On 20 June Christine and I left Bird Island and returned to Mahe. The growing chicks in the Sooty Tern colony were becoming much more mobile and thus prone to move away from their nest sites at any disturbance, putting them at risk of attack from neighbouring adults when they try to return. By the … More Farewell to Bird Island, 2016
On 25 July I returned to North Island on a day trip to give a brief training session to new volunteer students from the University of Seychelles. These students, Dillys Pomponeau and Krystel D’Offay, have been recruited by Arjan de Groene, General Manager of Green Islands Foundation, to continue the myna eradication until the arrival … More All change on North Island
The south-east trade wind season, roughly from May to October, is not the best time to see glorious sunsets on Bird Island. Nevertheless, sitting on the western beach as the sun goes down, feeling the south-east breeze after a hot day in the sun, is a great way to pass the last hour of daylight … More Bird Island sunsets and starscapes
In recent blog posts I have often referred to our work in the Sooty Tern colony, without explaining what we are doing. Our main objective this year is to discover where Bird Island’s Sooty Terns feed during incubation and early chick rearing. As mentioned in the more technical post of 14 December 2015, we have … More Tracking Sooty Terns at sea
The colours and patterns of the eggs and chicks of ground-nesting terns are generally considered to have evolved to provide camouflage against the background of the nesting areas. This works to a certain extent: Sooty Tern eggs are difficult to see on a sandy substrate and dark brown downy chicks are barely visible among driftwood … More A Noddy enigma
Eggs are now hatching over most parts of the Bird Island colony and the parents are highly attentive and protective. Chicks younger than three days are largely confined to their nests, only a few seeking shelter beneath some of the herbaceous vegetation close to their nests. Older chicks, but still covered in down and without … More Bird Island’s Sooty Terns – the story continues
Frigatebirds, those aerial giants of tropical waters, once called man-o-war birds by seafarers, are renowned for their aerobatic prowess when chasing other birds, especially boobies, in order to persuade the latter to regurgitate their last meal, which the frigatebirds eagerly devour. However, on Aldabra and elsewhere, frigatebirds and boobies breed alongside each other and live … More Pirates of the air and sea, but bedfellows too
These twelve stages of “chickhood” are happening all over the Bird Island Sooty Tern colony at the moment.
Our friend Camille Lebarbenchon, from the University of Reunion Island, has now joined us on Bird Island for the fifth year in succession. He is undertaking ground-breaking research on pathogens carried by seabirds in the western Indian Ocean. On Bird Island this has involved mainly Sooty Terns, Brown Noddies and Lesser Noddies but he has … More Camille Lebarbenchon arrives on Bird Island
For many of Bird Island’s Sooty Terns incubation is now over, and in parts of the colony nests contain small downy chicks, with black eyes wide open and apparently aware of their surroundings, but not yet running away from their nests. Their parents are extremely busy, searching for food far out to sea and also … More Health and safety – Sooty Tern style
