Seychelles part 1

We'd always wanted to go to the Seychelles so started exploring possibilities lat year. We decided on Praslin Island as the hotel we stayed at, the Constance Lemuria, has a championship golf course and the island has a number of endemic species and its easy to access Cousin island (home to endangered Seychelles Fody, Black Robin and Warbler). The trip coincided with Jan's birthday and she took her clubs whilst  I tagged along driving the golf buggy with my camera ready to hand.

The resort is beautiful with fantastic beaches and sunsets. The hotel pride themselves on their environmental credentials and many parts of the grounds are part of a nature reserve. They even employ a 'Turtle Manager' as one of the beaches is used by nesting Hawksbill Tortoises and they're part of a captive breeding programme for Alhambra giant tortoises.

Judging by the noises coming from the tortoise enclosure the breeding programmes going well! 

All turtle nests are monitored and signs put up warning people to stay away. We were lucky enough to  see a turtle one morning but it didn't come ashore immediately but later that day we found where it had hauled out and lay its eggs.

Grand Anse Kerlan Beach where the turtles nest

Unfortunately the three commonest birds around the resort were introduced species - Madagascar Fody,  Barred Ground Dove (Zebra Dove) and Madagascan Turtle Dove. The native Seychelles Turtle Dove is now so interbred with the Madagascan species that there thought to be no genetically pure Seychelles Turtle Doves left in the wild.

Female Madagascan Fody

The male Madagascan Fodys are extremely photogenic whereas the females are much duller. We had two pairs nesting in front of the balcony to our room so I got into the habit of sitting out with a mug of tea most mornings enjoying the sights and sounds of the birds around me. On one occasion I even found a rare yellow morph Madagascan Fody.

Madagascan Turtle Dove

Barred Doves were probably the commonest species we saw and even landed on breakfast tables to steal crumbs.

Barred Ground Doves bathing during a short shower of rain

What really surprised me me were the number of waders that I'd normally associate with the northenr hemisphere either feeding on the golf course or on the muddy edges of the numerous water hazards around the course. Birds such as Curlew, Whimbrel, Bar-tailed Godwit, Greenshank, Grey Plover, Common, Curlew and Wood Sandpiper's and Turnstone. 

Bar-tailed Godwit

Grey Plover

Greenshank

Curlew Sandpiper

The Curlew and Whimbrel were taking advantage of the numerous Land Crabs that made their home around the golf course - albeit the smaller ones! 

Several species of Heron also inhabited the grounds and it was slightly incongruous to see a juvenile Striated heron fishing on the edge of the hotels infinity pool.

We also saw a few adults fishing around the pools and a Black-crowned Night Heron as well as several Grey Herons.

Before we came away I'd checked eBird and found that Praslin was a good area for the endemic Seychelles Blue Pigeon. Unlike other pigeons, who pass viable seeds in their droppings, the Seychelles Blue Pigeon had a muscular gizzard which breaks down the seeds to aid digestion so no viable seeds are passed so they rely on other intervention where there aren't enough of their natural food plants growning. I also noted that this strange looking endemic pigeon had been seen at our resort. Once really rare and endangered as they were hunted for food and killed to protect crops the species is now relatively easy to find The Seychelles Blue Pigeon has a red wattled patch of orbital skin giving it a distinct look. They feed high up in the canopy and never feed on the ground so can be quite hard to see. I'd reserached the call before we went and ended up hearing birds before I actualy saw any. The first birds I saw were three that flew past high as we were having breakfast. A couple of days later we were lucky enough to come across two sat in a tree as we drove round the gold course.

Seychelles Bulbul was another endemic that was harder to see than heard. Gangs of them roamed the thick woodland around the resort but gave frustratingly brief views.

The spectacular 16th tee looking down over the forest to the 16th green with Anse Georgette to the left. Several balls were lost here! 

Typical Blue Pigeon and Bulbul habitat

Looking towards Cousin Island

At the highest point in the grounds of the hotel on the hunt for Blue Pigeons

The stunning Snse Georgette beach wehre White-tailed Tropicbirds circled overhead.

Two other endemics frequented the resort with the commonest being Seychelles Sunbird. Extremely active and quick and hard to photograph  I spent ages trying to get any half decent shots.

Seychelles Kestrel i another endangered species with approximately 800 left in the wild. Recent conservation efforts are reversing the trend though. It was once extinct on Praslin but was reintroduced in 1977 but is still extremely rare with the last census in 2022 revealed only 4 pairs. The smallest of the kestrel family it rarely hovers and hunts by dropping on its prey from a perch in a tree or on a rock.face. I'd seen one fly past whilst we were on the golf course but was hoping against hope to get a better view. Walking back down from the view point, where I'd been searching for Blue Pigeon, I decided to cut across the golf course and walk back down the track from the 17th hole, alongside the 18th and to the clubhouse. I'd seen lots of Seychelles Sunbirds here and was hoping for a better view. It was here I'd also seen the flypast Seychelles Kestrel.

My attention was drawn to what was obviously a raptor calling high up in the trees but I couldn't trace the source. Moving slightly I suddenly spotted a pair of Seychelles Kestrels partially obscured in the canopy. Eventually one bird moved into a position where I could rattle off a few record shots whilst the second bird disappeared into a hole in the tree. I couldn't believe my luck. I'd actually found a nest site for this mega rare falcon.

I marked the location and sent a photo and dropped pin to Robert, the Turtle Manager, who confirmed this was a very significant find. Not only for the hotel complex but for the island.

Stone Curlews, Nightjars and Woodlarks. More memories from my teenage years in Suffolk.

Harking back to again to my teenage years spent birding in Suffolk under the tutelage of good friends. In those mid seventies years species such as Stone Curlew, Nightjar and Woodlark were still relatively scarce breeding species in the UK. The Brecklands of Suffolk and Norfolk were the best place to see these birds. Nightjar and Stone Curlew were considered summer visitors whereas Woodlark could be found throughout the year but were easier to find when they were singing.  Even then the Woodlark population probably didn't exceed 50 pairs and their preference for clear felled areas of the coniferous forests planted in the Brecks, by the then Forestry Commission, meant it was a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack

The song of the Woodlark gives it its latin name of Lullula arborea with a sweet descending  'lu, lu,lu,lu...' A beautiful song and one that instantly takes me back to those early years in Suffolk. 

About the only place to see Woodlark in the UK at that time was in the Brecks. The same with Stone Curlew. East Anglia and the Brecks in particular were their UK stronghold and probably the best place was the Norfolk Wildlife Trusts reserve at Weeting Heath. 

If my memory serves me well it was the very hot summer of 1976 that I first went to Weeting heath and saw my first Stone Curlew in a terrible heat haze and sweltering heat. Touring the Brecks we walked miles in the blazing sunshine before eventually finding a singing Woodlark. 

Since then I've seen Woodlark and Stone Curlew numerous times and they're both on my Cheshire list courtesy of a Stone Curlew found by Mark Turner at Leasowe in April 2009 (see here) and three Woodlark i na stubble field near Congleton on the same day I twitched a Pied grebe at Hollingsworth Lake, Greater Manchester in Novmeber 2010! (see here)

Stone Curlew, Lleasowe 2009

At least it was cooler when I saw my first Nightjar. I remember getting bitten alive by midges waiting, as dusk fell, outside the perimeter fence of some M.O.D land listening intently for that first 'churr' follewed by birds in flight and wing clapping. Who'd have thought in those early days that Nightjar would expand their UK range so much and now breed only a few miles away from where we live in Cheshire. Indeed, back then , as a trainee bird ringer at Wicken Fen, I couldn't imagine I'd ever get to ring one. Something I was fortunate enough to do a couple of years ago.

Although Woodlark and Nightjar are currently doing well in the UK and have expanded their breeding range another Breckland speciality has been lost as a regular British breeding bird. The Brecks were the last stronghold of the Red-backed Shrike in the UK and their nesting sites were a closely guarded secret. I was lucky enough to see several pairs during my time birding in Suffolk and saw probably the last Breckland pair in 1988 when a pair bred in the car park of  the St Helens picnic site at Santon Downham Country park near Brandon. At that time my parents still lived nearby and I remember rocking my young daughter in her pram with one hand whilst holding my binoculars in the other watching the shrikes who'd nested in a large bush in the car park and protected by red and white tape! 

Female Red-backed Shrike at nest in Santon Downham copyright of http://santondownham.org/Archive/2016/redbackedshrike.html