Thursday, January 28, 2010

Greenhouse fixing work!

The well known strong winds of Corvo island have been really painfully for our greenhouse. Especially at the time we were out of Corvo due Christmas holidays. Once again we must be thankful with Pedro Domingos who was looking after our greenhouse.

However, as expected, our greenhouse was waiting for a deep recovery work, which led us to spend sometime fixing all frames and to put on new plastic cover.

And so it was, his sleeves rolled up, everyone here at home get involved in this operation. Cut here and tie there, nails, staples and even peg boards. A couple of hours later, after hard work, our greenhouse was given new life. No more patches and stones to hold the ends of the cover.

Hopefully this new greenhouse will last much or more than the old one.

Lastly we must be grateful with Carlos Silva, who sent us the plastic cover from São Miguel island. The next package arriving here should be him. We are all looking forward to seeing you within our team.

Friday, January 22, 2010



Another task for the team in Corvo: neutering cats!

These predators represent one of the threats to seabirds in the island, therefore we began a campaign to spay domestic and feral cats in order to control the local feline population.

For now, the two veterinarians (Sandra and Inês) have been reaching people at their homes to inform them about the project and colect the cats to be neutered. Later on, when the material arrives, we will capture the feral cats using cat traps and spay them as well.

Until now people have accepted the campaign well and they are colaborating with us and so far we were able to neuter 6 cats successfully.

See you soon!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Starting with mice monitoring!

One more step has been done as soon as the new year came. We started monitoring 3 wild mice populations on Corvo Island. At the first year we are managing to get general mice abundance values and understand possible variations around one full year. Our main aim, at this point, is to define periods of time when occur higher and lower population numbers.

To approach this aim, we setted down 3 capture grids: one at project reserve, another one at high altitude and a third one at low altitude and under any kind of ecological management.



I fell free to tell you guys that our captures are going well.

To keep going with this work we still waiting and praying to rats Sherman traps arrive, so we can do the same work with rats.

Looks like Corvo inhabitants can keep labelling us "The rats guys".


Friday, January 15, 2010



Hi,
the last few days have been quite busy and we couldn't post the news as often as desirable. With RSPB (www.rspb.org) and DOP (www.horta.uac.pt) technicians helping us, the house has been full. In spite of the bad weather, with strong winds and heavy rain, we managed to build 75 artificial nests for petrels and shearwaters and we tested the sound system to attract the birds as soon as we have created the necessary habitat conditions. The Agenda/calendar that we have prepared is already in press and we should have it soon to distribute around.

See you soon.



Thursday, January 7, 2010

Have a good 2010

Hellos:)
The arrival and the first day of the new year, here in Corvo, brought us a pleasant day of almost-sun, mild temperature and sweet wind, a true exception regarding the last month, and a great reception from the Corvinos with wishes of a good year.
First of all, a big thank you to Pedro Domingues, who managed to save our greenhouse and the future trees that are in the germination process.
The beginning of the second year project marked also the beginning of several actions, among them the establishment of the seabirds colony. Steffen and Mark joined us and brought a lot of the material that would be necessary for the attraction of seabirds to the Reserve area, as the sound system that will be tested in situ and the artificial nests to be placed also in the area. The test fence is almost ready and we hope to start to introduce the cats and rats (separately and only in the fence zone, of course).
Today, and unfortunately, the day is much more grey, but the work is on the move.... we ear equipment being ordered, noise of receipts, and a mixture of sounds from cory's to manx, that are coming from downstairs, and of course the tik tik of the computer.
Best wishes to all.