WE HAD ANOTHER EARLY START YESTERDAY for the switchback filled ride to Roche Ecrite National Park where the other 7 Reunion endemics live. The Reunion stone chat obliged in the parking lot. Within a mile up the steep trail we saw and photographed — yes, Dan too — the Reunion bubul, Reunion grey white-eye, Reunion olive white-eye, Reunion paradise fly-catcher and the Reunion harrier.
Reunion Grey White-eye
Onward and upward we trekked, on the lookout for the prized and most elusive Reunion cuckoo-shrike. I pooped out after another mile and a half — I don’t have Connie’s stamina or interest — but she troopered on and got some really good photos of the prize, the final bird of our trip.
Reunion Cuckoo-shrike
Birdman, having gotten #9500-something, rushed past us heading down, leaving Ladybird and Daniel to take photos to their hearts content. When we arrived at the van at ten o’clock, he was smoking and sipping Johnny Walker. Keep on walking!
The birding trip ended this morning when we dropped Daniel, Birdman and Ladybird at the Roland Garros Airport in St. Denis. To quote MLK, "Free at last, free at last!." We should have been grateful that they allowed us to tag along, something Birdman made very clear, but we would have been happier if our planned trip to Iran had worked out — thanks again, Donnie! So while they continued on to Comoros for even more endemics, we stayed in St. Denis at the Central Hotel, just around the corner from Juliette Dudo but €100 cheaper.
Local boy Roland Garros
St. Denis has an interesting vibe, sort of French/African/Creole. Reunion is actually a part of France — French is the lingo, prices are in €uros and the cars all have EU license plates. Roland Garros, who has a Paris tennis stadium named for him, was a local boy. He is known as the inventor of the machine gun that was synchronized to fire through a rotating propeller.
