31 March 2007
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
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New Species of Fish Discovered on Bird
Island
Last month Ms Ellen Thaler visited Bird
Island again for her annual underwater holiday! For those of you who
have not heard about Ellen, she is a very long standing client of
Bird Island who has a passion and indeed a doctorate in
 Marine
Biology. She spends every possible moment she can snorkelling on the
reef and the sea grass beds, observing the behaviour of different
fish species and looking for new species. On this occasion Ellen
brought with her photographs of a fish which she encountered on her
last visit in 2006 and following extensive research, she has managed
to identify it as a new species of Parrotfish. The fish will be
officially described by Bruce Carlsson from the Waikiki Museum in a
forthcoming paper and has been named after Marie-France, Nicholas'
mother - we are not sure if it is a compliment or not!!! The fish
will be officially called, Leptoscarus mariefranceae or Seaweed
Parrotfish to the rest of us!
Migrant Count - Since last News Update:
Robbie's
weekly count with the maximum number of birds seen on
any day in the month of March is below:
March
235 Frigatebirds, 23 Grey Plovers, 8 Lesser Sandplovers, 11 Greater
Sandplovers, 0 Crab Plovers, 42
Whimbrels, 125 Turnstones, 5 Sanderlings, 12 Curlew Sandpipers, 3 Golden Plover, 2 Ringed Plover, 1
Bar-tailed Godwit, 4 Greenshanks, 13 Crested Terns, 65 Bridled
Terns, 57
Saunders Little Terns, 0 Common Sandpiper, 0 Oriental Pratincole, 0
Common Pratincoles, 0 Red-footed Booby, 0 Eurasian
Curlew, Eurasian Golden Oriole 1, 1 Grey Heron,
1 Barn Swallow, 1 Tree Pipit
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