28 February 2006
Welcome to the news page of our website.
This page is all about what's happening
on the island and how the various conservation projects are progressing.
If you would like us
to advise you when we have an update of the news page or a new web page
please email us at:
thelodge@birdislandseychelles.com
Special Discounts available
for return guests and also for first time visitors for reservations made via the
website.
Visit our
prices page or
contact us directly.
We
have just released our rates to the end of November 2007 and once again
we have maintained our rates for the 6th consecutive year.
CHIKUNGUNYA
Most of you will have
read that there is a virus transmitted by mosquitoes called CHIKUNGUNYA.
It is similar to the virus Dengue Fever also transmitted by mosquitoes.
Unfortunately Seychelles got very bad press as a result of this outbreak
on other Indian Ocean islands such as Reunion, Mauritius and Madagascar.
By comparison Seychelles has got off very lightly, the government have
taken the outbreak seriously and are making the public aware that the
virus is mosquito borne and asking them to ensure that all possible
areas where breeding may take place are cleaned up.
On Bird Island we have
taken precautions and consequently we have had no problems with this. We
did have two members of staff who brought it back to Bird after a visit
to Mahé. We realised that we risked an outbreak and so we sprayed the
habitation areas of the island consequently we have not seen a mosquito
for over 6 weeks now. It is also helped by the fact that the island is
very dry with no rain now for at least 5 weeks so there is nowhere for
the mosquitoes to breed.
Bird Island website in French now
complete and up and running!
The French version of the website has now
been uploaded and is fully functional. To access the different pages
just click on the French flag at the top of any page and you are
immediately linked to the French version of the page. Once in the French
version you just navigate through the French links.
Please note that we are 99% certain that the
links are all correct, if at anytime you find you have accidentally
arrived at the English version again, please let us know where you
encountered the problem so that we can correct it.
Bird Island brochure now available in
Italian
The Italian version of the brochure is now
available for download via either the French or English brochure request
pages.
birdisland_brochure.html
or
birdisland_brochure_french.html.
It is also possible to download a
brochure in
German
birdisland_brochure_german.html
Please
contact us
directly if you would like an original copy
of the brochure
Seychelles Sunbirds (Nectarina
dussumieri) have arrived on Bird Island!
 In
our May 2005 news we said that we were planning to introduce some
Seychelles Sunbirds to the island as it is believed that they will
thrive here. It was planned to introduce them in February 2006 at the
end of the breeding season.
The first
6 Seychelles Sunbirds were caught on Mahé on Sunday 19th February. We
have to thank Rachel Bristol of Nature Seychelles for catching, ringing
and weighing and delivering them to the airport.
We
only relocated 6 to see how they would travel. This is because they have to be caught
early morning and kept in an individual box in the shade and then
transferred to the airport and flown to Bird making a total of around 6
- 7 hours in captivity.
This could have caused a lot of stress to a tiny
bird which doesn't weigh more than 10 grammes. We were very happy when
they all survived the period of captivity and flight. They flew
happily out of their boxes and immediately started feeding on the nectar
of the flowers in the Geiger Tree (cordia sebestena).
They were released near chalets 12 and 14.
Island Nature Trail
 Two
or three years ago it was suggested by Chris Feare - our Sooty Tern
expert and also by Virginie Cazes-Duvat co-author of the French book
'L'île de Bird aux Seychelles - un exemple de developpement durable?'
that we create a 'Nature Trail' around the island.
Finally with help and input from them both we have established 12 points
of interest. We also have
to thank John Phillips who vetted the English translation from the
French and made relevant suggestions to us.
The map on the left shows where the main points of
interest are. At each point there is a board with information
on it, in both English and French
about that
particular part of the island. The trail doesn't have to be followed in
any particular order and guests can just happen to come across them as
they are wandering around the island! The map on the right is on the
wall at reception.
Turtles
We are now coming to the
end of the Hawksbill nesting season with only the occasional one coming
up to lay now. Green turtles are now coming ashore more frequently and
Robbie was fortunate enough to be able to tag two of them. It is very
rare that we are able to tag a green turtle because they normally come
ashore at night to lay. Robbie now makes late night patrols around the
period that we are expecting a green to come ashore to lay and hopes
that he may come across one, and he was lucky twice in February. The
green turtle on the left was tagged in 2003 during daylight hours, she
came ashore to lay just as dawn was breaking and didn't finish nesting
until about 07.30. The left flipper tag can just be seen in the
photograph.
This season we are making every effort not
to interfere with hatchlings, and as much as possible allow them to
emerge naturally - usually after dark. It is now believed, that whilst
we were helping the young turtles to get to the sea around sunset time
and ensuring that there was no predation by crabs on the beach, many
would be eaten by fish, still active at that time.
After dark, most of the fish are sleeping,
and although a few baby turtles may be taken by crabs on the beach many
more would escape predation as they enter the water, where they are most
vulnerable.
Turtle Statistics
for the season
16 July 2005 to 15 July 2006
The
first Green Turtle of the
season laid on 20th July 2005.
The first Hawksbill laid on 27th September 2005
New turtles tagged :
21
Green
Turtles: Total number of emergences:
32
Total
number of nests: 17
Hawksbill Turtles:
Total number of emergences:
267
Total number of nests:
181
31 December 2005: Nests in total: 198
Total Number of emergences (including
those which did not result in a nest):
299
Estimated hatching dates: (Based
on an average 58 days incubation)
March: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16,
17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26 27, 28, 29 30, 31
April: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05,
06, 07, 08, 14, 15, 15, 16, 18, 19,
Nests Relocated:
26 (in
danger of being eroded away by the sea.)
Nests lost as a result of
erosion: 0
 Back
to Turtle Project
Birds
Tropic Birds:
The current number of established nesting sites is
82. These nesting sites are scattered all over the island, with the main
concentration around the chalets. To date we have ringed 123 adults and
77 chicks.
This project was begun in July 2002 and we are able
to see which pairs use which nesting sites and when, they do not tend to
move sites as a rule. As yet none of the chicks ringed since 2002 have
nested yet.
Currently there are 6 Tropic Birds incubating eggs and
4 chicks of varying ages
Back
to Tropic Bird project
Common
Noddy Terns
The
Common Noddies are all now at different stages, a few are still nest
building, the majority are incubating eggs but already chicks have
started to hatch in the last couple of weeks. There are quite a few tree
nesting young noddy chicks at different stages which have fallen from
their nest. Most have been followed to the ground by their parents who
are continuing to feed them.
Migrants/Vagrants:
Nothing particularly exciting in the way of migrants, the Icterine
Warbler spotted by John and Viv Phillips in November is still around.
Migrant Count - Since last News Update:
This is Robbie's weekly count with the maximum number of birds seen on
any day since the last update on 31st January is below:
It is interesting to note that we do not seem to have
any moorhens around, we have had a maximum of 10 since the first pair first
arrived in August 2004 and started breeding. It has been very dry and we do not have very
much open water for them. It is possible that they are deep in the
vegetation and will emerge once we get some rain.
February
220 Frigatebirds,
43 Grey Plovers, 12 Lesser Sandplovers, 32 Greater
Sandplovers, 0 Crab Plovers, 42 Whimbrels, 230 Turnstones, 10 Sanderlings, 30 Curlew Sandpipers,
1 Golden Plover, 5 Ringed Plover, 0 Bar-tailed Godwit, 6
Greenshanks, 18 Crested Terns, 238 Bridled Terns, 70 Saunders Little
Terns, 1 Common Sandpiper,
1
Oriental Pratincole, 2 Common Pratincoles, 0 Red-footed
Booby, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Eurasian Curlew, 0 Moorhens, 1 Brown Booby,
1 Yellow Wagtail, 1
White Wagtail, 1 European Cuckoo, 1 Icterine Warbler
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