30 September 2006
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Sooty Terns
 The
Sooty Tern colony is depleting gradually as the chicks fledge. It has
been a very successful season so far and we managed to record a couple
of hundred previously ringed birds with the help of Chris Feare, Perley
Constance from the Ministry of Environment and of course Robby. Chris
is, as always, very grateful for the data and will be producing his
report later in the year. Judging by the size of some of the chicks in
the colony we expect to see some of them still on the island into late
November and possibly early December.
Sunbirds
 The
most exciting news from the island this quarter is the success of our
Sunbird population. Having introduced 33 of the native Seychelles
Sunbirds to the island earlier in the year we are happy to report that
we have spotted several successful pairings. So far we have observed
five nests, one which has failed, one which has seen a successful
fledgling, two with eggs currently being incubated and one which has
only just been completed. They are all in very different locations
around the island and so Robby is starting to map them and observe the
birds territorial behaviour. This is truly great news and we thank
Rachel Bristol of Nature Seychelles for all of her encouragement and
help with this wonderful introduction to Bird Island.
Turtles
The first Hawksbill of the new
season did not come up to lay until the 26th September so it
has been a quiet couple of months on the turtle front. Lately however we
have observed several turtles swimming just off shore in front of the
lodge, some juveniles feeding on the sea grasses, and some adults,
perhaps checking out the nesting possibilities! We are looking forward
to the nesting season getting into full swing although I have already
had to warn Robby to pace himself with his patrols, otherwise he’ll be
exhausted before the end of the season is up! Only joking, there is no
stopping him!!
Turtle Statistics
for the season
16 July 2006 to 15 July 2007
New turtles tagged :
0
Green
Turtles: Total number of emergences:0
Total
number of nests: 0
Hawksbill Turtles:
Total number of emergences:
4
Total number of nests:
4
30 September 2006: Nests in total: 4
Total Number of emergences (including
those which did not result in a nest):
4
Estimated hatching dates:
(Based
on an average 58 days incubation)
December : 23,
Nests Relocated:
1 (in
danger of being eroded away by the sea.)
Nests lost as a result of
erosion: 0
 Back
to Turtle Project
Tropic Birds
 The current number of established tropic bird nesting sites is
98. These nesting sites are scattered all over the island and
Robby is working on a project to map them.
To date we have ringed
128 adults and
79 chicks. Currently there are
currently 6 Tropic Birds incubating eggs.
Back
to Tropic Bird project
Migrant Count - Since last News Update:
Robbie's
weekly count with the maximum number of birds seen on
any day in the month of September is below:
September
245
Frigatebirds, 34 Grey Plovers, 6 Lesser Sandplovers, 8 Greater
Sandplovers, 1 Crab Plovers,
  78
Whimbrels, 150 Turnstones, 8 Sanderlings,
32 Curlew Sandpipers, 0 Golden Plover, 0 Ringed Plover, 7
Bar-tailed Godwit, 6 Greenshanks, 15 Crested Terns, 60 Bridled Terns,
125
Saunders Little Terns, 2 Common Sandpiper, 0 Oriental Pratincole,
0 Common Pratincoles, 16 Red-footed Booby, 0 Eurasian
Curlew, 8 Moorhens, 0 Icterine
Warbler, 0 Eurasian Bittern, 1 Red-billed Tropic Bird, 2 Grey Heron, 1
Green Backed Heron, 1 Terek Sandpiper, 1 Blue Pigeon, 1 Brown Booby,
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