Madeira Days Six and Seven

Jacob was still recovering from his sickness on Saturday so while Holly played nurse again I took the opportunity to try and get some photos of Trocaz Pigeon. I headed over to Palheiro Gardens on the recommendation from a post on Jono Lethbridge's blog and sure enough this has to be the easiest place on Madeira to see these birds well. It's also a site where you can clean up on the other landbird endemics too which are also common in the gardens. Furthermore the gardens are stunning, a fresh departure from a lot of formal gardens and more towards a sprawling and fluid layout and a bit of a biodiversity hotspot too with many butterflies, wilder areas and good bird populations. Ebird list here.

On Saturday afternoon Jacob was back to himself so we spent the afternoon on the beach.

Sunday was our last day so we headed over to the Whaling Museum in Canical which also gave me a quick opportunity to check out the harbour gulls - a nice little group of 'Atlantic Gulls' and the first Black-head of the trip.

FINAL TRIP REPORT HERE. Only 23 bird species but three WP lifers. Also a nice selection of local moths, will do a separate post on that. 

We stayed at the wonderful rural Calhau Grande HERE and all our logistics were arranged by the amazing Archipelago Choice HERE. Thanks to Catarina and family for such a warm welcome and once again thanks to Ian Coates for another great trip (Ian organises our Azores Pelagics etc). 

We've done a few of these 'stealth birding' family holidays on islands now (Majorca, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and now Madeira), where the main focus is on family stuff but embedding some WP lifer targets into nature themed family events and quick sneak outs amongst the foam parties and sand castles. Still got Cyprus, Corsica and Iceland to do and can also do a few short breaks to places to fill in some gaps in my WP list like Estonia (for Stellar's Eider and Pine Grosbeak), back to Turkey (to get the Brown Fish Owl), back to Spain (still need Dupont's and White-rumped Swift for WP) and Northern Morrocco (Atlas Fly, Magrheb Owl). Beyond the WP there's also islands like Seychelles and Bermuda where there are a few manageable targets. So basically loads of young family holiday ideas before the boys are old enough to do some proper trips.  

Trocaz Pigeon (above) 

Canary Red Admiral - a lep lifer and a stunner too 

Speckled Wood- despite plenty of checking I failed to find Madeiran Speckled Wood or the Grayling. Also had Small White and Clouded Yellows but no Madeiran Brimstone. Would certainly have been good to have more focused time out here. 

The stunning Palheiro Gardens- if on a family trip and need to mop up the local landbird endemics quickly- just do a couple of hours here. In all of the Macronesian islands nothing compares to Madeira in terms of the proliferation of gardens and gardening - absolutely stunning and very inspiring. Can't wait to get our garden back.  Will do a separate post on some of the plants we encountered. 

View from Palheiro Gardens over Funchal 

The Canical Whaling Museum - another great little family nature themed attraction- really modern and great graphics and tech