Forest Fires affect Madeira Birding

Fri Aug 13 2010 23:08:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Forest Fires affect Madeira Birding

As of Friday, August 13, 2010 at 20:00Z all Birdwatching Land trips are suspended for 36 hours. All other trips are proceeding normally.
Sadly, Madeira south facing forests are burning with the fuel being Eucalyptus sp., Pinus sp and Acacia sp., all exotic to Madeira and some relying on fire to propagate. Note that life is running normally despite all smoke and ashes in the air, we are just taking precautionary actions.

Satellite thermal scan above 220° Celsius for 20100815@1000Z,20100814@1000Z, 20100813@2000Z

Locations directly affected are: Curral das Freiras, Parque Ecologico do Funchal and Camacha.

Our main concern is the fauna, particularly Zino’s Petrel population north of Curral das Feiras, the amount of smoke, ashes, carbon dioxide and possible carbon monoxide, makes the air unbreathable at 1600 meters altitude, and that could seriously affect one the rarest seabird species in the World.

Photos of Funchal during the day.