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!