Madeira Day 4

Today I decided to do a walk along the Levada do Norte in the hope of extending my butterfly sightings in the forests North of Cabo Girao.

The trail led me along a narrow path with a mini levada past and through several gardens with some stunning flowers.  It struck me that they were just as interesting as anything I'd seen at the Tropical Gardens yesterday, so here are some examples.  I'm no expert on flowers so no guarantees as to the accuracy of the attempted approximate identifications.

(Rough?) Poppy	Wood Sorrel?
Babiana (genus)	A Hullwort

All improvement suggestions welcome...

Having missed an early red admiral, I joined the Levada do Norte at the point where it goes through a tunnel under the motorway (torch essential!) and set forth slowly in a Northerly direction.  The recommended walk from the hotel was about six miles return but, anxious to reach woodland, I reckon I did about double that.

I certainly saw a greater number of butterflies than on the Butterfly Tour but apart from the inevitable speckled woods, none of them settled for more than a few seconds.  The eventual count was:-

Painted Lady - 1

Red Admiral - 2

Clouded Yellow - 4

Small White - 6

Speckled Wood - 200 (estimated)

Of these only the painted lady was the only one that graced the camera lens.  I must admit that I was pleased to see one so early in the year even if it wasn't a great shot.

Painted Lady

I decided on a change of tactics for this walk and started lining up the targets using the LCD screen rather than the viewfinder.  It then seemed easier to pick out the intended subjects, including the following insects:

Bent-lined Carpet Moth

Indian Milkweed Bug

Again I'm grateful for extra help from iNaturalist on these. There were also three or four larger moths I wasn't able to identify and didn't settle.

Also sighted on the way out near Campanario was a blackcap and on the way back and slightly further North a group of grey wagtails.  I had hoped they'd turn out to be yellow wagtails thinking they would be the local equivalent but apparently not the case.

Grey Wagtail

As for the forests further North towards the picnic area, they produced precisely nothing except more speckled wood.  However they were predominantly pine and palm trees.  You probably would have to go a good deal further to find more Lauressilva forest.