Thursday. The Blackcap alarm was going loud and strong and then a leisurely get up and breakfast on the terrace. Decided to drive out to Ponto do Rosa. This is a line of sharp peaks making a promontory off the north-east corner of the island.The drive up was quite scenic but very busy in places and we were lucky to find a parking place right at the end. We had heard Bertholot’s Pipit on the way up but parking was difficult. Getting out the car and scanning round we found several Canaries sitting up on the fence so we made our way up to the fence line. They were very tame and didn’t seem to mind people getting quite close. We met up with a small group which turned out to be Caterina and three of the other travellers on the boat this afternoon. She picked out a Bertholot’s flying towards us and we did see a few more. She also picked up a Spectacle Warbler on the fence rail inside the compound.
We spent quite a bit of time with the Canaries trying to get to get good photos as the light was making it difficult. We also spent time with the Warbler which turned out to be two young birds spending all their time foraging among the weeds and not being easy to see, let alone photograph, but they came out into the open on the wires and in top of the weeds.
The geology was quite interesting as it looked like lots of mud pool bubbles which had solidified and a lot of them had lumps of rock in the centre as if the rocks had fallen into the bubbles and dried. We also had Kestrel and Plain Swift flying about, with David and Sean seeing a Sandwich Tern fly through the saddle in the islands
It started to get really busy so we decided to go back to Machico for lunch before returning to the house to get ready for the boat ride. We managed to find somewhere to park, walked over to a kiosk which had dough bread sandwiches filled with ham and cheese with garlic butter. They were a bit stodgy and not very tasty so I decided to keep half of mine for a snack for the boat if I needed it.
We ate our snack, walked along to the harbour to have a look. There were lots of crabs of different sizes clinging to the harbour wall concrete cubes, including one that was a great deal bigger that the others, there was also one on the rocks just along from the harbour which was an odd pink colour, it was also very flat. There were also some interesting fish in the harbour, one sort was black with electric blue edges to the fins and body as it turned in the water. There were a variety of other fish around the slipway before we headed back to the house to get ready for the pelagic.
Parking was lucky, with a space not far from the harbour. We bought an ice- ream, with David enjoying a tub of Pistacio. It was very warm so I didn’t put on my waterproofs. I ended up on the front seat, but as I couldn’t reach the floor, I decided to move back to the third row. The second row was filled by two Italian photographers, with no binoculars and 600 mm lenses. I managed to find somewhere to put my feet and held on to the handles provided in the seat in front. On the way out we saw several Cory’s Shearwaters and one whale species, which turned out to be a Blainville’s Beaked Whale. The chum was put out in a bucket with holes in the side which gave continuous bits and oils out of it. It attracted Cory’s, and Desertas Petrels and an European Storm Petrel or two. The first pass was most successful with the numbers dwindling after that. They did change the bucket but it didn’t seem to help. We motored back around 10.pm with little else.
We returned to the car, drove back towards the house, stopping on the way for a burger at the burger van by the football pitch and then having a tea before turning in.
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