Wind Birds Blog

Desertas Birdwatching Overnight Update

Since the Desertas for Birding is a completely new trip and as we have developed it before we got the new boat Oceanodroma. We have now tried it and to better satisfy our customers and to increase the possibilities of seeing more species with closer views, we have changed the itinerary of this trip a bit. We have been doing some experiences on this trip and have now decided on the best approach for it:

• Instead of going around the 3 Desertas islands which will be very tiring and would only allow us far views of the birds without much time to stop for them and for cetaceans, we have decided to do some chum and instead of going around the islands we will chum and drift for some time which will allow us close views of Bulwer’s and Fea’s petrels, Cory’s and maybe Manx shearwaters and hopefully also Madeiran Storm-petrels.

• We will then head to Deserta Grande bay just before sunset to anchor there, have dinner onboard and the hear for the seabirds coming into land. Finally we decided not to land at Deserta Grande as we are not apologists of interference to the birds that currently in nest. Less intrusion, better conservation of these species.

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.

Nature photography

We have been questioned about having time to take nature photos on our nature and birdwatching tours and the answer is: YES, we do have time!

The tours we recommend for nature photos are the full-day birdwatching or the full-day nature heritage as we run the tours on a relaxed basis and during them we have time to look for each species.

So, even if we get other customers that are not into photography our nature tour leaders will keep showing them species, landscapes or other nature curiosities while the photographer can spend sometime on each species.

If you are not happy with just 5 to 10 minutes for each species photo, we will recommend you a private tour, so you can tell us which species you want to photograph, we will take you to their hot spot and you can stay there the time you wish as this is your exclusive photo tour!

The Pelagic Boat Trips in Madeira

We have been doing this for three years and refining these pelagics for the last two.
After research and customer input, we add two new sea trips dedicated to birdwatchers:
Desertas Islands Birding Trip (8 hours)
Zino's Petrel Pelagic Expedition (3 days)

Both trips are now available to book.

New Indicator: Staff to Guest Ratio

Hunting: Tours Scheduling

Every year in Madeira Islands people Hunt. This recreational activity exists between October and December in areas where we do birdwatching.
We do not disagree with hunting, provided that is regulated and responsible. And that the selection of the species is made properly and with reasonable census and studies.

In Madeira, the allowed species to hunt are: Rock Pigeon (Columba livia), Red-legged Partridge (Alectoris rufa), Common Quail (Coturnix coturnix), Eurasian Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola) and European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus).

We believe that Eurasian Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola) should be better studied before allowing it to be hunted, moreover this bird doesn't go in any local recipes, opposite to the other species mentioned. 

The main problem of hunting is that all year around we find hunting waste, used shell cases abandoned on the fields .

In what regards to the tours during the hunting season, we avoid doing tours on Sundays, Thursdays and public holidays. This guarantees when we birdwatch birds aren't so stressed and should be around.