Within the frame of the LIFE IP AZORES NATURA project, the team from the Graciosa Natural Park accessed the islets of Praia and Baixo last week with the aim of continuing to monitor the seabirds as part of action D5.1 “Monitoring of terrestrial habitats, species and conservation problems”. The following tasks were carried out during this visit:
– Monitoring of Audubon’s shearwater (Puffinus lhermieri) and Band-rumped Storm-Petrel (Hydrobates castro) nests;
– Replacement of the autonomous recording unit.
During this visit, 211 nests were monitored, most of them being artificial. Three (3) adult Audubon’s shearwaters were banded and 11 adult Audubon’s shearwaters were recaptured, all of which were incubating. Two (2) hatched Audubon’s shearwater chicks were also found, still too little to be banded. In addition, the team found 2 chicks of Band-rumped Storm-Petrel, which were ringed.
As with the fieldwork on Vila Islet, Santa Maria, which had to be postponed (post published on 5 March 2021), the monitoring of Band-rumped Storm-Petrels took place with delay, as the weather did not allow the team to access the islets at an earlier date.