During the cruise we had limited time on each of the Islands and chose to generally take things easy in the local towns(my wife is not the obssesive birder that I am!). However the great thing about birding is you can usually find something of interest even in initially unpromising looking areas. I like this find your own approach and we started off in Arreciffe, Lanzarote where my first Macronesian endemic was Plain Swift while other sightings included Spanish Sparrows nesting in the palm trees and some very tame Common Sandpipers and Whimbrel around a lagoon which was flanked by a busy market(the reason our fellow cruise go-ers had taken this particular tour!)
In similar vein Las Palmas, Gran Canaria turned up several Canary Islands Chiffchaff singing from trees in a town square. Their loud ringing song was rather different from Common Chiffchaff and not unlike a Cettis Warbler. Their appearance was also distinctive with brown upperpart tones and bold supercillium recalling Sibe Chiff while the long slightly decurved beak and short winged, long tailed Jizz were defining features.
We didn't always take the casual option. A treat in the form of a day with wildlife tour company Madeira Wind Birds had been organised and it proved very enjoyable(many thanks to Catarina and Tanya!). Not only was the weather perfect and the scenery spectacular but we also managed to connect with more specialities including two species unique to Madeira; Trocaz Pigeon and Madeiran Firecrest. We were lucky enough to find the Pigeon rather quicky when one flew across in front of the van and perched up in it's Laurel Forest habitat. The Madeiran Firecrests proved very obliging alowing us to note subtle differences from Firecrest such as the short supercillium creating a spectacled appearance and the blacker wing coverts. Add to this Berthelots Pipit, numerous Canaries, Spectacled Warbler and a very tame drake Green-winged Teal and the day was complete.
Catarina had also mentioned the Yellow-crowned Night Heron that had been around the marina at Funchal but time did not allow a stop. I did scan from the cruise ship as we left port but no luck although a nice distraction were the Roseate Terns flying close to the ship. As I said in my last post it was rather early in the season for many of the seabird specialities but there was a chance of Bulwer's and even Zino's Petrels as the ship steamed away from Madeira that evening. Unfortunately it was not to be and the only thing different picked out from the hundreds of Cory's were a few Manx Shearwaters. Still you can't win them all.
Canary Islands Chiff
Trocaz Pigeon
Regular or Madeiran-these are always great to see
Canary not in a cage
Vagrant American ducks have to make do with
a limited amount of freshwater habitat in Madeira
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