Antarctic Cruise Day 9 / 40 - Birds and blooms
Trip day: 9 / 40Port days: 5
Sea days: 3
Countries: 2
Continents: 1
Ports: 2
Today, we made our second visit to Madeira in a little over seven months.
Vila Baleira, just off Madeira 
Vila Baleira, just off Madeira 
Vila Baleira, just off Madeira
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| The bridge is an airport taxiway |
One interesting thing about being on a new ship is that things haven't all been taken care of.
A light just outside the Explorers' Bar 
Yup - still wrapped
We docked and the frantic dance started to get the gangway set up.
Our excursion today was Birds of Madeira - a tour to see some of the local birds. Ten of us boarded the two tour vans and headed out.
We arrived at an estate for the first attempt to find some local birds. We also saw some lovely flowers.
Here are some of the birds we spotted at the estate.
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| Madeira firecrest |
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| Pidgeon |
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| Toulouse goose |
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| Feral pigeon |
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| Chaffinch |
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| Chaffinch |
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| Chaffinch |
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| Chaffinch |
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| Chaffinch |
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| Chaffinch - hmm...do you hear something? |
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| Chaffinch |
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| Chaffinch |
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| Chaffinch |
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| Chaffinch |
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| Wagtail |
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| Wagtail |
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| Chaffinch |
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| Madeira firecrest |
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| Madeira firecrest |
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| Madeira firecrest |
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| Chaffinch |
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| Chaffinch |
Other fun sights:
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| Speckled wood butterfly |
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| Speckled wood butterfly |
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| Speckled wood butterfly |
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| Speckled wood butterfly - what a face! |
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| Spiders are amazing engineers |
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| Has anyone seen a missing tail? |
Our next stop was a brief stop to look for the endemic gray pigeon. We didn't see any but did catch a kestrel flying overhead.
We stopped again near the water and caught sight of a couple birds and other nice views.
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| Common Sandpiper |
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| Common Sandpiper |
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| Gray Heron |
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| Tern |
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| A natural arch - we're headed there next |
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| Arlona, wandering and looking for rocks |
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| Spectacled Warbler |
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| Spectacled Warbler |
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| Spectacled Warbler |
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| Pipit |
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| Pipit |
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| Canary |
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| Canary |
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| Eurasian Hoopoe |
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| Eurasian Hoopoe |
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| Eurasian Hoopoe |
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| French navy vessel |
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| Another kestrel |
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| Endemic gray pigeon, unique to Madeira |
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| Beverage manager, Tammy, greeted returning guests with Madeira wine |
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| Tuna and scabbard |
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| Portuguese beer |
After a lovely dinner at the World Cafe, we headed to the Explorers' Bar to work on this blog, and enjoy a drink and music. With the small passenger compliment, it is almost like a private bar. It is awesome.
Tomorrow is another sea day.
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