17th March 2016 - Research Pelagic Trip Report

On the 17th of March 2016 Wind Birds run a pelagic day with a few participants on the 30th Annual Conference of the European Cetacean Society. We knew it was too early for Petrels so the aim was to try to see Madeiran storm petrel, White-faced storm petrel and research which seabird and cetacean species would be around by this time of the year. The wind conditions did not help, it was a very light breeze (less than 6 knots) from South, which is a quite rare direction in Madeira... So the observations during this 7 hour pelagic with 3 hours of chum were:

Madeiran Storm Petrel Oceanodroma castro
Several Cory's shearwater Calonectris borealis
Manx shearwater Puffinus puffinus puffinus
Great Skua Stercorarius skua
2 Northern Gannet Morus bassanus

Short-beaked Common Dolphin Delphinus delphis

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