As part of the LIFE IP AZORES NATURA project, Graciosa’s Environment and Climate Action Service conducted a monitoring visit to the seabird colony in the Ilhéu da Praia Nature Reserve, which has been monitored regularly since 2017.

The main objective of the visit was to assess the reproductive success of the Madeiran Storm-petrel (Hydrobates castro), whose eggs had been recorded the previous year, thereby allowing the collection of essential data to determine the broods’ survival rate.

During this visit, 65 broods and 11 adult Madeiran Storm-petrel were recorded, occupying a total of 64 artificial nests. One egg was identified as incubating, another as hatched, one as broken and six as abandoned. In addition, three adult Barolo Shearwaters (Puffinus lherminieri) were observed.

A new visit is planned to record pre-flying Madeiran Storm-petrel juveniles, as well as to tag adult Barolo Shearwaters and record nests with eggs.

Currently, as part of the ecological restoration project that began in 1995 and is now being continued by LIFE IP AZORES NATURA, 278 artificial nests have been installed, of which 122 are made of plastic/PVC, 51 are made from clay pots, and 105 are made from cement and sawdust.