It wasn’t long before Cory’s Shearwaters Calonectris borealis skimmed past the boat and further out we were joined by Bulwer’s Petrels Bulweria bulwerii. Yellow-legged Gulls Larus michahellis followed the boat in a manner that suggested that they knew food was going to be offered. With a northerly wind the journey out was a wet one. The first afternoon out we headed north to an area north of Madeira and southwest of Porto Santo. Sunday 26th June – between Madeira and Porto Santo So as well as wearing suitable waterproof clothing a dry bag for the camera is essential, with plenty of padding to protect the equipment when the boat slams down on the other side of every large wave.
The pair of 250 HP Yamaha outboard engines allow the RIB to get to the destination location at speed but the journey is very wet when travelling (even for a short distance) against the 1.5m swell, and very lumpy. WindBirds Oceanodroma RIB about to leave port for the first of the three “Zino’s Petrel Pelagic Expedition” trips. Leaving the port of Machico on Madeira’s east coast at 3pm the Wind Birds team of Catarina and Hugo escorted the team to a different location each day, roughly 40km either north or south of the island, returning between 10 and 10.30pm. These “character building” trips take up to 10 passengers in their 11 metre RIB – ‘Oceanodroma’ – specifically targeting scarce seabirds and centred around finding the enigmatic and incredibly rare Zino’s Petrel Pterodroma madeira, which breeds only on the highest peaks of Madeira. Here, the photographic challenges are quite different to the large ship expeditions.Īfter a year’s delay due to COVID travel restrictions I was booked on the Madeira Wind Birds “Zino’s Petrel Pelagic Expedition” trips out of Machico, on the east coast of Madeira, on 26th, 27th & 28th June 2022. I have recently returned from Madeira where I spent three days on dedicated pelagic seabird trips in a small rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RIB). Trips to the Arctic and the Antarctic have given me experience of getting pictures in a variety of sea and weather conditions. I’ve spent a lot of time over the years watching seabirds – albatrosses, petrels, shearwaters, prions and the like – and whales and dolphins from large, fairly stable ships. At the best of times wildlife photography can be a challenge but trying to get good images of fast moving seabirds from a small boat in a decent swell is certainly an experience.
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