Another successful Wind Birds' pelagic in the Northeast Atlantic! All aimed seabird species observed very close and 6 cetaceans' species!
13th of June 2016 - Northeast wind up to 9 knots but quite choppy sea with north and northeast waves up to 1.5 meters.
Despite the low wind we certainly managed to get great close views of all the aimed species and more! 4 species of shearwaters, 4 storm-petrels and 3 petrels made our pelagic expedition! Thanks to Erik Wahlgren from Sweeden for sharing some of his amazing photos with us!
7th of June 2016 - flat sea, wind up to 2 knots from West
1 Balearic shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus - less than 5 records for Madeira!
3 Fea's petrel Pterodroma feae/deserta
7 White-faced Storm Petrel Pelagodroma marina hypoleuca - 6 at same time on the chum slick
Summer starts in June and although we get all Madeira seabirds around for their breeding grounds it is not such a good month for vagrant birds in land... Though there are still some birds that visit this archipelago...
30th June 2016 at Caniçal
Dunlin Calidris alpina alpina
8 Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres
27th June 2016 - off Caniço de Baixo - reported by Graham Jones (UK)
3 Barolo's shearwater Puffinus baroli - flying together quite close to shore
At Paul da Serra - sighted by Sarah Groves (UK)
5 White Stork Ciconia ciconia
We guess we can call this pelagic a Storm-petrels pelagic expedition as those were the ones offering us a great show on the 2nd day! And we did observe all the species we aimed for!
Birds act like Spring is already here but regarding temperatures and general weather it is still winter in Madeira. In April due to the snow in the first weeks and then strong winds and heavy rains into the end of the month we were unable to run a Zino’s Night Expedition (hey, safety above all!) but on the 3rd of May we finally made it and, despite the still strong and very cold wind up in the mountains we were able to hear more than 500 calls and see more than 14 silhouettes of this rare endemism of Madeira: Zino's Petrel! Now lets see which species May will bring to Madeira, with special interest in the pelagic birds as Wind Birds' Zino's Petrel Pelagic Expedition are just about to start!
23rd May 2016 off Machico
Great Skua Stercorarius skua
At Tanque Pond, Porto Santo
2 Eurasian Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia
Little Egret Egretta garzetta
Western Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis
Grey Heron Ardea cinerea
6 Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica
2 Common House Martin Delichon urbicum