A day out to Porto Santos.

It was a beautiful day on the island of Porto Santos, just to the north of Madeira and conveniently a 2.5 hour boat journey each way over seas which hold some of the rarest seabirds in the World. Highlights of the journey included at least 30 Bulwers petrels and 400 Cory's shearwaters.

The island itself is very arid and this is reflected in the fact that several of the plant species we saw at Porto Laurenco yesterday are here also, including ice plant Mesembryanthemum crystallinum, but also Berthelot's pipit.  The main town on the island, Vila Baleira, has a good population of Spanish sparrow.

Berthelot's pipit.

Bulwers petrel.

Cory's shearwaters.

Bulwers petrel.

Spanish sparrow.

Ice plant Mesembryanthemum crystallinum.

Not watching endemic seabirds

Today we went on the Whale and dolphin watching trip run by Madeira sea birds. It was almost bird less, but the spotted dolphins were fun and we did see a handful of Cory's shearwater. 

Ponta de São Lourenço

We had a great walk at Ponta de São Lourenço this morning, with lots of endemic plants and my first Berthelot's pipits. Only a very few of the plants can I even come close to identifying except to say which family they are.

Atlantic Canary.

Berthelot's pipit.

Madeiran wall lizards eating an apple. I've seen Lilford's wall lizards do exactly the same on sa dragonera off Mallorca.

Ice plant, one of the specialities of this peninsular.

Argyranthemum pinnatifidum subsp. succulentum endemic to Madeira.

Lotus glaucus endemic to Madeira and the Canaries.

Andryala glandulosa endemic to Madeira.

Echium nervosum endemic to Madeira.