Red-billed Tropicbird Phaethon aethereus seen in Madeira, 5 miles offshore South of Funchal on the 3rd of August 2009 by Frank Zino. Later on the 7th seen 7 miles offshore South of Funchal by Luis Portugal. In between there is a possible record in the shore of two, though due to heat haze not possible confirmation.

There are only four previous records of this species in Madeira.

Other vagrants seen this week include:

7th August 2009 at Poiso
Alpine swift - observed by David Fox

THE FIRST-EVER UNEQUIVOCAL AND PHOTOGRAPHICALLY DOCUMENTED AT-SEA RECORDS OF THE ZINO'S PETREL

The report of The Zino’s Petrel at sea expedition II - the best-ever pelagic in the Western Palearctic

Expedition diary by Hadoram Shirihai

29th July 2009 at Caniçal
1 Curlew

20th July 2009 at Ponta do Pargo
1 Peregrine Falcon
1 Long-legged Buzzard
15 Hammer-head sharks seen from the lighthouse

18th July 2009 at Machico
Squacco Heron - observed by Andrew Jayne, Martin McGill, Jeremy Squire, Chris Stone

In Lugar de Baixo, on the 17th of May 2009 at 5:10 pm Hugo and Catarina observed and photographed a pair of Coots Fulica atra feeding 4 recently hatched young, bright red, bold crown, encircled with orange downy feathers and red bill, which proves to be the first breeding record for this species for the Madeira Archipelago. On the 18th of May a movie was made and a week later another movie was made with only 3 chicks this time...