Part of the allure of Madeira for travellers is the quantity of long walks along the Levadas. These walks often feature breathtaking views over the native Madeiran forest, and sometimes lead into the ancient Laurisilva (or Laurissilva) woodland - a forest type characterised by evergreen "lauroid" species. These walks, for the botanically-minded, provide a plethora of native and endemic plant species to view, as well as panoramic vistas, waterfalls, and challenging hikes.
Our first walk was in the Caldeirão Verde Levada Walk in the Parque Florestal das Queimadas, which also offers the additional perk of being able to get a coffee in a super cute traditional straw-thatch house. One of my favourite things about this place was that there was a duck pond, and on the bank was a replica of the thatched house in miniature for the ducks to go in. The walk we did from here takes you over and around the valleys, observing the forest and occasionally crossing through small tunnels through the rock face.
The trail started with non-native eucalyptus forests, which began to give way to more and more native vegetation the deeper into the valley we walked. The valleys are striated with rivers and waterfalls, and at this time of the year it is quite chilly - around 10°C. The native woodland looked surprisingly similar to British woodland, particularly areas of temperate rainforest in Scotland and Wales.
There were lots of fungi in the woods. I was surprised to recognise many of them - I admit I hadn't actually given fungi on Madeira a second thought, but I would probably have imagined that the distance from the rest of Europe would have generated different species. However, these were all familiar woodland fungi, including the largest Fly Agarics I have ever seen.
Above: 1: Coral Fungus (Ramaria stricta)
2: Russula sp.
3: Hare's Ear (Otidea onotica)
4: Crust Fungus (Stereum sp.)
5 & 6: Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria)
The diversity of moisture-loving species such as liverworts, bryophytes, selaginellas and algae was impressive, with some rock faces being entirely covered in them. I haven't identified the ones in these images since many require microscopic dissection or examination, but I gather that like many other examples of flora and fauna, many of the bryophytes and related species are endemic to the island.
Above: Mosses, liverworts, selaginellas, algae
The walk itself was spectacular, taking in landscapes from dizzyingly high up on the mountains. There were lots of birds here, including my first ever views of Madeira Chaffinch / Tentilhão da Madeira (Fringilla coelebs maderensis), Madeira Firecrest / Bis-bis (Regulus madeirensis) and Trocaz Pigeon / Pombo-trocaz (Columba trocaz), all endemic to the island.
Above: Madeira Firecrest
The Levadas themselves are small aqueducts historically aimed at providing the island with consistent water supplies. I was greatly excited to see fish in them at first - there aren't many freshwater fish on Madeira - and spent several hours trying to catch them on camera (which didn't work). They transpired to be Rainbow Trout / Truta-arco-íris (Oncorhynchus mykiss) introduced from North America for fishing purposes, and now breeding on the island both in designated fisheries and in the wild. They were very shy, and even when we found them in their own designated pools they were very wary of the camera and often sped past without stopping to investigate.
The stars of the Laurisilva forest are undoubtedly the giant versions of familiar plants. There were Tree Dandelions / Serralha da Rocha (or Leituga "lettuce") (Sonchus fruticosus, and others in the genus) everywhere, their trunks looking very much like the Dracaena marginata houseplants sold in most UK garden centres. There was also a giant version of a geranium, the Madeira Cranesbill or Giant Herb Robert (Geranium maderense). This geranium can be confused with a similar plant, G. palmatum, (source/comparison) so I'm not sure the two can be readily distinguished from my images.
Above: Giant Herb Robert (Geranium sp.)
Above: Tree Dandelion (Sonchus sp.)
On our way back, we stopped to turn some fallen bark and stones in a cleared patch of plantation forest further down the mountain. Under here, we found a huge Common Shiny Woodlouse (Oniscus asellus) and I discovered some tiny yellow snails with opercula, looking very similar to the Pomatiidae, or Land Winkles, found elsewhere in Europe. These snails may be Craspedopoma sp. (Craspedopomatidae / Cyclophoridae?) of which there are 5 species listed here on Madeira, all of which are endemic. Like many tiny Madeira island endemics, not many photographs seem to exist of these small, elusive creatures in the wild. I would have liked to have seen them come out of their shells, but they were very stubborn and shy (as seems to be typical of this family) so I left them to it under their log.
Above: Craspedopoma sp.
Above and below: Oniscus asellus
Above: Habitat shots of cleared forest plantations, where the above invertebrates were found
The day after, we visited another part of the Laurissilva: Levada do Alecrim. This site was slightly higher in altitude, and I was interested to see whether there would be much difference in flora and fauna. Being above and within the clouds, the humidity was relatively high and it was very misty; the trees were covered in encrusting lichens and mosses growing epiphytically on the branches. There was Tree Heather (Erica arborea) everywhere, which was amazing to see - giant versions of heather which had grown into trees with wooded trunks.
Above: Trees with encrusting lichens and moss, including beard lichen Usnia sp.
There were more Tree Dandelions here, some which seemed to differ from the classic S. fruticosus, as well as endemic Viola, and orchids.
Above: 1 & 2: Sonchus
3: Viola
4: Orchids
Beside the levada, a Chaffinch was hunting, and allowed me to get quite close. Exactly what it was plucking from the moss I have no idea, but it seemed tasty.
Above: Chaffinch hunting
Around the levadas there were a few rocks and logs to turn, but this had to be done with care - move any rocks which were on the edge of the path, and you risk rolling it down the side of the mountain and possibly straight onto other walkers. We rolled some small logs, and a couple of rocks which were on the other side of the path, away from the edge. The majority of the invertebrates comprised of ground beetles, woodlice and millipedes. I found a small woodlouse, Eluma caelata, and some unidentified tiny millipedes under the first stone I turned.
As we were on the way back, I spotted something in the levada beside us which I am fairly sure was a Horsehair Worm (Nematomorpha). These parasites develop inside the bodies of arthropods such as beetles and grasshoppers, and cause their hosts to drown themselves attempting to access bodies of water to release the worm. Back home, we have reared horsehair worms by keeping Carabid beetles which were behaving erratically, or fished from ponds or troughs. I have found it difficult to find any sources at all about species of Nematomorpha present on Madeira (much less which hosts they have), but they're a fairly specialised subject so this is unsurprising. Without a specimen it's impossible to determine the species, as they are typically dissected under the microscope in order to identify.
1: Millipede
2: Eluma caelata
3: Horsehair Worm
4: Carabid
After this walk, which took up most of the morning, we drove on a little further to Fanal Forest above the treeline, where the vegetation was replaced by gorse and bracken. Here it was even colder, 8 or 9°C, and passing clouds periodically plunged everything into chilly fog. Up here were the biggest and oldest laurel trees, shrouded in permanent mist. The visibility was almost non-existant, and as I wandered around ghostly cows kept appearing from the mist in front of me, then wandering off again. Very quickly we became soaked to the skin and very cold, so we rolled a few logs and then circled back round to the car. I saw a large centipede, and a scaritine beetle which, according to the species list, seems to be Scarites abbreviatus.
Below: Scarites abbreviatus
Finally, we stopped off on the way back at a small coastal town called Porto Moniz, which was wet and windy and set on an incredibly dramatic backdrop of high cliffs and mountains. It was also much warmer, being at a low elevation next to sea level. This town is most famous for its natural swimming pools, but on that day they were closed due to the rough seas and windy weather. We didn't have enough energy to do much intensive searching for wildlife, since we'd had an extremely busy day already! In the town itself, there were plenty of small ants and snails in the plant pots and verges, and a Hoopoe (Upupa epops) made an appearance.
1: Hoopoe
2: Ants tending aphids
3 & 4: More snails
There was an exhibition on in Porto Moniz about "Darwinism explained by turtles". I was hugely curious about this (especially when the first thing we saw was a mysterious sign that simply said "live turtles exhibition") and soon discovered that it was a little exhibition called Jurassic Turtles, explaining evolutionary theory through signs which accompanied some live animals on display in the visitor centre. There were a variety of chelonians both aquatic and terrestrial to be seen, including some more unusual species such as Mata-mata (Chelus fimbriata) and Scorpion Mud Turtle (Kinosternon scorpioides). Some of the negative reviews on Tripadvisor criticise the somewhat small and basic enclosures, but I interpreted the exhibition as not being the permanent home of the turtles, and I presume they have a proper home somewhere else. Regardless, all of them looked happy and healthy, and had great-looking shells - likely helped by the warm climate and UV.
Above: The Jurassic Turtles exhibition, including a lovely 40-year-old Sulcata Tortoise
Below: A nice poster of local seabirds with Portuguese, English and Latin names
Inspired by the weather, we decided to go beachcombing the next day, on a tiny, remote rocky beach a little way along from Porto Moniz. The beach had a huge strandline comprised of large canes which, if I lived on the island, I thought would be incredibly useful for building garden furniture or fences with! There was not a lot of plastic or man-made rubbish on the beach, with the majority being vegetable and wood matter. I did examine a plastic container with some Goose Barnacles on it, hoping for some more exotic hitch-hikers, but I found nothing else similar on the beach.
Below: Ruddy Turnstones (Arenaria interpres)
We chose to finish our last trip day by visiting Pico do Arieeiro, and then returning to Ponta de São Lourenço for a final bug hunt.
Pico do Areeiro is Madeira's third-highest peak, at 1818m (5965ft), with expansive views over the mountains from above the clouds. The cloud bank stretches out below like the sea, which is an extremely strange feeling, with the sea also being below but not visible. At the top of the mountain there were a large number of Paper Wasps (Polistes dominulus) and their nests, which seemed slightly unusual, as I hadn't spotted any at lower elevations. There were lizards up here too, living at the extremes of Madeira's conditions. It was under ten degrees again, with a cold wind extinguishing any warmth from the sun. We walked a little way along one of the peak paths, searching for insects, and out of the corner of my eye I spotted a bird flying low over the rocks, with strange rounded wings. I was extremely excited, scrambling over the rocks with my binoculars, imagining all the strange mountain specialist birds it could be. Eventually, it revealed itself to be a Red-legged Partridge (Alectoris rufa)! They are often overlooked in the UK, where they are non-native and often released for shooting, most frequently seen in fields and roadside margins. They are also introduced to Madeira, and it was strange to see them in such a raw habitat; clearly a highly adaptable species.
Below: Red-legged Partridge
The drive down was equally scenic, passing through pine forests and more patches of Laurisilva. At one point, we stopped for a break in Ribero Frio and discovered a small trout fishery and breeding centre, with a big pool full of fat adult trout and hatchery full of various-sized young ones.
Picture 5: possibly the endemic Madeiran Ivy (Hedera maderensis) growing on a bank in native forest.
Our final trip to Ponta de São Lourenço was a productive one. The weather was warm, with a cool wind. All of the sheltered cracks underneath rocks and between boulders were inhabited by a plethora of invertebrates.
The most common encounter was of millipede aggregations, mainly comprised of the now-familiar Portuguese Millipede (Ommatoiulus moreletii), which can vary in colouration quite a bit. The groups under the rocks often had other species with them, such as beetles and the ever-present Wolf Spiders (Hogna insularum). There were also aggregations of beetles, primarily tenebrionids and carabids.
Above and below: Beetle aggregations, mainly tenebrionids, and tribe Harpalini (Carabidae) in picture 2. There are a couple of different species here, with the dominant ones perhaps Nesotes sp.
I found the now-familiar Chrysolina bankii again, feeding on some shoots. Unlike the dark-coloured ground and darkling beetles, these jewel-like Chrysomelids really stood out as they wandered about on the substrate.
Above: Chrysolina sp.
Above: Ommatoiulus moreletii aggregations
Below: Ommatoiulus moreletii and Hogna insularum - the spider wasn't trying to eat the millipede, just sitting with them while debating when to run away.
There was a large weevil diversity in this area too, with a huge endemic species list.
Pictures 1 & 2: Hypera postica
Pictures 3 & 4: Temnorhinus mixtus, suggested by users on iNaturalist
Picture 5 (below): Laparocerus sp.
Before we left, there was one final surprise in store. Tom rolled a stone and a tiny gecko shot out, which he caught so we could take some photos. Although it turned out to be a familiar species, the Moorish Gecko / Osga-moura (Tarentola mauritanica) it was only the second reptile species we had seen on the island. Madeira has very few reptiles, with the Madeiran Wall Lizard being one of only two native species, the other being the Selvagens Gecko endemic to the Selvagens archipelago (source). T. mauritanica is an introduced species to Madeira and Porto Santo from southern Europe, but it was still interesting to see another reptile.
Above: Tarentola mauritanica
In summary, this trip was a great introduction to Madeira's unique island fauna, set against spectacular backdrops and great weather. We enjoyed everything about visiting this beautiful island! An excellent wildlife holiday to ward off the early winter blues.
Invertebrate highlights:
• Convolvulus Hawk-moth (Agrius convolvuli)
• East Atlantic Sally lightfoot Crab (Grapsus adscensionis)
• Sea urchin (Diadema sp.)
• House Centipede (Scutigera coleoptera)
• Isopod (Soteriscus wollastoni)
• Isopod (Porcellio atlantidium)
• Isopod (Porcellio normani)
• Isopod (Tylos madeirae)
• Wolf spider (Hogna insularum)
Lifer Birds:
• Madeira Firecrest (Regulus madeirensis) • Madeira Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs maderensis) new SSP?
• Atlantic Canary (Serinus canaria)
• Berthelot's Pipit (Anthus berthelotii)
• Trocaz Pigeon (Columba trocaz)
• Canarian Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus canariensis) new SSP • Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres)
• Plain Swift (Apus unicolor)
Reptiles & Amphibians:
• Madeira Wall Lizard (Teira dugesii)
• Moorish Gecko (Tarentola mauritanica)