Seabird Observation in São Miguel
October 3, 2018 - Start of work
During the month of October, some species of seabirds begin to prepare for their migrations. That's why we decided to start a new project, seabird observation, at Picos de Aventura. We invited Steve Geelhoed, a researcher from the Wageningen Marine Research Institute who spent a few days with us, training us and explaining how to identify seabirds in the Azores.
The first day was a success! We had a slightly rough sea with some waves and moderate wind, but none of these conditions prevented us from observing seabirds. On our morning trip, we saw several Cory's Shearwaters, as we expected, and we also saw two species of Miller, the Large Moleiro and the Small Moleiro. It was a successful morning!
Left: Cory's Shearwater; Right and bottom: Moleiro Grande.
This trip was followed by a talk about seabirds where we learned a little more about the species that we can find in the sea and at what time of year, as well as the best areas to observe them.
Steve during the lecture on the observation of seabirds in the Azores.
Then we went out at sunset. With the rainbow behind us and good sea conditions, we anchor near the islet of Vila Franca do Campo where we can find one of the largest colonies of Cory's Shearwaters.
Left: Ilhéu de Vila Franca with the rainbow behind; Right: While we were waiting for the sunset.
We watched a wonderful sunset and waited until nightfall as this is the time when the birds return to the colony…
Sunset seen from the boat, next to the Islet of Vila Franca.
In the middle of the darkness we started to hear the calls of these birds, a unique experience! You can hear the sound of these birds in the link. These birds feed their young in turn, while one of the parents stays in the nest, the other goes out to sea and looks for food. At night the birds call to find their nests and mates in the colony. The Cory's Shearwater was guaranteed to be heard on this trip of ours, but our goal was to also hear some Painhos.
In addition to the calls of these birds, which created an orchestral atmosphere around us, we also saw a sky full of stars, some lightning in the distance and immense krill bioluminescent! All these factors combined made this a very special trip. Unfortunately, we could not hear the vocalizations of any Painho, but even so, we did not give up and continued our search for these species in the following days.
October 5-8, 2018 – trial period
During the following days the weather conditions were not the best for us to plan more boat trips to observe seabirds. We had to adapt, so we decided to spend our afternoons learning a little more about the ecology of these species.
Left: Unpromising weather forecast; Right: Sharing of ideas on the identification/observation of seabirds.
In the late afternoon we made more departures and tested 2 more locations, this time by van. On one of the nights we had a special guest with us, Molly Macleod, a sound artist who recorded the calls of the Cory's Shearwaters. These recordings can be listened to on their website www.mollymacleod.com!
Listening to the Cory's Shearwaters with a beautiful view near the Lighthouse in Porto da Caloura.
October 9, 2018 - Final Day
The last day of this project arrived quickly! We decided to invite tour operators we work with to join us. We started with a presentation given by Steve Geelhoed, where he talked about the tests we have carried out at sea and on land. Due to weather conditions we were not able to carry out as many tests as we wanted and so we can't say much about the diversity of species we saw and heard. Our night outings were also conditioned, and many of the ones you had planned to do by boat we ended up doing by van. However, even carrying out these trips by land, we were also able to hear the unique calls of our emblematic Shearwaters.
To show our tour operators what a night out would be like, we invite them to accompany us on a trip! We went to Ferraria at night on a new moon day, one of the days when the birds are most active. Under a starry sky we can hear the strong waves crashing on the slopes as well as the sound of the Cory's Shearwaters. It was a great way to end our week dedicated to seabirds.
