Storm Petrels in Portugal

09/07/2024

Any storm-petrellers past or present who are around Cardiff next Friday are very welcome to come to this book launch -it would be great to see you :)

21/06/2024

A bright, moonlit night on the cliffs for the second-to-last session for this year's trip to Portugal. It was a quieter night, with 19 birds trapped in total over the night, and less activity detected offshore with the thermal imaging binoculars too. Still a good catch to add to the numbers thus far, which puts at 97 total for the season. This puts us in good stead to surpass the 100 mark tonight, so fingers crossed for a grand finale as we head out for another sleep-deprived night later today...

20/06/2024

Update from Ben and team: ‘Another night at the cliffs for the second week of the Storm-petrel ringing trip with students from Cardiff University. Despite a very bright near-full moon, it was one of the best nights so far, with 36 new birds trapped and ringed, and an exciting control bird which was later found to have been ringed on Fair Isle (Scotland) on 27th July 2023! The crew were in good spirits and enjoyed great views of birds foraging close inshore through the thermal imaging binoculars too - a revolutionary development for studying these species this year!’

18/06/2024

So many adverts on Twitter these days -this is one of the few storm-petrel-related adverts though...

18/06/2024

16/06/2024

Night 3 was a wonderfully calm night, with another 14 stormies enrolled into the Portuguese ringing scheme, taking our total to 41 for the season so far. Today was a recovery day featuring coffee and cakes in the hills at Monchique.

15/06/2024

Today we visited the cape, and took time out in the spectacular scenery nearby. We saw peregrine, kestrel, alpine swift, gannets and a brood of recently fledged black redstarts. Good relaxation ahead of another night on the cliffs tonight!

14/06/2024

The new storm-petrel book is going down a storm in Cruzinha library this afternoon…

14/06/2024

A strange night last night, when we caught the first storm petrel at 21:55, before the sound lure was even playing! After this great start things became much quieter as the wind and moon rose, and a total of 7 stormies were caught over the night. This enabled some of us to get some sleep along the way. Back home now and off to “proper bed”!

12/06/2024

The Storm-petrels in Portugal 2024 season has officially begun! Our first day was spent exploring Quinta da Rocha and checking the equipment, before our first night out on the cliffs where we caught 20 stormies -a great start to the season!

23/06/2023

Good morning from Portugal, where our fantastic students have completed their field season, catching a grand total of 210 European Storm Petrels and one Cory’s Shearwater. Last night we used up our last 7 stormie rings before midnight, then switched to playing Cory’s shearwater and “Oceanodroma” calls. After loads of Cory’s shearwater fly-overs and a medium-sized petrel bouncing out of the net at around 2am, we eventually caught a Cory’s just before dawn. Well done and thank you to a really lovely group of young people. Now go to sleep ;)

21/06/2023

Back at Cruzinha after an amazing boat trip south from Sagres today. What a fantastic experience for our wonderful team of students. Thanks to Inês and Ricardo https://marilimitado.com/en/ for looking after us all on the boat.

Full totals were:

13 European storm petrels
25 Wilson’s storm petrels
6 Balearic shearwaters
11 Great shearwaters
2 Sooty shearwaters
~90 Cory’s shearwaters
10 Audoins gulls
4 Common terns
1 S**g
1 Great black-backed gull
~40 Gannets
~40 Common dolphins
~20 Bottlenosed dolphins

Avisos Estamos a realizar viagens todos os dias. Visite o nosso espaço e embarque connosco! Bem-vindo a bordo Explore o oceano com a nossa equipa de biólogos marinhos, especializados em observação de vida marinha. Venha descobrir golfinhos, baleias, aves marinhas, tartarugas e peixes pelágicos ...

20/06/2023

Back at Cruzinha after an amazing boat trip south from Sagres today. What a fantastic experience for our wonderful team of students. Thanks to Inês and Ricardo https://marilimitado.com/en/ for looking after us all on the boat.

Full totals were:

13 European storm petrels
25 Wilson’s storm petrels
6 Balearic shearwaters
11 Great shearwaters
2 Sooty shearwaters
~90 Cory’s shearwaters
10 Audoins gulls
4 Common terns
1 S**g
1 Great black-backed gull
~40 Gannets
~40 Common dolphins
~20 Bottlenosed dolphins

19/06/2023

Night 4: Good morning from Portugal, where 101 European storm petrels was our biggest overnight catch here for many years. This Faroes-ringed bird was a particular highlight. Photos by Hollie and Jasper. Time for bed now!

16/06/2023

Night 3: another 41 stormies ringed (no overseas birds this time), bringing our grand total for the year to over 100 birds. We also enjoyed a day around the Cape with some spectacular scenery and wildlife :)

14/06/2023

Night 2: 52 stormies! Bets on average body weight are now on (tip: check the average Sea Surface Temperature in April to guide you)

13/06/2023

Exciting flying object very easily identifiable by an unmistakable weird sound 😁

13/06/2023

Storm petrels in Portugal are back! Sadly our long-term research project will have a gap just as it was reaching its 30th year of continuous data (thank you pandemic!), but the gap was short lived. We managed to collect some data last year and this year we have a full team of student volunteers who were lucky enough to catch 12 'stormies' (including 1 UK control) and 1 Cory's shearwater on their first night!