from the coast road here provided distant views of Cory's Shearwater.
Thursday was an early drive to the hills above the village of Jardim de Serra, driving until the road split and each became a track. This area gave very good views of both Chaffinch and Sparrowhawk, each a possible candidate for a split. The Sparrowhawk in particular stood out. It was a male with dark upper parts and strikingly pale breast, with only the faintest of barring.
After breakfast, off for the trip I had really been looking forward to, a days sailing to the Desertas Islands to the south-east. It was a beautifully hot and clear day, with not a ripple in sight as we boarded. Several Common Terns were around the harbour. After just a couple of kilometres from port we ran into rafts of 50+ Cory's Shearwaters (of the race borealis). Odd ones and twos were ever present. About an hour out, things started to get interesting. The sea started to become much more difficult, and the boat was moving considerably - along with most people's breakfasts. The captain decided to abort the trip and go for a quieter sail off the south-west coast of Madeira. This coincided with the first appearances of Bulwer's Petrels (I had 12 in total) and a single presumed Fea's Petrel. Viewing conditions were very difficult at this point and I didn't get much on the bird. The rest of the day was a major disappointment as a result, with no birds except the ever present Cory's. However, six turtles (several showing very well) and two flying fish kept up the interest.
The lesson from the day was that if you want to go to the Desertas, you are better either going on a charter that will press on regardless, or else going on a larger boat that has a better chance of making it across. It is best to speak with the crew when booking, to find out about the state of the sea and their policy on turning back. That said, we were unlucky, as this captain had only aborted three trips out of more than a hundred.
Friday was a trip to the interior. We were in a Land Rover and started at the Ecological park. The viewpoint here is excellent and has Chaffinch. Next stop was Ribeiro Frio and the walk along the levada (ancient watercourses) to the Belcoes viewpoint. It was mid-morning, and we had little chance of seeing Trocaz Pigeon. However, the Chaffinches were very tame at the viewpoint and there were many Firecrests showing well along the levada. These are the race madeirensis and have a shorter supercilium and more colour on the shoulder. Always a treat to see these birds.
Next we went down to the area below the Belcoes viewpoint, Faja do Nagueira. There is an acceptable track as far as the hydro-electric station, but then there is a track only undertaken by 4x4 up the slopes to the levada. At this point we stopped and had my first (brief!) views of two Trocaz Pigeons as they flew up and around the corner. There were also two buzzards and a kestrel here. The scenery is quite superb. A couple of trees were pointed out, each thought to be in excess of 1,000 years old.
The next day was our last full day, and we had another attempt to get to the Desertas. This time it was a bigger boat and expectations were higher. An early indication that things would be better was a group of six dolphins off in the distance as we left Funchal harbour.
Again, after a mile or so we started to run into large rafts of Cory's Shearwaters. Again after about an hour, we hit the rougher water, but this time we ploughed through. It made some of the viewing a little more difficult, but if you managed to prop yourself against a rail and keep the spray off the binoculars, you could do quite well. The numbers of Bulwer's Petrels increased the nearer we got to the Desertas, until about three-four miles away, when they stopped completely. However, up until then there were good close views, including a group of six running just ahead of the boat for a while. A storm petrel off in the distance was never close enough to be fully identified.
The captain had run several lines behind the boat and was delighted when he landed a five-foot blue marlin. This was an exquisite fish, but the heart sank a little to see it landed, knowing it was doomed.
However, the real highlight going out was seeing no fewer than five Fea's Petrels. I assume that they were Fea's because Frank Zino said all the petrels off Desertas would be Fea's. (However, he also said that he cannot tell them from Madeiran Petrels at sea and they aren't sure where they feed during the day, so some caution there&ldots;). The birds could be readily picked up even at a distance and even to a first timer like me. They make much more extravagant shears than the Cory's, appearing above the horizon much more of their time. The coloration on the upper wing was a little more variable than I had expected, some tending towards brown, others towards grey. The under wing looked browner on some birds, uniform black on others. Both of these observations may have been a function of the very strong sunlight, though. The nearest a bird came was no more than 100' - a real thrill. You could see the mark on the neck and the white "armpit". Mostly, they were more distant though. All of these sightings were in the rougher water between Madeira and Deserta Grande, perhaps two thirds out (about two hours out from Funchal).
A leisurely lunch and some sunbathing on the boat whilst in the lagoon on Deserta Grande, then back towards Funchal. About three miles out NW from the northern tip of Deserta Grande, all hell broke out. I assume that we were over a large shoal of small fish or squid. First we sighted two dolphins in the bow wave, which vanished but were replaced by 20 more in the distance coming towards us. A turtle popped up. A raft of birds lifted up, mostly Cory's but with some Yellow-legged Gulls. Then the line ran out and the captain was fighting another blue marlin. Then three Fea's were around the boat - all this in the space of less than a minute!
The trip back was somewhat smoother, as we were going with the swell rather than against it. There were good numbers of Bulwer's Petrels for most of the trip back, but four dark shearwaters way off to the north were as close as I came to seeing Little.
Day totals were 250+ Cory's Shearwaters, 4 poss. Little Shearwater, 67 Bulwer's Petrels, 9 Fea's Petrels, 10 Common Tern, 1 storm petrel sp., 1 turtle, 2 blue marlin, 26 dolphin sp.
Sunday morning was a very early start to go and look for Trocaz Pigeon at first light. I went back towards the power station at Faja da Nogueira. Just before it is a sharp bend with a bridge over the stream. I could hear birds calling and occasionally you would hear a single wing-clap and the bird would appear for half a second, so I scoped this area and eventually had good perched views of a couple of birds. In flight and at distance, the birds appear very dark - as near as you will get to a corvid on Madeira. However, the tail band is quite apparent, even on brief views. This area was also good for Firecrests. On the way back down I saw a further three Trocaz.
Overall, an enjoyable combination of a moderate amount of birding with a relaxing holiday. Because the number of species is quite low, you can arrange to see these in amongst doing the walking and seeing the scenery. The trip to the Zino's requires some pre-planning, but otherwise it is straightforward to bird on Madeira. The number of birds is also surprisingly low - Madeira looks as though it should be capable of supporting a greater variety and/or greater concentrations.
There was little obvious migration of seabirds yet, but I suspect I was too early.
Mark Marshall
July 2000