Well it has been a few weeks since the last update.

So let me take you back to when I was trying to ‘sort things’ on mainland Graciosa…

There’s nothing quite like going with high hopes to the local town to ‘just sort one thing out’ and realising that in order to do that ‘one thing’ you first have to go through a chain of 2 or 3 other things in a set order… also bearing in mind the banks shut at 3pm and oh we can’t do anything tomorrow because it is a public holiday! Ah island life. Thankful to say that my Portuguese phrase ‘falar inglês’ (speak English? Spoken in a hopeful way) helped a smidge and after several days with a public holiday in the middle, all was sorted!

Equipment wise… Discovering the Chinese shop for last minute equipment helped start to feel like everything was coming together (they already recognised me after two trips in…). And after some trouble shooting (many, many thanks to a fellow PhD for help on this!) the IR motion sensors on my Raspberry pi circuit boards were finally working and so got half the boards set up ready to video nests (the other half left to do on the islet). I repacked the boxes ready for the final move and almost everything ready to go before my first team arrived!

• 

• 

Exploring wise… I managed to get out and about a bit. Ate lunch at the ‘best restaurant in town’ (it was very good!). Climbed to and up the lookout tower and up to a nearby lighthouse (farol) giving a view of Praia and Baixo islets.

• 

• 

• 

After some last minute rearranging due to planes being cancelled both my summer long-term field assistant and my primary supervisor ended up arriving on the same plane 😊.

So after months of planning in the UK and weeks of planning on my own in the Azores it was a delight to finally welcome #team1!

It is always a bit touch and go with the weather, so the next day we headed into town in good faith that the internet forcast and actual sea looked good for boating across to the islet. We had a whirlwind of a morning sorting and picking up last minute things, before a last minute ‘stuff it in somewhere’ type packing approach for the last leg!

• 

• 

• 

Two pick-up-truck loads later and the three of us plus two of the park team made it down the the harbour. Two boat loads across and all too soon we had all arrived and I was remembering the humid, salt spray smells of the islet! Many trips back and forth from landing stage to house later and we’d brought up all the kit… eaten some lunch and started a massive ‘spring clean’ of the whole house!

By the evening it was looking much more live-in-able and we’d all put up our respective tents and shelters ready for the first night! We went up to a nearby cliff area for a magical 1/2hour of listening to the wrring noise of cory’s shearwaters and the higher pitched woody the woodpecker type Monteiro’s storm-petrels calls – flitting like bats over the meadow area.

This week has been a week of enforced bed rest for me (thankfully much improved now!) and slowly settling into islet life! Boxes unpacked, solar panels unpacked and installed now :), the first few nest checks have been completed 😀 and we’ve done a couple of half night mist-netting sessions too. All very exciting and looking forward to getting to know all the different birds as the breeding season commences in earnest!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Until next time… greetings from a stary-night islet!

Hannah 🙂