Madeira Day 1

Phil’s Haven

32.647438, -16.886947

We arrived in Funchal airport late morning and, once the chore of airport security was behind us, we travelled to Phil’s Haven, the hostel where we were staying. The view from the hostel looked out over the Atlantic Ocean on the south side of the island, so from the balcony we were able to watch Cory’s Shearwaters and Bulwer’s Petrels, whilst Plain Swifts screamed overhead. The walls of the hostel were covered with Madeiran Wall Lizards, which would steal any food that was left unguarded.

During the afternoon we explored the area immediately around the hostel. The nearby cliff faces provided us with our first Atlantic Canaries of the trip; with sightings ranging from single birds to small flocks. Butterflies were also abundant along the cliff top vegetation, the standout species being Monarch, which we later found to be fairly common across the island.

Our evening plan was to head up into the mountains to the Zino’s Petrel colony, but our Wind Birds guide for the evening informed us that there had been an outbreak of forest fire, so rescheduled for the evening of the 11^th. Consequently our evening entertainment involved sitting on the cliff top and watched the Cory’s Shearwaters come in to roost on the cliffs. Although we saw many birds illuminated by the lights of the clifftop hotels, the spectacle was more the noise of so many birds all calling at the same time.

-Madeiran Wall Lizard

-Lang's Short-tailed Blue

-Plain Swift

Species List:

Phil’s Haven: Cory’s Shearwater, Bulwer’s Petrel, Yellow-legged Gull, Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Common Kestrel, Plain Swift, Feral Pigeon, Collard Dove, Atlantic Canary, Common Blackbird, Grey Wagtail, Madeiran Wall Lizard, Monarch, Lang’s Short-tailed Blue, Small White, Red Admiral,