Nature Watch.

Playful whales: Coming in to land on Denis, I always pay close attention to the shoal around the island. The Air Seychelles STOL Twin Otter always does a flyover to allow the pilots to check that all is in order on the runway before the plane circles and comes into land. This means the plane banks slowly over the shoal at relatively low altitude before making its final approach. When the sea is clear you can make out a great deal of detail in the waters below. I have in the past seen pods of dolphins, manta rays, hawksbill turtles and once a large shark that I took by its shape and slow progress to be a grey nurse shark. Taking off generally doesn’t give as much time to see anything with the plane’s rapid ascent and direct route to Mahe. Take off on Sunday the 31st of August, however, provided me with a new experience. The plane had just departed Denis flying eastwards and was still gaining height when my eye was drawn to a large splash on the surface about 2000m offshore of the island.
It was immediately apparent by the size of the three animals, I could see silhouetted in the water, that they were whales. As I watched the animal in the middle broke the surface again in a “porpoising” action revealing a pale underside with characteristic grooving in the skin running from mouth down the “throat” towards the belly. A few seconds later the whale repeated the action again revealing the same features and was this time also seen by the passenger seated behind me.
The features described are characteristic of humpback whales which are known to occur in the waters around the Seychelles plateau and this may have been a playful sub-adult enjoying itself amidst a family group. The three animals were soon lost behind us as we angled off to Mahe, but nevertheless was another insight into the natural wonders that can be encountered around Denis.

Fairy Tern progress: I have posted previously on close encounters with birds (see post of August 13th) and also on the island’s tern populations (see post of August 24th) noting in particular that there had been a high rate of mortality amongst fairy tern chicks. The two issues converged last week when whilst doing my normal photo survey of the beach profile adjacent to the main hotel complex I encountered a juvenile fairy tern perched amongst some twigs on the beach crest. It had clearly fallen from its proper perch and under other circumstances I would have left it undisturbed as the adults will continue to feed such birds. But its location is so heavily frequented by people that I felt it best, with the aid of a beach chair, to find a suitable prominent perch for it on the nearest Casuarina tree. I have in the past on other islands moved many such juveniles when for example a tree falls in a storm or has to be cut for safety reasons and, provided a suitable adjacent perch can be found, the parents will typically soon find their offspring and continue to care for it.
Fairy terns are said to take 50-60 days to fledge[1], though I know from my own casual observations over the years that development can be delayed significantly in times of food shortage. This juvenile had quite well developed plumage but still exhibited tufts of its fluffy chick’s plumage. Having done this I headed north along the coast and soon encountered an adult fairy tern with its relatively newly hatched chick in a Cordia tree and took the opportunity to photograph this most photogenic of scenes.
On my return this weekend I went to check on these juveniles. The rescued bird had migrated up from its perch to an adjacent branch and appeared to be in good health with nearly all evidence of its juvenile plumage now gone. Pleased with this I moved further on to check on the young chick which was sitting proud on its branch. Interestingly as I approached instinct caused it to crouch down on the branch such that it would have been largely invisible had I not already known its location. The chick had clearly grown over the preceding week and looked well.
I will check back on these birds regularly and let you know how they progress – let’s hope that they break the recent trend and both progress successfully through to fledging.
[1] Skerrett et al 2001 referring to an Aride Island report by Bullock.