Monday, November 29, 2010

Cory's shearwater S.O.S

Less than 100 years ago was common hunting hundreds of Cory's Shearwater for different uses in Corvo Island.
At such hard time, hunger forced people to seek alternative food, for example, "Erva do Calhau" (an algae) and "Saramago" (an herb), because they could not cultivate the land during the winter due heavy storms.
The Cory's shearwater were also a food supplement for some people who were forced to learn some biological aspects of this species, such as hatching dates, that allowed to pick up eggs, and the period in which chicks had less fat and more meat. They also learned how to extract the oil from these birds to spread after their tools. Even serving as bait in the local fishery.

Sandra

1 more ... equals 8

At the end of last week and with the colaboration with Environmental Office of Flores and Corvo was collected approximately 3kg of fruit of the Azorean Holly.



The Holly is an endemic species and its population is small and need some efforts to recover the species.
The fruits that was collected will be treated and sown in the greenhouse. Now it is 8, the species that we intend to produce.
At the time we are producing the following species:
- Morella faya
- Piconnia azorica
- Heather
- Azorean Cedar
- Azorina vidalii
- Frangula azorica
- Azorean blueberry
Hopefully we will have soon good news from the number of plants we are producing.
Here is one of the pictures Frangula azorica we seeded this year.



Thursday, November 25, 2010

Two British experts visit Corvo Island

Kevin and Ruth Standring are experts in drafting and designing touristic trails and routes for hikers.
Their mission is to analyze the feasibility of installing four hiking trails for the tourist who visit the island.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

A birdwatching day

Last week, despite the gray sky with a promise of a rainy day, we decided to enjoy the recreation that attracts many tourists from northern and central Europe to Corvo Island, the Birdwatching.
Telescope, 3 binoculars, bird guide and a backpack full of good mood is the material needed to spend a relaxed evening in Caldeirão, the ex libris of Corvo.




We took our visit to count birds for the National Waterfowl Wintering Program conducted by the 2nd consecutive year here on Corvo. By late morning our list was:
2 Grey Herons Ardea cinerea1 Common Snipe Gallinago gallinago 
29 Mallard Anas platyrhynchos 
40 Yellow Legged Gull Larus cachinnans 
1 American Black Duck Anas rubripes 

1 hybrid of Mallard x American Black Duck


Despite the rain and gray sky, was a morning well spent.

Monday, November 22, 2010

The Cory's shearwater activity: dataloggers

Logger work is not knew for SPEA and in the scope of the Marine IBA Life project we have used several troughout the islands of Azores, Madeira and in the Mainland. SPEA is currently working with Coimbra University in yet another project to identify with more detail the foraging areas of Cory's shearwaters and what may influence them. In these videos we can witness the deployment of small GPS devices that can last longer than 15 days and that will be essential for Filipe Ceia to know these seabird movements at sea for his Phd thesis.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Biological reserves creation

The project's goal is to create two reserves with optimal conditions for seabirds nesting. Our aims are to restore their natural ecosystem and we pretend to remove all the exotic species, and create the first endemic forest.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Science club in the school!



The project team is actively working with "Mouzinho da Silveira" School conducting activities in Ecology and nature areas. From previous school year, the students work with the Science Club and last week began with transplantation activities of one of the endemic plants: the Azorean Heather.


The children's club were divided into age groups and once again they showed their enthusiasm for this type of action.


The greenhouse is installed in the schoolyard, giving every student the opportunity to accompany the daily growth of the small plants planted.


Friday, November 5, 2010

Haunted House

As leisure, the team members participated in an initiative of the Corvo Young Association and helped to create an "Horror House" to celebrate Halloween.
It a was great fun and huge success!!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Monitoring activities in Vila Franca islet

Corvo seen by its visitors

Three SPEA members visited us during September. They participated in the project activities and were kind enough to leave their view of the experience in the form of a poem (in Portugue only.

Read poem

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Testing eradication of exotic rodents

Two different methods for the eradication of exotic rodents were being tested on Corvo Island.