Wind Birds Blog

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.

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.

 

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?