There's also a some interesting wildlife, with several endemic species / sub species to see. Endemic to Madeira were the Madeiran Firecest, Trocaz Pigeon & the Maderensis subspecies of Chaffinch. The Chaffinches and Firecrests were fairly numerous, particularly in higher areas. The Trocaz Pigeons were a little more tricky, however I did eventually find quite a few from the Balcoes watchpoint near Ribeiro Frio and the valley below it from the track to Faja Da Nogueira.
Other species found only on Madeira and the Canaries included Plain Swift, Atlantic Canary & Berthelot's Pipit. The first two were very numerous around the island, while the Pipits were more scarce, seen on higher plains and on Grande Deserta Island.
We took a day trip to the Desertas Islands on the Wednesday - specifically to Grande Deserta. We enjoyed views of Spotted, Bottlenosed & Common Dolphins, as well as a bonus Loggerhead Turtle! There wasn't a great deal of seabird variety - you'll need to do more of a pealgic trip for that, however we still saw plenty of Cory's Shearwaters, Bulwer's Petrels, 2 Roseate Terns, Common Terns & Yellow-Legged Gulls.
There was a select few of interesting butterflies. The main highlight of these were my first ever Monarchs which were relatively frequent in most areas and were quite a sight too! Other species included Clouded Yellows, Lang's Short-Tailed Blue, Long-Tailed Blue, Speckled Wood, Red Admiral & Painted Lady.
Finally, I also had a couple of decent finds. A Peregrine cruised over our hotel one afternoon, mobbed by one of the local Kestrels. This appears to be an exceptionally rare bird in Madeira and I'm waiting to hear back on how many previous records there are, but it ain't many!
We were also told how scarce Monk Seals were around Madeira and that we'd be very lucky to see one. However, it appears we may have got lucky with a very large seal (2-3 metres in length) feeding off Funchal sea front for a while towards the end of the week.
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