Another great Zino's Petrel Pelagic Expedition for Pterodromas though not so great for storm petrels as in previous years we did get a few different species of these small petrels and also week for cetaceans... Anyway, the views of Zino's and Fea's Petrels were really good and we even got the 2 species at the same time flying over the chumming slick on the 1st day! As usual, Cory's shearwater Calonectris borealis and Bulwer's Petrel Bulweria bulwerii were present everyday.

25th of June 2019 - Northwest wind up to 10 knots and swell from same direction up to 1.5 meters
3 Pterodroma sp. - 2 on the way up and 1 close to the chumming position
2 Common Tern Sterna hirundo
8 Yellow-legged Gull Larus michahellis
2 Zino's Petrel Pterodroma madeira
2 Fea's Petrel Pterodroma feae/deserta
Manx shearwater Puffinus puffinus puffinus
Great skua Stercorarius skua

A Zino's Petrel Pelagic Expedition with very light winds which is not the best conditions to watch seabirds... So in order to get the most of it we had to postpone one of the days to get some stronger winds. It ended up as a very good pelagic for petrels though not so good for storm-petrels. Cory's shearwater Calonectris borealis and Bulwer's Petrel Bulweria bulwerii are the guaranteed species everyday.

19th of June 2019 - no more than 4 knots of wind from NW for most of the afternoon and northwest waves up to 0.5 meters

6 Manx shearwater Puffinus puffinus puffinus - 5 on the way up and 1 on the chum slick
8 Yellow-legged Gull Larus michahellis
White-faced Storm Petrel Pelagodroma marina hypoleuca - flew by a bit far from the chum
3 Common Tern Sterna hirundo
Then, on the way back we watched:
1 probable Fea's Petrel Pterodroma feae/deserta
1 Zino's Petrel Pterodroma madeira
1 Pterodroma sp.
10 Manx shearwater Puffinus puffinus puffinus

Short-beaked Common dolphin Delphinus delphis

Temperatures already feel like August though we are still in June... Global warming is what is called! Let's see which bird species are blown to Madeira and out of their migratory route:

18th of June 2019 at Machico - observed by a group of birdwatchers from UK
Little Swift Apus affinis - this is the 2nd record for Madeira archipelago!

14th of June 2019 off Caniçal
Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus

12th of June 2019 at Ribeira Brava
Lesser Black-backed Gull Larus fuscus

9th of June 2019 at Ponta da Cruz - reported by Joe (UK)
House Sparrow Passer domesticus - male. This is an exceptional record with less than 5 on the last 50 years!

Another very successful pelagic with all the aimed bird species observed and even some surprises! The weather forecasts were for the wind to drop a bit for the 2nd and 3rd days but it didn't really happened. So we got some rough seas though the size of the boat (11 meters) and the shock-mitigation seats made them very bearable and the species observed compensate the tiring (not hurt!) muscles! Again, Cory's shearwater Calonectris borealis and Bulwer's Petrel Bulweria bulwerii were species present everyday though in some areas more than others!

Another successful pelagic expedition with all the aimed species observed! Some sightings were better than other but, hey that's birdwatching! The sea conditions started relatively calm but got rougher each day. Cory's shearwater Calonectris borealis and Bulwer's Petrel Bulweria bulwerii were species present everyday in big numbers.

22nd of May 2019 - 13 knots of northeast wind and waves up to 0.5 meters when the trip started but increased to 1 meter for the end of the day
1 Manx shearwater Puffinus puffinus puffinus - flying far within a group of Cory’s
White-faced Storm Petrel Pelagodroma marina hypoleuca - the bird kept a distance which did not allow for everyone to have a good view
6 Madeiran Storm Petrel Oceanodroma castro
Sabine's Gull Xema sabini
3 Barolo’s shearwater Puffinus baroli - 1 flew quite close to the boat
5 Yellow-legged Gull Larus michahellis

The first pelagic of the year started with 4 well observed Zino's Petrels though the second day we were surprised by an electronic failure on both the brand new engines which made us return to land just after dropping the first bucket of chum and on a very low speed. Fixed the problem and the 3rd day of pelagic was the best/record day for Barolo's shearwaters! Cory's shearwater Calonectris borealis and Bulwer's Petrel Bulweria bulwerii were a constant in all three days!