This year's attempt to hasten the arrival of Spring was a holiday in Madeira from 30th March to 6th April. It was fortunate that I planned for the whole week as the original Day 1 turned into Day 0 after heavy winds forced a detour and overnight stay in Fuertaventura (Canary Islands) only arriving at my designated hotel one day late at 4.00 pm. There was just time for a quick walk to find a speckled wood butterfly - which turned to be the first of several hundred during the week.
Fortunately I had nothing planned until a birdwatching tour the next day.
This required getting up at dawn to catch the bus to Funchal. I don't really do sunrises and scenery but the view over Cabo Girao was quite impressive.
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| Madeiran Sunrise |
After a quick breakfast I had time to take a quick look in the Municipal Park, where I was impressed by the brightly-coloured flowers produced overhead by some of the trees. There was also a waterfall catching the low sun to show a small rainbow.
| Waterfall |
The birdwatching took place to the East of Funchal. On the coast nearby we found several of the noted trocaz pigeons, the nearest of which never fully emerged from the cacti, and a sample of the local kestrels.
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However the star turn was this Atlantic Canary, singing its heart out:
Atlantic Canary
Just a pity I thought it wasn't going to!.. Apparently this is the forerunner of the domesticated canary.
A brief visit to a levada near Camacha produced a good number of madeiran firecrest sightings as well as some madeiran chaffinches.
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| Firecrest |
On some examples the crest on the Madeiran version is quite spectacular. Gere you can't see it at all.
Then it was back to a rugged piece of coast near Canico where I was pleased to get my first sighting of a clouded yellow this year.
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| Clouded Yellow |
This was also a known location for spectacled warbler, which I was keen to see as I only heard them on a previous trip to France in 2015 Unfortunately it proved to be tricky as they were plentiful but weaving in and out of the undergrowth and I was cursing myself for not having brought the lens hood for my camera as it was hard to focus in the bright and windy conditions. After some patience (others' as well as my own) I did manage to get a fairly acceptable shot.
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| Spectacled Warbler |
You can actually see it has a bit of nesting material in its mouth.
There was also a brief distant sighting of bertholets pipit - another first for me - as well as of a couple of hoopoe.
After the tour I got dropped off at the Parque de Santa Catarina on the promise of a sedge warbler on the island, for which however I had no interest. By now the wall lizards were out and about and there were a couple of the larger examples quickly apparent as soon as I reached the lake.
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| Wall Lizards |
The slightly smaller one however is technically still a juvenile as it retains a stripe on the upper body.
I was to learn in coming days that the appearance of wall lizards signifies that butterflies may be around. Just after I saw them I noticed that a monarch butterfly - one of my key targets - was fluttering past the island on the left hand side of the lake. Anyway I decided (rather coolly, I thought) to snap the lizards and meet the monarch when it reached the other side of the lake.
This duly occurred but it refused to settle until I pursued it into a children's play park, when it did settle high up in a bush. I focused on the exact branch and took the shots, only to find later that they did not show the butterfly. No idea what happened there. The only other thing I saw on going round the lake was a bunch of very lazy muscovy ducks snoozing under a tree.
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| Muscovy Ducks |
I then decided to return to the Municipal Garden as I'd noted that the wee restaurant had scabbard fish on the menu. There was some time to sit around and observe during which I spotted a red admiral and this interesting looking hoverfly - later identified on iNaturalist as an epauletted hoverfly
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| Epauletted Hoverfly |
The even better surprise came when another monarch turned up and posed reliably on a flower bed near some teenage girls.
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Overall, a pretty successful day.
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