Two weeks after the last update and quite a few things have happened over here. The Seychelles warblers on Cousin are doing well and the first pairs started nest building this week. There are still quite a few unrung fledglings flying around, but almost every day we manage to catch one, so soon all will be ringed!
Last week I presented a talk at an island conservation workshop on Mahé, which went well. Two days on Mahé also provided the opportunity to have another look for the Seychelles scops owl, a species I missed last winter, but this time the search was successful. Dave and Jen (also doing research on Cousin) picked up Lotte and me and we drove to the same spot where I have been searching last winter. After we played the call of the owl, the owl started to call back and we even managed to get nice views of the bird. At a certain point, there were two birds calling. Now I’ve seen most Seychelles endemics, except the Seychelles white-eye. In the evening we had and extremely nice pizza, which was a welcome change after a few weeks of rice, rice, noodles, pasta, and rice.
Last weekend we went scuba diving with Eric, the Cousin Island conservation manager. He taught us some basics of scuba diving, and we went diving! During the first dive, the visibility was very bad, but during the second dive the following day the visibility was much better and we saw beautiful fish.
At some point a barn owl arrived on Cousin, which was feasting on fairy terns. Once it was found, it was shot, fried, and we ate it! After the Herald and Jouanin’s petrel we did not see any more spectacular birds, but we’ll try to find one soon!
Last week I presented a talk at an island conservation workshop on Mahé, which went well. Two days on Mahé also provided the opportunity to have another look for the Seychelles scops owl, a species I missed last winter, but this time the search was successful. Dave and Jen (also doing research on Cousin) picked up Lotte and me and we drove to the same spot where I have been searching last winter. After we played the call of the owl, the owl started to call back and we even managed to get nice views of the bird. At a certain point, there were two birds calling. Now I’ve seen most Seychelles endemics, except the Seychelles white-eye. In the evening we had and extremely nice pizza, which was a welcome change after a few weeks of rice, rice, noodles, pasta, and rice.
Last weekend we went scuba diving with Eric, the Cousin Island conservation manager. He taught us some basics of scuba diving, and we went diving! During the first dive, the visibility was very bad, but during the second dive the following day the visibility was much better and we saw beautiful fish.
At some point a barn owl arrived on Cousin, which was feasting on fairy terns. Once it was found, it was shot, fried, and we ate it! After the Herald and Jouanin’s petrel we did not see any more spectacular birds, but we’ll try to find one soon!
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