Green Turtles: Throughout May to September we had about 20 Green turtle nests all of which produced between 75 and 150 hatchlings per nest.

Hawksbill Turtles: The Hawksbill turtle nesting season has now begun with our first nest on 30 September. So far we have had 31 nests which means our first hatchlings will start appearing around 26 November as the egg incubation period is 58 days depending on temperature and weather conditions. Due to the natural movement of sand we have had to move 3 nests to a safer area to avoid them being washed away.

Steven, Rose-May, Lizanne, Elsa and Georges all do regular beach patrols to record turtle activity. We also ask all our guests to report any sightings and we explain to them what to do in the event that they see a turtle coming up the beach. If a turtle is reported nesting, when possible we will tell any guests we see around so they can go and watch.

28 November 2003: 56 nests.

04 December 2003: 62 nests

11 December 2003: 79 nests

30 December 2003: 107 nests

10 January 2004: 120 nests

Expected Hawksbill Turtle hatching dates: (Based on an average 58 days incubation) - hatching can vary depending on the temperature and rainfall.

January:   10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31

February: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 29

March: 1, 2, 4, 5

We were approached by the Government of Seychelles in September to take part in a worldwide beach monitoring programme. The very nature of Bird Island and the constant movement of sand from one season to the next means that this information will be of use to scientist monitoring sea level changes. We were very interested to take part in this study particularly as the island was subject to a lot of erosion between 1988 and 1993 which saw the loss of around 75m of land from the west coast. This was so severe that the Lodge had to be rebuilt further inland . The coastal zone unit came to the island from Mahé and set up points of reference. The first survey was done on 1st October and a subsequent one carried out by the 'Team' on 1st November. We plan to do the survey on the first of each month at low tide. The team: Lizanne, Elsa, Lizanne, Rose-May and Steven helped by Georges and Margaret Norah.

04 December 2003: The third survey took place on Sunday 30 November at low tide in the afternoon.

27 December 2004: The fourth beach survey took place. We were helped by Nick Bray, one of our regular guests who is a coastal engineer. Thank you Nick!

Having been away from Bird for 6 years, we have noticed a marked increase in the number of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters and White tailed tropicbirds. Both are ground nesting. Rats were eradicated from the island in 1996 and maybe the increase is related to this as they would have preyed on both eggs and chicks.

In 1996 there were 6 pairs. We now have 28 different nesting sites which are regularly checked. To date 28 adult Tropicbirds have been ringed and 8 chicks. Not all nesting adults and chicks have been ringed yet, but we hope that as time goes by to be able to continue this programme.

28 November 2003 Three new nest sites have been established bring the total of nest sites to 31. A site was lost when the Casuarina tree in front of the restaurant fell in April, but in the last couple of weeks a tropicbird has re-established a new site in the upturned root. Two chicks were ringed on 12 November and three adults on 22 November. There are now 32 ringed adults and 10 chicks. John and Viv Phillips, who were wardens on Cousin in the early '80's helped and John was able to give us some valuable information about the bird's various habits as he carried out several studies on them.

10 January 2004 The tropic bird chick in the roots in front of the restaurant is now well on the way to fledging, as is the chick in one of the new nest sites near chalet 26. In December we were knocking down a very old water tower and discovered a chick which was almost ready to fledge. We moved it to an old concrete box (used originally as an electric cable housing) we kept our fingers crossed that the parents would find it as it was so big and had a very loud call. They did find it and it fledged successfully a week later.

Migrants/Vagrants:

The wind changed from SE to NW mid-October and we have had a couple of days with quite strong westerly winds blowing. We are always on the look out for vagrants after westerly winds

21 November 2003 Recorded so far this season: Black-Winged stilt (juvenile), Red-Backed Shrike, Golden Oriole, Purple Heron (juvenile), Oriental Pratincole, 20-30 Swallows, 2 House Martins, 4 Blue-Cheeked Bee-eaters, Corncrake, 2 Yellow Wagtails, Tree Pipit. 3 Ringed Plovers These are in addition to the usual migrants such as Turnstones and Curlew Sandpipers which have a presence throughout the year with an increase in numbers between October and April.

28 November 2003 A very exciting Vagrant appeared on the island on 22 November. A Bimaculated Lark was seen by John and Viv Phillips. They returned to the island with Adrian Skerrett from the Seychelles Birds Records Committee and it will most likely be confirmed as not only a first for Seychelles but a first record for the Southern Hemisphere.

04 December 2003 Here is a copy of the article that Adrian Skerrett wrote for the Seychelles Nation newspaper. Adrian Skerrett has co-authored a field guide to the birds of Seychelles, and is also on the Seychelles Birds Records Committee.

John and Viv Phillips were Wardens on Cousin Island 20 years ago.  Like many who come here, they fell in love with Seychelles and have returned several times.  They recently visited Bird Island and knowing how keen they are on birds, I just knew they would find something special.  But little did I know just how special.

 “Here is my list from Bird,” John said to me, and I glanced at the impressively long column of bird names.  Barn Swallow, Amur Falcon, White Wagtail; all species that have been found a number of times in Seychelles.  One name stood out.

Now if you have never heard of Bimaculated Lark don’t worry; not many people have.  However, when I saw this name on the list I got very excited because this is something that has never been recorded in the entire Southern hemisphere, never mind just Seychelles.  This was really very special.

When Ian Bullock and I wrote the field guide to the birds of Seychelles we tried to predict what species might occur in the country at a future date and mentioned these in the text.  Predictions are dangerous things.  One species of lark had been seen here, Short-toed Lark.  No other species has ever crossed the Equator in Africa.  Not unreasonably, we thought that if none could cross the Sahara desert, then none could cross the Indian Ocean, so we wrote “No other lark is likely to be recorded in Seychelles”.  Now we have to eat our words!

Bird Island is the best place to see rare birds like Bimaculated Lark and this is the best time of year.  So, I decided I could afford to take a day off and flew to the island in the hope the lark was still there.  I was lucky.  At the Sooty Tern colony, all the Sooties have gone, but the Bimaculated Lark has made this its territory.  It was in fine condition after its unexpectedly long journey, and seemed to be finding plenty of food.  It has crossed the Indian Ocean once, and one day when its instincts tell it that it is time to return to its breeding grounds in Asia, there is no reason why it cannot do so again.

There will be a Second Edition of Birds of Seychelles one day.  It will include an entry for the rare Bimaculated Lark, and the text for Short-toed Lark will be changed.  In fact, while I’m at it, I had better make sure that there are no other predictions about what will “never happen”.  In Seychelles and on Bird Island in particular, you simply never, never know!

04 December 2003 - Other vagrants:  up to 10 Amur Falcons at once, (Originally known as Eurasian Red-footed Falcon) European Nightjar, 2 White Wagtails, Quails, European turtle Dove, Common Cuckoo,  two Northern Wheatears, up to 20 Barn Swallows (grand total probably more), Tree Pipits maximum at any one time 5 or 6 - total possibly up to 10.

10 January 2004 - No new sightings  3 or 4 Amur Falcons are still present, the Black-winged Stilt is rapidly gaining its adult plumage and is regularly seen on the airstrip with 6 Greenshanks.

11 December 2003 New report received from Chris Feare on 11 December 2003 which details the complied results of his visit in June 2003. 

Sooty Tern arrival on Bird Island appeared normal in 2003 and did not suggest early laying, as had happened in 2000 and 2001. I therefore planned my visit to Bird Island for the second half of June, the aim being to search for ringed birds as they incubated in the huge colony. This is to collect data on the return of the ringed birds in order to monitor annual survival and to identify inter-island movements. Once again, my younger son Simon came to help but this year my elder son, Adam (who had spent part of his babyhood on Bird Island in 1972) and his girlfriend Nicky also helped. In addition, Georges and Margaret Norah had kindly arranged for Eva Schumacher and Christoph Küfler to assist, along with Elsa Richard, the island staff member who has taken over the conservation role on the island. So our team of seven set about the hunt for ringed birds!

In most years we have caught 150-250 ringed birds, which represents (according to Paul Doherty, the statistician who analyses the data) about 8-14% of the ringed birds in the colony. This is sufficient to gain a basic estimate of annual adult survival. But Paul maintains that for more sophisticated analyses, such as an estimate of adult survival each year, and to estimate survival of young birds between fledging and their return to breed 6 or more years later, we need to catch about 30% of ringed birds each year. I have maintained that this is not possible, but in the event, in 2003 we caught 334 ringed birds, probably closer to 20% of those available to be caught. This important finding illustrates that with more assistance and with more time being devoted to searching, we could make even better use of the unique resource that Bird Island’s ringed Sooty Terns represent.

Before my departure I counted the number of eggs in 30 marked plots within the colony. For the second year running, Nature Seychelles, this year represented by Ian Valmont and Catherina Onezia, counted chicks in these plots at the end of August, just before fledging. This gave an estimate of fledging success in 2003 of 71 %. This is high (Georges and Margaret felt that this was one of the best years they had experienced) and was achieved despite heavy rain during the fledging period.

Two papers will appear shortly, one on sound production in a Sooty tern colony, to appear in Waterbirds, and a first estimate of annual survival in this species, in Ibis.

As usual, thanks go to all who have made this study possible and we look forward to more progress in the years to come.           Chris Feare