10%

MADEIRA - THE ATLANTIC PARADISE

A dream destination for naturalists and hikers

By Nick Gates

February 21^st, 2022

In search of some winter sun and scenic hiking, we decided to head down to this remote Atlantic island to experience it for ourselves. There is a theory that Madeira is what remains of the lost mythical city of Atlantis. When you arrive here, you can see why. The verdant volcanic landscape is unique, unlike anything I'd found on my travels elsewhere. Much of it looks like it inspired the blockbuster Avatar. And the well-signposted walking trails lead to some exquisite vistas. Walking boots packed, we flew south.

The first thing to note about the hikes in Madeira, is that many of them follow the course of old levadas. These irrigation channels were built throughout the 19th and 20th centuries to divert freshwater from the many upland streams and springs down to arable farmland cut into the foothills and lower slopes. This means that, if you pick the right routes, they can be almost flat, so appealing to a wide range of hikers.

We decided to focus on a few highly recommended routes, pairing stunning scenery with a chance of seeing some of Madeira's endemic wildlife.

Levada das 25 fontes

The Levada das 25 Fontes, literally "Levada of 25 springs" is probably the most popular levada on Madeira. It has really easy parking at the start and the route PR6 that it follows is well-signed from start to finish.

Laurisilva

The trail follows through a mix of closed laurisilva forest, and open vistas at corner viewpoints of the same. These evergreen laurel forests once covered much of southern Europe, but are now restricted to the Azores, Canary Islands and Madeira. These trees represents a vast expanse of primary forest, a rare example of true wilderness barely shaped by people, full of endemics. It is such a precious habitat that UNESCO have recognised it on their World Heritage List.

Trocaz pigeon

Top of the list in the laurisilva for all Madeiran birdwatchers is the trocaz pigeon. Walking the levada trail, we were very fortunate to find one feeding out in the open on our route. It showed little fear of humans, and we managed to show another group who were approaching behind us this stunning endemic. Its distinctive collar shimmered in the dappled light as it fed, entirely unperturbed by our presence just a few metres away. The resemblance to our own woodpigeon, thought to be the ancestor of this species, was clear to see, though it also had the jizz of stock dove with its iridescent sheen and leaner build than woodpigeon. Interestingly, the genetic origin of this species is far from settled, as there was also a poorly-described Madeiran subspecies of woodpigeon that went extinct in the early decades of the 20th century.

I'd read that finding this species can be hit and miss, with many sightings a result of waiting on them moving between feeding trees at long range, so we were fortunate to enjoy such a long and undisturbed view of this individual. Later in the trip, we did enjoy a distant view of eight individuals coming in to a loosely scattered roost, including a male puffing out his throat feathers and presumably cooing and courting as our own species can frequently be seen doing.

Madeira firecrest

Throughout this trail, you can regularly pickup the high-pitched trill calls of the Madeira firecrest. As with all new species, I was incredibly excited when I saw my first, and second, and third but after a dozen or so I became a little pickier with which ones I'd stop to try and photograph! If you've ever tried photographing crests, you'll know they can be a rather frustrating subject, constantly on the move and rarely offering an opportunity for a sharp photo as they flit between the undersides of foliage picking away for invertebrates.

They often can be found in small parties, so as we were watching one individual, I was not surprised to notice a second bird feeding quite nearby. However, this bird then paused and did a wing shimmer, the sort of thing you see tit species do when they're nervous or begging for food. The next thing that happened took us both by surprise. The bird we were originally watching launched itself at the new arrival, and they both came tumbling out of the scrub, flashing their orange crests as they kicked, pecked and scratched at each other. This lasted for over 30 seconds, before one eventually disentangled itself from the fight and flew off.

At the end of the Levada das 25 Fontes is a stunning natural waterfall. As an added bonus, the local Madeiran chaffinches have clearly learnt this is a good place to wait for tourist titbits as there were about a dozen of them flitting around.

Berthelot's pipit

The following day, we headed across to the west coast to explore the trails there. Passing through the extensive tracts of non-native eucalyptus was a stark contrast to the primary laurisilva forest. It is interesting to see the way that all the hillsides in the lowlands of Madeira have been terraced, supporting extensive subsistence-type small family farms. Presumably once covered in laurisilva, these low intensity plots grow everything from fruit groves to small fields of pasture, allowing local wildlife to still benefit from the land now growing food for people.

These small pasture plots turned out to be a good place to look for Berthelot's pipits. We were aiming for the lookout at Ponta do Pargo, and despite there being a thick haze in the air (which we later learnt was caused by Saharan dust creating mist), we spotted three of these little pipits feeding on the thinly-vegetated ground. They seemed to particularly like the area here, an exposed patch right on the edge of the cliffs that you can easily walk to from the lookout roundabout.

Cetacean watching

Due to it's volcanic foundations, the sea shelf around Madeira is incredibly steep, dropping off a few miles within sight of land. This has made it a premier cetacean destination, with many of the deeper-diving species such as sperm whale frequently spotted off the coast here in the right season. In fact, chatting to a local marine biologist, I found out that 28 different species of cetacean had been recorded off Madeira, an impressive tally!

The best way to watch these is to head out on a tour with one of the many different cetacean outfits. We decided to go with Lobosonda out of Calheta and were really impressed with their setup. Like many of the cetacean-spotting outfits, they had a land-based spotter up on the cliffs, and then a skipper and an experienced marine biologist leading the trip. Our boat was the Ribeira Brava, one of the three remaining original wooden fishing boats in Madeira that had been repurposed as a whale-watching boat.

It was once we were out on the water that we learnt about the haze surrounding the island. Apparently, as Saharan dust is blown across the Atlantic, it traps moisture from the mainland and forms a misty haze. During dust storms from the desert, visibility can be severely impeded.

Aside from potential dolphins and whales, I was also keeping a keen eye out for any of the seabirds that were passing. Madeira is the famed home of the Zino's petrel, an endemic small species that somewhat unusually breeds in burrows on high ledges above 5,000ft in the mountains of central Madeira. However, this was not to be the trip that I saw Europe's most endangered seabird. We did get excellent views of Cory's shearwaters, Manx shearwaters, gannets and various gulls, as well as a distant loggerhead turtle and a young Portuguese Man-O-War.

Blainville's beaked whale

About half an hour into our trip, our cliff-spotter called in an exciting sighting. He'd picked up a pod of Blainville's beaked whales to our east, a rarely seen species in this region. The beaked whales are deep-diving specialists, often feeding in excess of 1000m where they use their distinctive shaped mouths to suction-feed on squid. Another species, the Cuvier's beaked whale, recently dethroned the sperm whale as the deepest diving mammal in the world, with a dive of almost 3000m and deep dives lasting nearly 4 hours. This is a staggering feat of physiology that we still don't fully understand.

The problem with these deeper diving species, is that once they dive, they can be gone for a considerable amount of time! The plus side is that when they do return to the surface, they appear to spend a while recovering before their next dive, meaning that they can be spotted. Our challenge was that we had no idea how long they'd be down for. After 45 minutes, it wasn't looking promising. However, after an hour of waiting, we finally spotted the pod of around 10 individuals taking shallow breaths and offering us the chance to observe them in more detail.

Watching them through my Zeiss Terra ED 10x32 binoculars, a powerful lightweight binocular for this sort of work, I was able to get clear views of the tusked bull, covered in scars. His harem of cows and youngsters had various distinctive markings. If you do see Blainville's in the region, I'd be fascinated to know if any correlate with the pictures below. One of the younger animals had a row of white barnacles behind its dorsal fin that I've highlighted in the picture below.

These were the only cetacean we saw on the trip, but considering this species is only seen on 2% of cetacean tours from Madeira we were particularly lucky to encounter them.

As we left the boat, I was given a tip-off that the local diving team had spotted a monk seal that morning feeding around one of the fish farms. Mediterranean monk seals are the rarest pinniped in the world, with a tiny breeding colony of around 30 individuals found at the Ilhas Desertas off southeast Madeira and other scattered but isolated populations through the east Atlantic and Mediterranean basin. Though once common around Madeira, after humans arrived they were hunted to extinction. Recently however, a few individuals have been spotted spending more time around the mainland, raising hopes they may one day recolonise. For now, with such a tiny population, the goal is simply to protect the breeding colony and hope their recovery isn't jeopardised by inbreeding.

Selecting a cliff lookout as close as I could get to the fish cages (still about 2km away), I setup the scope and waited. After about half an hour, I got very excited when I picked up a shape in the scope, which turned out to be not a monk seal but a loggerhead turtle, perhaps using the calmer water between the fish cages as a good place to bask.

But then, after another 15 minutes of searching, exactly as my tip-off had described, a small head popped up and lazily swam across the surface between the cages, pausing to snort water. My first, and soberingly, possibly my only ever Mediterranean monk seal! I watched it for a few minutes frolicking on the surface, then quickly fired off a few record shots in case it were to disappear. Fortunately, it did surface between feeds a few more times and I was able to film a little video if it too.

Madeiran wall lizard

Wherever you travel on the island, you're likely to see the endemic Madeiran wall lizard. Despite its resemblance to European wall lizards, they are in fact the only member of their Teira genus. With few natural predators here, densities can get very high and its not uncommon to see dozens basking together in some areas. They're quite partial to soft fruit, so try leaving out pieces of banana and see if they'll feed on it.

Madeiran kestrel

Easily the most frequently encountered raptor on Madeira, kestrels are everywhere! They're also fairly unfazed by people, often landing on nearby roof corners or overhead power-lines to scan for their favourite prey here: lizards. I was fortunate enough to watch them hunting lizards twice and their strategy was the same for both. They'd pick a vantage point either vertically above a wall of lizards, or diagonally across from it. The first hunt involved a bird dropping straight down and thrusting its talons into a small gap in the vertical wall. The second involved a bird rocketing in low, using a parked car as cover, before arcing round the back of it at the last second and grabbing a lizard off the wall. The second hunt meant the kestrel had an impressive understanding of object permanence. They also hunted grasshoppers and other invertebrates using their familiar hovering.

Buzzards were fairly common on any high cliff or peak (such as at Calheta were we saw a pair every time we passed) whilst sparrowhawks were significantly rarer, with just two sightings across the week.

Home from home

For western Europeans, there are many familiar species in Madeira. You'll notice wasp spiders, nursery web spiders, and many of the larger butterfly species such as this red admiral that we can see in mainland Europe. Blackcaps provide a near continuous soundtrack in spring whilst blackbirds are incredibly common in all habitats.

Levada do Alecrim

For our final hike of the trip, we decided to take the other route from the same starting point as the Levada das 25 Fontes, the Levada do Alecrim. This easy 7km trek starts in a beautiful section of tree heath, dominated by Erica species. They must be a stunning sight when all in flower, but being February none were yet in bloom.

This trip was my first proper test of the Gitzo Adventury backpack. I bought this as an upgrade to my smaller Lowepro Pro Runner bag, as the features on the Gitzo Adventury were ideal for longer hiking trips. Though the hikes on this trip were all short, the bag was super comfy and had ample spare pockets if I'd wanted to throw in a small stove, rollmat and/or lightweight tripod.

If you time your hike right in the afternoon, there's a stunning view down the valley as the sun sets.

Another imperative when travelling on uneven terrain is a descent pair of comfortable walking boots. I've tried many different brands over the years, but have settled on Hanwags for their comfort, customer service and ability to be resoled once you've worn them out. Rather than buying online and hoping they'll fit, I'd definitely recommend a trip to a specialist walking boot shop, where you get to try out different shaped shoes and test them on uneven terrain. When lugging camera kit for many miles, I promise you it's worth every penny buying footwear that you've properly tested. Giving you a good chance to enjoy those big vistas!

Beware that when driving across the ER110 through the centre of the island, there are free-ranging cattle that regularly wander in the road, both day and night.

I hope this trip report has piqued your interest to go and visit the region. Whether you're a hiker, birder, botanist or all round naturalist - this unique island has something to offer everyone with a love of the outdoors.

DID THIS TRIP REPORT HELP YOU?

If you're planning a trip to this region, I hope this report has proved helpful? If so, why not buy us a beer or a coffee, it really helps the long nights spent planning the next trip: