I have just uploaded my trip report of my recent trip to Madeira including a night visit for breeding Zino's Petrels and a visit to the Desertas Islands for Fea's (Desertas) Petrel.
Click on the following link
http://www.freewebs.com/suebryan/madeira2008.htm
Best wishes
Sue
Hello Sue,
Very nice report, thanks for sharing it with us. Brings back many happy memorys of my trip in July two years ago. I also went to the Zinos site and i have to say that on the walk out i was on my hands and knees for some of the walk! I do not like heights. However the magical and mystical Zinos Petrels more than made up for it! It is hard to describe the experience, listening to the birds coming up the valley and then almost doing a somersault over the cliff edge.
A birder from Northern Ireland visited the site a few years ago and they got lost on the way back down! They told the guides after 30 minutes that they hadn't come up this path! Luckily the (shocked) guide was able to get them back to the bus without too much trouble.
All the best
Derek
My great uncle lives on Madeira (with a view of the Desertas Islands from his lounge window). I took my late grandmother there in 1993, a beautiful place. Didn't do much birding, though...