Geologically, Seychelles has had a long history. It separated from land masses that became Africa, Madagascar and India some 66 million years ago. After this separation, it became unique as the only granitic oceanic islands in the world. More recently Seychelles has varied in size from an island as big as Sri Lanka at the … More Seychelles history at risk
After a very long gestation period, my book “Orange omelettes and dusky wanderers” has now been published by Calusa Bay Publications, Seychelles. It describes my experiences in Seychelles from late 1971 to the present. Based around the biology of my beloved Sooty Terns, it also embraces other areas of conservation in Seychelles, illustrating the leading … More Orange omelettes and dusky wanderers
In my blog of 11 June, I mentioned the erosion that had occurred on Bird Island’s north-west beach. Bird Island is a sand cay, a low-lying island formed by the deposition of sand of animal and plant debris derived from a coral reef. The calcareous deposits vary considerably in coarseness, ranging from shell and coral … More Ever shifting sands
Even the remotest islands in the world are suffering pollution emanating from the sea and Bird Island is sadly no exception. Over the last weekend a group of French volunteers paid a short visit to clean the beaches of rubbish that had floated ashore. Today, the day after their departure, Christine and I walked around … More Our plastic oceans
In November 2013 a whirlwind hit Seychelles. On Denis Island in 2010 I, with the help of volunteers, had made a very promising start to the eradication of Common Mynas to prevent their predation of some of Seychelles’ endemic birds that had been on the verge of extinction. Unfortunately, the project had waned in 2011 … More Arjan de Groene, General manager of Green Islands Foundation 2013-2016
On 27 October we drove down to Brighton in the hope that Christine could witness a murmuration of Starlings: this is the term used to describe the amazing pre-roosting behaviour of large flocks of Starlings just before they enter their roost sites in the late evening. On a good evening this can be one of … More To murmurate or not to murmurate
Towards the end of our stay in Andalucia, and after a delightful lunch at Venta Las Delicias in Villanueva del Rosario, we drove through the village along a paved but rough road, followed by a gravelly track, for about 6 km up into the hills to a parking area and viewing point (mirador) called Alto … More More valleys and mountains
Cities, towns and villages in Andalucía abound with restaurants and tapas bars, providing a huge variety of dishes and prices. While many genres of food are available, including Chinese, Italian and Indian, tapas bars tend to have similar ranges of local foods, based especially on seafoods and pork, salads and olives. During my days as … More More good food in Andalucía – Venta Las Delicias in Rosario
As readers of my earlier blogs will know, the lagoon at Fuente de Piedra is one of my favourite birdwatching haunts, famed for its large nesting colony of Flamingos that under the right conditions can exceed 20,000 pairs. We visited on 9 October to discover a baked pan of whitish mud with no standing water. … More Only two Flamingos
Having experienced sufficient of the plastic greenhouses and the incredibly busy E-15 coastal motor way, we turned inland at Almuñécar on to explore what my ancient road map indicated as an unnumbered minor road (but which Google Maps identifies as the A-4050) heading almost due north into the interior. It was by this time mid-afternoon … More Feeling on top of a wild world
Wild Bird Conservation 