Trip Report: Madeira, August 5-12, 1998

Andreas Bruun Kristensen, Denmark.

Participants

Jan Eske, Per Hirslund, Lars Jensen, Andreas Bruun Kristensen, Palle
Nygaard, and Klaus Malling Olsen.

Thanks to all the EBN'ters who send me information about Madeira.
Especially I would like to thank Antero Topp who provided a lot of
useful
information about the seabirds and how to find them.

Travel Info

We booked a flight including accommodation and transfer from Copenhagen
via the Danish travel agency Spies. We stayed at Hotel Mimosa in the
western part of Funchal, 200 meters from the sea. We rented two cars
(Seat Ibiza) from Hertz. The sailing trip to the Desertas cost 11000
Escudos per
person and was booked through Albatroz Organization, telephone and fax
is (091) 22 03 27. Their office is found easily at Funchal Harbor. The
price
included a one-and-a-half hour stop at Deserta Grande, a delicious lunch
and a glass of Madeira on the way back.

Weather

Hot, mostly between 25 and 30°C. We experienced one day with rather
dense fog in the mountains but fortunately not in the Long-toed Pigeon
valley

Recommended Literature

Trip Report: Madeira, 21 August-4 September 1996, Jon Gallagher
Trip Report: Madeira, 19-31 August, Gordon Richards
Trip Report: Madeira, 12-19 August, Trevor Davies
Trip Report: Madeira, April 1990, J Hornbuckle
Madeira - a short birdwatching guide, Steve Whitehouse
A birdwatchers Guide to Portugal and Madeira, C. C. Moore, and G. Elias

Itinerary

5/8 Airport-Funchal-Ponto da Cruz pm
6/8 Balcoes am - Santo de Serra pm - Ponto de Sau Laurenco pm
7/8 Funchal am - Ponto da Cruz pm
8/8 Funchal-the Desertas-Funchal (all-day sailing trip)
9/8 Balcoes am - Ponto de Sau Laurenco pm
10/8 Ponto do Pargo am - Porto Moniz pm
11/8 Ponto Moniz pm
12/8 Funchal-Airport am

Day-by-Day Report

5/8

We arrived at 3pm, and the first Plain Swifts were seen from the bus
taking us to our hotel in Funchal. The harbour hosted: adult Sanderling
1, Ruddy
Turnstone 3, Common Tern 15, Little Egret 1, and 'Atlantic' Herring Gull
80.

Four hours seawatching in the evening from Ponto da Cruz: Bulwer's
Petrel 500, Cory's Shearwater 400, Little Shearwater 3, Great Skua 1
east.

6/8

Arriving at Balcoes at 10am, staying in the area for two hours, we saw
our first Long-toed Pigeon from the parking lot at the trout hatchery.
Three
Long-toed Pigeons were seen from the viewing point. The trail to the
viewing point produced Madeira Firecrest 8, Blackbird 3, Blackcap 3 and
Chaffinch 10.

We stopped at the highest point on the road between Poiso and Santo da
Serra. On the right side of the road (to the south) we found two
Spectacled
Warblers and a Berthelot's Pipit. One Linnet flew over.

Ponto de Sau Lourenco 4-7pm: 10 Berthelot's Pipits and two Rock Sparrows
at the parking lot. Also a flock of 30 Canaries. Seawatching from the
northern part (Ponta do Rosto) of Ponto de Sau Lourenco included Cory's
Shearwater 100, Manx Shearwater 1 east, and Pomarine Skua 2 east.

7/8

Funchal harbour was checked before noon. Birds seen included a banded
Herring Gull ('S 902' on a yellow band on the left leg). Also Little
Egret 1,
Lesser Black-backed Gull 1, and Curlew Sandpiper 1 adult flying west.

Seawatching 5-7pm at Ponto da Cruz: Bulwer's Petrel 15, and Cory's
Shearwater 100.

8/8

We left Funchal harbour heading for the Desertas at 10am. We boarded
Deserta Grande for one-and-a-half hour and were back at Funchal at 7pm.

Birds on the trip: Fea's Petrel 3 (near Bugio), Fea's/Zino's Petrel 5,
Bulwer's Petrel 200, Cory's Shearwater 150, Little Shearwater 10, Common
Tern
10, Berthelot's Pipit 1 (Deserta Grande), Canary 10 (Deserta Grande).
This trip provided excellent views of the seabirds.

9/8

We visited the Balcoes area 10-12am. This time we drove north past the
village Achada do Cedro Gordo and turned left on the narrow road towards
Faja da Nogueira. This narrow road goes through a steep valley with
laurel trees on both sides. We saw at least 8 Long-toed Pigeons. Some of
them
perched in trees for long periods.

Ponto de Sau Lourenco 3-6pm: Bulwer's Petrel 50, Cory's Shearwater 20,
Little Egret 2, Berthelot's Pipit 10, Ruddy Turnstone 3, Whimbrel 1,
Rock
Sparrow 20.

10/8

We drove all the way to Ponto do Pargo where the famous lighthouse
Farois is situated. Here we spent an hour birdwatching around noon and
turned up
Buzzard 6, Hoopoe 4, Berthelot's Pipit 2, Rock Sparrow 2, Linnet 5, and
two very nice Pallid Swifts.

Between 4:30 and 7pm we went seawatching at Porto Moniz which turned out
to be an excellent spot. We recorded: Fea's/Zino's Petrel 5, Bulwer's
Petrel 400, Cory's Shearwater 600, Little Shearwater 12, Great
Shearwater 1 west, Lesser Black-backed Gull 1 3rd cal. year, Arctic Tern
80 west,
Long-tailed Skua 1 adult west, and Whimbrel 1.

11/8

We spent the afternoon seawaching at Porto Moniz and recorded almost the
same species as the day before although the number of Bulwer's Petrel
was
down: Fea's/Zino's Petrel 7, Bulwer's Petrel 15, Cory's Shearwater 200,
Little Shearwater 15, Great Shearwater 2 west, the Lesser Black-backed
Gull
still present, Arctic Tern 30 west, and Pomarine Skua 1 adult west.

12/8

On the way back to the airport at 9am we spotted a Grey Heron flying
west near the airport

All the birds recorded on the trip

day1 day2 day3 day4 day5 day6 day7 day8

Fea's petrel 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0
Fea's/Zino's Petrel 0 0 0 5 0 5 7 0
Bulwer's Petrel 500 0 15 200 50 500 15 0
Cory's Shearwater 400 100 100 150 20 600 200 0
Great Shearwater 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0
Manx Shearwater 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Little Shearwater 1 0 0 7 0 12 15 0
Little Egret 1 0 1 0 2 0 0 0
Grey Heron 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Buzzard 1 4 5 0 1 6 2 0
Kestrel 2 3 3 0 2 3 3 0
Ruddy Turnstone 3 0 0 0 3 0 4 0
Sanderling 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Curlew Sandpiper 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0
Whimbrel 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0
Great Skua 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Pomarine Skua 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0
Long-tailed Skua 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
'Atlantic' Herring Gull 80 80 80 50 50 20 30 0
Lesser Black-backed Gull 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0
Common Tern 20 8 10 10 30 10 10 0
Arctic Tern 0 0 0 0 0 80 30 0
Long-toed Pigeon 0 1 0 0 8 0 0 0
Pallid Swift 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0
Plain Swift 10 100 60 10 100 50 50 0
Hoopoe 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0
Berthelot's Pipit 0 10 0 1 10 2 0 0
Grey Wagtail 2 0 1 0 2 2 2 0
Robin 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Blackbird 1 3 0 0 0 1 1 0
Blackcap 0 3 2 0 2 0 2 0
Spectacled Warbler 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
Madeira Firecrest 0 8 0 0 1 0 0 0
Rock Sparrow 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 0
Chaffinch 0 10 1 0 0 0 10 0
Canary 0 30 0 5 10 5 0 0
Greenfinch 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
Goldfinch 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 0
Linnet 0 1 2 0 0 5 0 0