Madeira - Weds 17th

  Up around 6.30/7.00 with a Blackcap singing strongly outside. A short watch outside had blackbirds and singing Blackcaps, with a Grey Wagtail being heard but not seen. After breakfast on the terrace we packed up some snacks and drove to the Palheiro Gardens. A mistake at a roundabout meant we spent time backtracking through the back roads back towards Machico and the motorway, this time taking the right exit and heading to Funchal. The drive up to the gardens was quite interesting with narrow roads, an almost impossible right turn and great views. When we reached the gardens we parked up, bought tickets and walked down through an avenue of Agapanthus with Blackcaps everywhere and a Robin that showed on a branch just down the slope. We reached the Car Park area and managed to find a couple of Trocaz pigeons in a tree, we watched them and got some photos and then spent time following a pair of Madeiran Chaffinches flitting through the trees. There was a pair of Blackcaps in a tree in the field that gave reasonable views but still no good views of a male. We spent a little time chasing butterflies and watching the many Madeiran Wall Lizards that had taken over a rubble mound before moving further into the gardens. We met a young man from Serbia who was booked on the boat tomorrow, and he pointed out another couple of pigeons. David could hear Madeiran Firecrest so we scanned the trees and eventually, one appeared, it then flew down to some low bushes, where it gave reasonable views, but was not easy to photograph as it was so active. We made our way down towards the tea rooms, coming out in front of the hotel, which had a lawn in front of it with two Trocaz Pigeons poking about on it. We slowly walked on, coming down outside the tea rooms. One of the staff saw us and let us in, apparently, we shouldn’t have gone that way. We ordered tea and I had a very tasty veg quiche. Some very tame Madeiran Chaffinch hopped along the wall, picking up crumbs and several Perez frogs could be seen jumping into the pond as people walked by. We walked back up to the car by a different route, checking out the Kestrel and some butterflies in some rough ground with odd flowers spread across it. We drove up higher to look for butterflies. We stopped a couple of times and then stopped at an area that looked good for butterflies. We found Siskins in the tops of the trees and several butterflies which were mainly Meadow Browns. We drove on and found a better site with clouded yellow, pale clouded yellow and, eventually, Madeiran Greyling. We drove slowly down towards Machico, stopping at a site for Barn Owl. Unfortunately, there was no sign by dusk, and as the time was passing, we decided to move on, finding a burger bar just down the road. It turns out the owls don’t show until it is really dark. 

We headed back to the house, made a cup of tea and headed to bed.