Just returned from a trip to the island of Madeira, where the sun shone and the heat built, very different to the weather left behind in the UK.
Although not a birding/wildlife holiday there were a few highlights worthy of mention, all except one of the sightings are from the hotel room balcony!
Plain Swift, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, (all subspecies) Blackcap, Blackbird, Y L Gull, Manx, Cory's and Bulwer's Shearwater, Common tern, Goldfinch and Feral Pigeon!
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| Bulwers Shearwater ( photo Madeiriabirds) |
I found the Blackbirds interesting as they appear larger and more robust than the birds I'm used to in the UK with a noticeably larger bill, I also watched a female actively hunting the abundant supply of Madeiran Wall Lizards.
The bird highlight came in the originally misidentified House Martin, (seen from a gondola car on the way down a mountain) which just looked wrong, and it was as it turned out to be a LITTLE SWIFT, a vagrant to the island (14th record?)
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| Little Swift, (internet free to use image) |
The holiday highlight for me was spotting the unmistakable movement of cetaceans off shore, I couldn't be 100% certain but the Dolphins appeared to be Common Dolphins, while the two whales were thought by locals to be Humpback Whales.
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| Humpback Whale breath spout, (internet free to use image) |
The flowers were, as previously, just amazing although around the hotel they were mostly non-natives.
On a more local note keep an eye out on the Pembrey Country Park website and social media, for a range of guided walks at Pembrey Country Park and the Millennium Coastal Park during July
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