1 Feb 26 - ORCA Canaries Cruise - Cleaning Up Madeira's Endemic Landbirds

I've been wanting to visit Madeira for a few years now, since I sailed past the island on the West African Pelagic back in 2018. However, after I started to get offered surveying roles on Saga cruises, However, after I started to get offered surveying roles on Saga cruises, I was hoping I would be able to visit Madeira on one of these trips. Finally, I would get to step ashore on this Portuguese territory.

The Pilot's boat coming out to meet us

There are three endemic Landbirds on the island: Trocaz Pigeon, Madeira Firecrest and following the recent split, Madeira Chaffinch. Zino's Petrel also breeds around one the highest peaks on the island, but fortunately, I had seen two on the West African Pelagic, as we left the nearby Desertas Islands in May 2018. Unfortunately, we were too early for the Desertas Petrels that breed on those islands, so there is still one endemic Seabird left to see.

Funchal port

Dawn over the Desertas Islands

Funchal was a pretty city

Funchal has a lot of narrow and very steep back streets: It was fun when the Sat Nav decided that some of the local roads were better to follow than perhaps a main road

This thought provoking fish made us think: It was made from rubbish that looks to have been washed up on beaches

We were tied up next to the Costa Fortuna which had arrived just before us: Did Del Boy name her?

To get around the island, I booked a hire car for the day. The car was a mere ten quid, but the full insurance cover increased that to thirty quid. Chris and Fiona decided to join me on the day and therefore, it ended up as the cheapest car hire I've had for many years. It was a pleasant fifteen minute walk from the Spirit of Discovery.

The Santa Maria de Colombo: She was built in 1998. One website claims she is an exact replica of Christopher Columbus's flagship, which appears to be proof that Colombus used engines to cross the Atlantic

75mm Schneider-Canet Model 1904 Field Gun: This Field Gun was used by Portuguese Army for many years and is close to Madeira's military museum

An old park close to the car hire office

Looking at eBird, my best options were to head to the nearby Palheiro Gardens or the Monte Palace Gardens. Both had areas of native forest in their grounds and all three endemics were regularly seen at the two sites. In the end, I found a website that said that the Trocaz Pigeons were commonly seen on the ground at Palheiro Gardens, whereas, they were tricky to see in the forests in the North of the island. I suspect they will be as tame in the Monte Palace gardens, but I couldn't confirm that. I decided on the Palheiro Gardens as the first stop, having been put off Monte Palace Gardens with all the references to their lovely Flamingos and Black Swans.

A big patch of white Arum Lilies just inside the entrance gate

We arrived at Palheiro Gardens to find there were only a few cars parked by the entrance booth. It's good that the parking area was fairly empty, as there wasn't room for a lot of cars. We agreed a time to meet up, as Fiona decided to take a walk outside of the gardens.

Palheiro Gardens

The gardens were more formal than I was hoping for, however, that wasn't a problem as the Trocaz Pigeon and Madeira Chaffinch were easy to find. The Madeira Firecrest took a bit more effort, but if you know the trees where they hold territory in the UK, then they are not hard to find.

Palheiro Gardens

We were now in the formal gardens

After about ten minutes of walking into the gardens, I saw a Pigeon land in a tree. A quick look confirmed it was my first Trocaz Pigeon. After we left it, we encountered more Trocaz Pigeons feeding on the lawns like Woodpigeons in the UK. This was a big improvement on the White-tailed Laurel Pigeons flight views in the Canaries.

My first Trocaz Pigeon: This endemic species is restricted to the Laurel forests on Madeira

Before I left the UK, I looked at options for Birding in the Madeira. I spoke to the local guiding company, Windbirds, to see what they would charge for a half day to look for the three endemics, as an alternative to hiring a car or chartering a taxi. Their response was a five hour guided trip would be three hundred Euros. Their website said they ran guided trips for a minimum of four people for sixty Euros each. I pointed out that if I was paying for four people, it would only be two hundred and forty Euros. I asked for a revised price out of principle, albeit I had already decided that I was not going to use them. The endemics didn't need any specialist knowledge or access to private land to find them. They didn't bother to respond. For me to have use them they needed to be about the same price of hiring a car or a chartered taxi and clearly they were just looking to rip me off. Needless to say, I wouldn't recommend visiting Birders forking out to use their services. Even if I had paid for the car and fuel in full and the entrance fee to the gardens, my trip was still under their sixty Euro charge, let alone their piss-taking three hundred Euro quote.

Trocaz Pigeon: They are lovely when seen close up

Trocaz Pigeon

Trocaz Pigeon

This IPhone photo shows the level of fieldcraft needed to get the previous photos

Just after seeing the first Trocaz Pigeon, I found the first of five Madeira Chaffinches.

Madeira Chaffinch: This is now a single island endemic

Madeira Chaffinch: Note, the green on the mantle which is different to the Canary Islands Chaffinch

Madeira Chaffinch: The song is different to the UK Chaffinches, but when heard you immediately know it's a Madeira Chaffinch

Madeira Chaffinch: This is presumably a first winter male

Madeira Chaffinch

Just after seeing these Madeira Chaffinches, I saw some Holm Oaks. As hoped, there were a pair of Madeira Firecrests in the area. They were just as active as any of their UK cousins and just as tricky to photograph. Despite a few opportunities, I ended up with just one Madeira Firecrest photo and I didn't get any decent photos of the second pair of Madeira Firecrests we saw.

Madeira Firecrest: This was the last of the three Madeiran endemic Ticks. All were seen within about forty-five minutes of arriving. It was a good decision to try the Palheiro Gardens site. As a bonus, there were few other visitors, so we didn't have many other visitors disturbing the Birds we were watching

Blackbird: This is the cabrerae subspecies which occurs on the Western Canaries & Madeira

Blackbird

With the Birding pressure off, it was time to enjoy walking around Palheiro Gardens. Chris and I agreed that it would have been a good location to spent most of the day wandering around on a future visit. I'm sure I will revisit the Palheiro Gardens, if I return to Funchal.

Palheiro Gardens with the tea room in the background

Palheiro Gardens are adjacent to the golf course: This provides a more expansive area of habitat close to Funchal

The historic St John's Chapel lies within the Palheiro Gardens

The Palheiro Gardens also produced a Madeiran Wall Lizard and an introduced Iberian Green Frog.

Madeiran Wall Lizard: This is the only Lizard species on Madeira. There are also a couple of Gecko species

Iberian Green Frog: This is the only Frog on Madeira and it is thought it was introduced in the 19th Century. It is a variable species, with some having a strong green base colour, whilst others look like this individual, but with a central pale green stripe and finally some do not even have a pale stripe

Speckled Wood: There were a few Speckled Woods in the Palheiro Gardens. Another Butterfly species that I regularly see in my UK garden

It was time to head back to meet up with Fiona. We still had a couple of other locations to visit which I will cover in the next Blog Post.

I wish my garden was bigger to allow me to build a similar pond feature

13 Jul 26 - Heatwave Surprises

The current heatwave has turned up some surprises in the garden. Firstly, I saw an interesting-looking Dragonfly in the front garden. My initial thoughts as it flew past the living room window, that was it was going to be my first Common Darter for the garden year list. I moved to the window to relocate it and was surprised to see it was my first garden record of a Beautiful Demoiselle. It landed, I grabbed the camera, but I couldn't get the window opened enough for a photo. In hindsight, I should have taken a photograph through the glass, but I reckoned I could get a photo from the study window, as I can open that window further. Frustratingly it flew and disappeared from sight into my neighbour's garden and didn't reappear again. The nearest regular locations to my Swanage garden are around Corfe Castle or the Corfe River Valley: both about four miles away.

Beautiful Demoiselle: This is my nineth species of Dragonfly for my garden. Latchmore Brook (3 Jun 14)

The next afternoon, I popped into the back garden to see what Butterflies were on my Buddleia bush. There were the usual species with a couple of Peacocks, a Red Admiral, a Large White, a Meadow Brown and a Gatekeeper, while a Holly Blue was flying along the Ivy hedge. Then I noticed a Butterfly completely hunched up on the gravel. I couldn't figure it out, so grabbed so photos. It turned into my first Grayling for the garden. Like the previous day's Beautiful Demoiselle, it had travelled about four miles away, as the nearest regular locations to my Swanage garden are around Corfe Castle, the Corfe River Valley or Studland's heaths. Just after this, I added another very erratic garden visitor: a Small Copper on the Buddleia. This is only the fifth year that I've seen a garden Small Copper.

Grayling: This is my twenty-third species of Butterfly for my garden

It had been a couple of great days for the garden and only a week or so before my thirtieth anniversary of living in my cottage.

31 Jan 26 - ORCA Canaries Cruise - Birding On La Palma

There was no time for any surveying as we approached our third destination in the Canaries: the island of La Palma. This is one of the two most Westerly islands and as such it receives a lot of rain. Consequently, the island has lush Laurel forests, where they haven't been clear for agriculture.

We were berthed next to the elegant-looking Wind Star: She can carry just under one hundred and fifty passengers

A map of La Palma: I was heading to locations in the North East of the island

I wanted to make the most of my time on La Palma and so I left the ship soon after the gangplank had been connected and we were allowed to disembark. The car hire company was next to the quayside and within a few minutes I was heading off to my first destination of the Laurel forests at Los Tilos. There are forest trails at Los Tilos and I rightly suspected that there would be limited parking. My plan was to find somewhere I could watch the forest slopes, rather than walking the trails, and I found a convenient viewpoint next to the entrance hut to the reserve.

A view over the forest at Los Tilos: This looked to be a good place to look for Laurel Pigeons. There are occasional eBird records of Bolle's Laurel Pigeon from here, but the only species I saw for certain was the commoner White-tailed Laurel Pigeon

White-tailed Laurel Pigeon: This monotypic species occurs on the Western Canary islands of La Palma, La Gomera & Tenerife

White-tailed Laurel Pigeon: All the Laurel Pigeons seen were flying around the upper slopes of the forest. Therefore, it seemed unlikely I would have bumped into them on the trails

White-tailed Laurel Pigeon: White-tailed Laurel Pigeons have uniform upperwings, whereas, Bolle's Laurel Pigeons have paler grey coverts

Buzzard: This is the insularum subspecies which is restricted to the Canaries. I saw a Marsh Harrier at Laguna de Barlovento, which has been seen there on a few occasions. Otherwise, the only other large Raptor I saw on the Canaries were Buzzards

After about an hour at Los Tilos, I was ready to move on have seen one of the two Laurel Pigeons species. The forest around Laguna de Barlovento looked to be a better location for Bolle's Laurel Pigeon. After another three-quarters of an hour of driving I arrived at the site. It is a massive and nearly empty concrete reservoir and frustratingly it was fenced off, so it wasn't possible to see if there were any Birds on the relatively small amount of water in it. There were plenty of extensive Laurel forests surrounding it, but the forest wasn't as close as it had been at Los Tilos. Unfortunately, it was not late morning and that isn't a great time for Pigeon activity.

The forest around Laguna de Barlovento

A view of Mount Teide on nearby Tenerife

I tried a number of viewpoints over the forest, but I failed to see either of the Laurel Pigeon species. After a while, I drove back to a campsite and ornamental lake next to the reservoir as Birds are often tamer at campsites. I did manage to finally get some reasonable photographs of a Canary Island Chaffinch.

Moorhen: This is the nominate chloropus subspecies which occurs from the UK to Europe, North Africa, the Canaries & Madeira, East through Asia to Sri Lanka, the central Malayan Peninsula, China & Japan

Blackbird: This is the cabrerae subspecies which is restricted to the Western Canaries & Madeira

Canary Islands Chiffchaff: This monotypic species is restricted to the Canaries

Canary Islands Chiffchaff: The song is similar to a Chiffchaff, but different enough to be immediately obvious

Canary Islands Chaffinch: Male. This is the palmae subspecies which is restricted to La Palma. There are another three subspecies on the Canaries

Canary Islands Chaffinch: Male. It is interesting that all of the Chaffinch species on the Canaries are much bluer than our Chaffinch

Canary Islands Chaffinch: Male

Canary Islands Chaffinch: Female. The females look more similar to a Chaffinch in the UK

Canary: This monotypic species is restricted to the Azores, the western Canaries & Madeira

Canary: They were a commonly seen species in grassland areas

I had seen very few Butterflies so far in the Canaries, but there were a few Butterflies flying around the grassy edges to the forest at Laguna de Barlovento. They were flighty and I only had a couple of opportunities to take some quick photos, as I was focusing on looking for flying Pigeons. It was disappointing to find that the two species photographed were regular visitors to my UK garden.

Red Admiral

Small White

It was now around one-thirty. I figured I wasn't likely to see any Bolle's Laurel Pigeons at Laguna de Barlovento and I might as well head back to the Spirit of Discovery for a late lunch. On port days, it's possible to get a late lunch as long as it's ordered before three.

The island has a much larger population that Lanzarote and the houses are very different to the traditional houses on Lanzarote

I stopped for a few scenic photos and at one of these stops, I bumped into a feeding Monarch. At last a Butterfly species that isn't on my garden list, albeit I have seen pukka individuals on the local Winspit patch back in the 90s.

Monarch: The Canaries population is believed to have originated from North American migrants to Mexico which were blown into the Atlantic and were lucky enough to have arrived on the Canaries, where one of it's food plants, Tropical Milkweed, has been commonly introduced

The lower slopes of La Palma are covered in small fields

After about an hour's drive I was back in the city of Santa Cruz de la Palma.

Replica of Santa Maria: This replica of Columbus's ship is actually a naval museum

Replica of Santa Maria: Had I realised it was a museum, I would have stopped for a look at the exhibits which are within its hull

Heading toward the main town

I like the way this old tree has been used to provide shade for this cafe

A breaching multicoloured Humpback Whale

We departed at five and managed to get about ninety minutes of surveying in before we lost the light. I saw a couple of Dolphins, which were too brief a sighting to be possible to identified.

The coastal edge of the island was very heavily scarred by valleys

An atmospheric sunset: With all the storms we weren't going to get the lovely orangey sunsets I had seen on the previous two Saga cruises

It was time to head off for dinner, followed by booking a hire car for our next Atlantic island of Madeira. I will cover that in the next Blog Post.