OUR RESORT HOTEL ON MAHE is wonderful but we hardly had a chance to enjoy it. We have a living room, kitchenette, king bed, rain shower and a jacuzzi but were only here long enough to shower and sleep. After dropping off our luggage, Daniel from RockJumper and local guide Pearly took the four of us out for the endemic birds of the Seychelles. Our companions are a Swede, who I’ll call Birdman, and his UK wife, Ladybird. Birdman is the world’s most prolific living birder with more than 9500 species on his life list. His goal is to overtake the dead guy on this trip. Ladybird is pretty prolific herself with over 7500 species to her credit, yet her role seems to be Sherpa to her husband.
Connie, Daniel, Birdman and Ladybird
Birdman may be a notable birder but he is one-dimensional. He smokes like a chimney, likes his first beer before 10AM, can talk only of birds and cares for no one but himself. Ladybird has to carry the scope as well as her own gear and camera. I would have to shoot Connie if she ever got that serious. On second thought, I would probably shoot myself instead!
Flights of Fancy
Nearly everything we saw today was new — a “Seychelles this” or a “Seychelles that” and many of them were banded endemic species. We corraled three endemics today, the Seychelles white-eye, the Seychelles Scops owl and the Seychelles bubal plus a handful of other lifers for Connie.
White Tern
A 5AM breakfast after a surprisingly good sleep was followed by a 20-minute hop to the island of Praslin. Flying will be a theme in the Islands — we took 7 flights by trip’s end. Our birding plans for the next three days don’t sound too stressful . . . and I’m not complaining.
White-tailed tropic bird
The highlight for me was a short boat ride to Cousin Island where white terns balance their eggs on bare palm branches and white-tailed tropic birds nest on the ground. Cousin is also home to the recovering population of Seychelles magpie-robins. Our boat trip to Aride was cancelled due to rough seas but we managed to sail to Le Digue, home to the Seychelles Paradise Fly Catcher.
Seychelles magpie-robin Seychelles Paradise Flycatcher
