Wind Birds Blog

Oceanodroma Sea Surveys [Video]

Cory's Shearwater and Atlantic Spotted Dolphins, surveying the sea for wildlife.

Whales and Dolphins of Madeira

Recently, we came across a Tour Operator that is selling a trip titled "Whales & Dolphins of Madeira".
Five years ago, we approached this operator in Britain and proposed an operation to Madeira. The response "Madeira Wildlife is not very interesting." Off course this was a lie, they were very much interested in Madeira. More specifically they didn't used any local staff.

What I love about this operator is that they call themselves "Responsible Tourism" and "Sustainable Tourism" Operator and have a lot of logos/accreditations on their website. More recently they change their approach and started to hire Madeira residents, good call here, though this staff isn't mentioned on their website Tour Leaders section(???). The big problem is to embrace this change they have now 100% margins on these trips towards Madeira. So now they rip off their own customers, very responsible!!!

We decided to take the challenge and created a Whales & Dolphins of Madeira 5 Day Trip, half their price ;)
Yes, half their price and more engaging, and if you do the maths our price is achieved by optimization and efficiency.
And a new boat Oceanodroma...

Our dates:
Thursday 5th - Monday 9th August 2010
Thursday 2nd - Monday 6th September 2010

Interested... Contact us... Tomorrow, we will post a specific trip page.

Madeira Pelagics 2010 - Zino's Petrel Sea Expedition

Follow the success of the research trips we run this and last year.
We started to accept interest submissions by birdwatchers.
The trips will run between May and June, in blocks of 3 days.
Relevant species seen in previous Pelagics:

Hydrobatidae
Madeiran Storm-petrel (Oceanodroma castro) * Winter & Summer Populations
White-faced Petrel (Pelagodroma marina)
European Storm Petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus)
Swinhoe's Storm Petrel (Oceanodroma monorhis)
Wilson's Storm Petrel (Oceanites oceanicus)
Leach's Storm-petrel (Oceanodroma leucorhoa)

Procellariidae
Zino's Petrel (Pterodroma madeira)
Fea's Petrel (Pterodroma feae)
Macaronesian Shearwater (Puffinus baroli)
Bulwer's Petrel (Bulweria bulwerii)
Cory's Shearwater (Calonectris borealis)
Manx Shearwater (Puffinus puffinus)
Northern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis)

Laridae
Sabine's Gull (Xema sabini)

Stercorariidae
Arctic Skua (Stercorarius parasiticus)
Great Skua (Stercorarius skua)
Pomarine Skua (Stercorarius pomarinus)

Interested in the Pelagics?