by Hugo Romano on 04/29/2013
Last Friday, in a local conference I was reminded why we are Pro-EU. It is not about the Funding, as it creates market entropy and distortion. We are Pro-EU because of freedom of trade and a market driven economy.
Some of the speakers, a member of the regional government and a president of a national trade association presented corporatism and protectionism ideas, which, in our perspective, is not healthy for an economy as it aims economic prosperity only for some instead of all.
At some stage DIRECTIVE 2006/123/EC of Services in the Internal Market was mentioned like a “boogeyman”, they believe that giving freedom to businesses is something terrible. Sorry but we can not agree with this! Free trade and a market driven economy is the best option, simply because our customers are the best judges of our business practices and activities much more than any bureaucrat.
The truth is that the mentioned directive is from 2006 and since then all national and local laws go on the opposite direction. We felt like these people fear Fair Trade and Democracy and are anxious for control.
by Catarina Fagundes on 04/22/2013
Everyday is the Earth day but today, the 22nd of April, we might stop a bit longer to think how the Earth is important to us and how we should care about it. We should ask ourselves if what we do on our daily life is sustainable for the Earth and consequently for us and all beings around us.
It is with images like this one that we understand how Earth is fighting to survive against human attacks and how it can still be beautiful in such an austere environment. Now think…are we doing the same to Earth?!?
by Catarina Fagundes on 04/20/2013
It is always a celebration for us to go up to the mountains at night, in the beginning of April, to hear and see the silhouettes of Zino’s Petrels Pterodroma madeira! Though last year’s number of chicks fledging was not good at all, with only 7 chicks fledging from the known breeding areas (Frank Zino, 2012), we sure hope that 2013 will be a much better year!
This year we visited the area twice already and on both nights we heard several calls (more than 200 calls) and could see a few birds on the later visit. So the good thing is that these rare seabirds are back to their breeding area and Wind Birds opened its Zino’s Petrel Night Expeditions for 2013.
by Catarina Fagundes on 04/4/2013
After Manx shearwaters Puffinus puffinus started to arrive to Madeira in February and Cory’s shearwaters Calonectris diomedea in March we were just waiting for Zino’s Petrels Pterodroma madeira to return to their breeding colony by end of March/early April to declare the opening season for watching seabirds in Madeira!
We have been watching Manx and Cory’s shearwaters on our Bird, dolphin and whale watching trips though we still have to wait a couple of weeks to watch Bulwer’s Petrels Bulweria bulwerii and about 40 days more to see Fea’s/Deserta’s Petrodroma feae/deserta petrels flying around our rigid-hulled inflatable boat, Oceanodroma.
Talking about Oceanodromas, Madeiran storm-petrels Oceanodroma castro are present all year around as there are 2 populations breeding in these islands in different seasons: summer and winter breeding colonies. But these seabird species is very difficult to observe near the coast, they are offshore birds, just like the Zino’s Petrels and the White-faced storm-petrels Pelagodroma marina, which can only be seen and photographed on our Zino’s Petrel Pelagic Expeditions.
Although the temperature is very low at this time of the year on the highest peaks of Madeira, we are just about to start Wind Birds Zino’s Night Expeditions and will run them until the end of August.
Now you are asking for Little/Barolo’s shearwaters Puffinus baroli but these are winter breeding birds in Madeira, arriving in December and migrating by May and unfortunately they are more difficult to see year after year as their population is decreasing worldwide.
by Catarina Fagundes on 04/1/2013
Hugo and Catarina, from Wind Birds, as experienced birdwatchers, have been researching and thinking a lot on a new design of optical equipment to substitute binoculars and more recently they have submitted a patent for these birdwatching goggles!
These goggles allow one to clearly observe birds or other wildlife while having your hands free to hold a recording device for your reports, a phone, a camera, a bottle of water or any other useful item.
The birdwatching goggles are much better than the conventional binoculars as they are much lighter, hands free and so, less susceptible to shaking. The way the glass is designed by looking at different angles you achieve different magnifications.
Over the last two years we have done several trials with our customers. During these period NDAs have been enforced. We expected to present to the public our new birdwatching goggles in several birdwatching fairs.
With a magnification than can go from 5 to 20 times and 170 degrees field of view, these brand new goggles allow brighter and sharper images than any of the Swarovski, Leica or Zeiss binoculars.
by Hugo Romano on 03/23/2013
Earth Hour is a worldwide event led by the World Wide Fund for Nature and held March 23rd, encouraging households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for at least one hour raising awareness about the need to take action on climate change.
Off course we join Earth Hour 2013, though our climate change agenda is every day, not just today.
In the four generations of lighting technologies (traditional lightbulb, halogen ,compact fluorescent and LED) we only use version 1, 3 and 4.
Roughly keeping the same lumens, we achieve a decrease of power – 100 watts for lightbulb , 20 watts for fluorescent, 8 watts for LED. The LED technology we use delivers warm light spectrum, something that was just available to general public in the last 6 months.
Our strategy is simple, phaseout compact fluorescent into LED and reuse the traditional lightbulb on areas that we need light less than 15 hours per year (e.g. attic). We don’t foresee buying more lightbulbs.
Earth Hour 2013!!!
by Hugo Romano on 03/22/2013
Today, we celebrate World Water Day. Many people in this World don’t have access to fresh water. We all have to understand that this ultimate resource is scarce. Around 782 million people do not have access to clean water and almost 2.5 billion do not have access to adequate sanitation.
In Madeira “The Water Island”, we have taken from granted that drinkable water was an infinite resource. In fact, rain patterns have change and are now very erratic. We can be surrounded by a big Atlantic Ocean, but desalination by reverse osmosis (membrane technology filtration) has a huge carbon footprint, simply not a solution.
The solution is just save water, this ultimate resource. Catarina and I collect water from the rain and use it in our garden and µfarm. Join the movement…
by Hugo Romano on 03/15/2013
Science is moving too fast… Is it a good idea to bring back Passenger Pigeon Ectopistes migratorius?
The idea is amazing and dangerous! DNA code manipulation, surrogate parents from cosmetically painted Rock Dove and surrogate flocks.
A debate on #TEDxDeExtinction presented by Ben Novak—“How to Bring Passenger Pigeons All the Way Back”.
The Plan to Bring the Iconic Passenger Pigeon Back From Extinction via Wired
Our objective should be at all cost avoid Extinction. For me DeExtinction is a risk… DeExtinction could make humanity change its thought on Nature conservation…
by Wind Birds on 03/13/2013
The 12 workers unions of TAP Air Portugal have demonstrated intent for strike from March 21 until 23. We believe several of our customers will be affect be this company strike.
We will offer to our customers free cancellation and re reschedulling if travelling is compromised by this strike.
Feel free to contact us…
