Saturday, 17 December 2016

Berthelot's Pipit and Wild Canaries

Spent much of Thursday on the peninsular at the eastern tip of Madeira (Sao Laurenco). The ridge was full of flowers and finally saw a Berthelot's pipit. A very obliging individual picking off small insects within just a few feet of the path.
Having seen and heard lots of canaries during the week, I was not at first at all surprised to hear them singing whilst walking along, even though there are few trees on the peninsula. What I did not expect was to see a flock of several hundred of the birds. They were quite a sight as they rose and swirled from one patch of grassland to another. Although there was a covering of a rape like flower, these were not seeding and so what the canaries were feeding upon remains a mystery. Great to see them in such numbers.

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