Even though we had a long day today starting with a pelagic birding tour continued with a few hours at the beach and then exploring two towns we are not done for today. We have one more activity planned to see Zino Petrels at their nesting grounds high into the Madeira mountains. This can be done only at night as during the day they are at sea so the tour starts at 9PM with a pick up near our AirBnB and then an hour drive, higher and higher into the top reaches of the mountain.
We park near the Antenna radar up top and then start on the trail which has multiple stairs both up and down as we walk in the night towards the Zino Petrel nesting sites.
Arriving there we spend more than one hour just waiting and listening for the petrel. And it is worth it, the sounds are surprisingly quite donkey like and after some time you can hear them everywhere. The guides brought also a thermal imaging monocular and the Zino Petrel are clearly visibile as they fly by, to and from the nesting grounds.
Returning we stop a few times to explore the endemic flowers in this area, especially the magnificent Pride of Madeira. And we also stop to catch our breath as the guides are really fast and leading quite an unreasonable pace for no good reason. We make it to the van completely out of breath and then it is time to return to the AirBnB where we fall into the bed as we are really tired.
