Hilbre 19th December

A beautiful starlit sky guided me across to Hilbre in the dark. With an early tide I had to drive across early. With not much movement in the way of passerines this time of year attention has turned to trying to catch and colour flag Turnstone and Purple Sandpiper's as part of our ongoing study into winter site fidelity and movement within the Dee and Mersey estuaries. With very little substrate to use a whoosh net wader spring traps are used along the strand line where the waders tend to forage. 

As the sun rose and the tide flooded 1000's of Oystercatchers started congregating on the rocks between Middle Eye and Hilbre before moving t oroost on Middle Eye as the rocks got covered.

The low sun meant long shadows and this time of year the sun doesn't seem to rise properly before its setting again. The lights very flat and photographing birds quite hard they always seem to be backlit or in shadow. 

Before the  tide floods fully Brent Geese congregate at the north end and on the Whaleback, frantically feeding to make the most of the short days and exposed algae.Hearing family groups calling to each other is  lovely sound that invokes memories of my late dad taking us to Mersea Island, off the Essex, coast to see Brents when I was only about 9 or 10. 

As the tide rose higher the calls of the Oystercatchers complaining about getting flooded off their rocks filled the air and other groups of waders started moving past looking for somewhere to roost. Ringed Plover alighted briefly at the north end before flying off to find  a less disturbed spot to see out the tide.

A quick check at revealed 6 Purple Sandpipers roosting on a traditional rock ledge with another seen flying off towards Middle Eye with Turnstone. I never tire of seeing these plump little waders who travel vast distances from their arctic breeding grounds to winter around the rocky shores of Hilbre.

The three spring traps deployed were succesful with another Turnstone being added to the data base and given the flag AH. Less expected was a single Dunlin  - the first ringed on the island since 2013.

Another great day on the island and probably my last trip of 2025 as we're off to Australia to see our Aussie family just after Christmas. Happy Christmas everyone. 

Coco der Mer and Seychelles Parrots. Seychelles part 3.

One of my target species in the Seychelles was the endemic Seychelles (Black) Parrot. It was historically treated as a sub species of the one found in Madagascar and Comores it is now recognised as a separate species. Once  persecuted because of its love of cultivated fruits it's found only on Praslin and theres just over 1000 left. Its not really black but dark brown and grey. Researching best places to see it before we left home I found that the most regular place was the national park of Vaille De Mai - famous for its Coco De Mer palms. This is a living remnant of the forests that used to cover the Seychelles and is the smallest UNESCO World Heritage Site in the world. An entrance fee of SCR 450 is payable on arrival and I chose not to pay extra for a guide as I was specifically interested in the parrot and didn’t want to be rushed to anytime schedule. I'd read that the best time to get there is early morning before the crowds and the parrots are often seen near the entrance where the canopy is less dense.

Robert, our driver for the Cousin trip, offered to pick me up from the hotel and drive me the 20 minutes to the reserve and wait for a couple of hours until I returned. Skipping breakfast  I met him around 08.10 and arrived at the site when they opened 08.30. Again, I'd researched the call and was confident I'd be able to pick any parrots up on call as they're quite vocal.

Picking up my map at reception I set off and no sooner had I got through the ticket checkpoint about 100 m from the entrance then I picked up the whistling call of a Seychelles Parrot close by. I struggled to see it  until it walked down the branch it was on into view. I watched it for 30 minutes before it flew off to join others calling in the distance. A magical moment.

Continuing along the trails through the Coco De Mer forest was like taking a walk back through Jurassic times. The forest is so dense and dark it was hard to see anything and  I was followed by the calls of unseen Seychelles Bulbuls and parrots. 

By the tie I'd started making my way back to the entrance the park had got quite busy. Seeing a group looking at something high up in a tree pointed out by a guide I stopped to see what they were looking at. High up in the flowers of a Coco De Mer was a partially hidden Giant Bronze Gecko. I knew nothing about these and it wasn't until Sean Cole asked me if I'd seen one that I realised how rare they are! 

This definitely reinforced my feeling that I'd somehow been transported back in time millions of years or teleported to the film set of Jurassic Park.

Seychelles Bulbul

Back where I'd seen the parrot there were hordes of people being guided round in small groups. I picked up another distant parrot about 100 m away and tried to show it to some visitors but without binoculars it was invisible to them. Meeting up with Robert again I was back at the hotel by midday ready for lunch and a cold beer....or two......

The Seychelles are fantastic They take great pride in their endemic species and care for their environment. We'd certainly go again. Although not a big world lister I enjoy seeing new species wherever we go on holiday and on this trip ended u with 11 lifers. All to soon our trip was over and we had to return to Manchester and home to Cheshire. Leaving a warm tropical 29 C and arriving home to a cold dark 2C in Cheshire was a bit of a thermal shock.

Cousin Island. Seychellles part 2.

I must admit a bit of an ulterior motive when I booked a trip to Cousin Island on Jan's birthday. I knew sh'ed love getting close up to the Giant Tortoises but the island is also famous for its Seychelles Magpie Robins, Seychelles Fody, Seychelles Warbler and a host of seabirds such as Common (Brown) Noddy., Lesser Noddy, Fairy (Blue-billed White) Terns and the ubiquitous White-tailed Tropic Birds. 

The island is a reserve and you have to pay 400 Seychelles Rupee each on arrival. You can't wander around by yourself but are guided round by one of the wardening team. To get there requires a 20 minute boat trip from Praslin and, taking advice from Ash Howe, we booked with the excellent Angel Tours - see here. Angela, the owner, is super helpful and arranged a pick-up from our hotel with a driver who happened to be her dad Robert.

People are only allowed on Cousin between 10-12.00 am to prevent to much disturbance to the wildlife. Robert picked us up at 09.00 and drove us to the boat where our skipper, Nelson, greeted us and gave us a commentary as we cruised across the impossibly blue sea to Cousin where we then had to transfer to one of the rangers boats to land. This obviously involves quite a bit of hanging around as several boats were trying to disembark passengers at the same time. Luckily there was plenty to see with Fairy Terns. Tropicbirds all around us with Greater Frigatebirds and a couple of Lesser Frigatebirds overhead.

Landing on Cousin is quite an experience. The rangers come to pick you up and then race up the steep beach to get the boat right out the water. The rangers aren't dressed like any rangers I've ever seen in the UK and all sign up for a one year contract and live on the island. Their huts are spread along the foreshore so they can keep an eye out for unauthorised landings as, unfortunately, turtle poaching is still an issue here.

I didn't have to wait long for my 1st endemic. The drab looking Seychelles Fody. Interestingly with a beak that looks like a finch its actually insectivorous. They're rare and restricted to four of the islands (including Cousin) and had been successfully introduced into two more. Its classed as near threatened with a total population thought to be around 3,500 birds.

White Terns and White-tailed Tropicbirds were everywhere. The terns mate for life and lay a single egg on a tree branch Due to the lack of predators on the island the Tropicbirds nest on the ground and every hollow among the tree roots seemed to have an incubating bird or a downy young.

The rangers are very knowledgeable about the wildlife on the island and pointed out various plants and animals on our tour including Bronze-eyed Gecko and native trees.  We were lucky enough to come across a Hawksbill Turtle laying her eggs in the sand beneath a bush and watched quietly as she covered the eggs with sand and lumbered her way back to the  sea.  An amazing experience and one I'd always wanted to see.

One of my main targets for the trip was the endemic Seychelles Magpie Robin.  This is the most endangered endemic and in 1977 there were only 23 left in the wild on Fregate island. Through an active conservation programme coordinated by BirdLife International and later Nature Seychelles, which involved moving predators, improving habitat, providing nest boxes on Fregate, and moving birds to other predator-free islands to start new populations, the total number of birds has risen significantly, although it remains one of the rarest birds in the world. Its conservation status has greatly improved, but it still relies on conservation management and implementation of the Seychelles Magpie Recovery Team (SMART) - see here, which was formed to take conservation actions to save this species. SMART is coordinated by Nature Seychelles. The species was downlisted from being Critically Endangered to Endangered in 2005 after great efforts to increase its population.  As the population has risen to 500 birds, there’s hope for its reclassification to a lower threatened status.

I wasn't disappointed with 6 birds being seen. They're all ringed as pullus in the nest and it was interesting to see they use BTO metal rings. The red ring, on same leg as the metal ring, denotes the bird was ringed on Cousin Island.

I'd seen a few Seychelles Warblers on our tour but none photographable but whilst we were watching the magpie Robins I notice movemnt in a small bush and picked the binouclars up to see a Seychelles Warbler. Quitely moving away fro mthe main group I managed to get a few photos of this endangerd endemic. In 1968 there were only 26 individuals surviving on Cousin Island but now a population of 2500 birds survive on the granitic islands of Cousin, Cousine, Denis, Fregate and the Aride Islands.

Of course, the real reason for the trip was for Jan to get up close to the Aldabra giant tortoises that roam the island and we found a group bathing in a muddy pool. We were warned that if they stood on your foot you'd probably end up with some broken bones as they weigh up to 250 kg! 

There were a few Brown Noddys and Lesser Noddy's around but they weren't breeding at this time of the year. 

Brown (Common) Noddy

Lesser Noddy.

All too soon our 2 hours on Cousin came t oan end and we trooped bck to the beach for our transfers back t oour respective boats. Wedge-tailed Shearwaters also breed on Cousin but like most Shearwaters they're away fishing during the day and return to the nest under cover of darkness. I thought I had one as we were on our boat back to Praslin but it was distant and low over the water. Imagine my surprise when, as we were having dinner in one of the resort restuarants that evening, I saw one of the waitresses shooing something into a corner with a broom. A Wedge-tailed Shearwater had been attracted by the lights and crash landed on the floor. A common occurrence apparently.

A great finale to Jan's birthday trip!