Migratory Birds.

Work has kept me away from the island of late and likely will for awhile yet. I do however have various notes from December still to recount. It is now of course the peak of winter in the northern hemisphere and the island continues to play host to various migrants and vagrants.

On the 26th November whilst doing a turtle check I observed a very large flock of whimbrels (Numenius phaeopus) on the reef flats off the north east coast of the island. I had never seen such a large aggregation so attempted to count them. There are of course difficulties in counting a large number of birds as they tend not to stand still whilst you’re counting! I did 3 counts stopping each time when I could no longer keep track of the birds following their movement and my minimum total was 105 while I estimate there were approximately 115 birds in the flock!

Anne-Marie made some very interesting and new records for Denis over December, underlining the importance of an experienced eye:

• 5th December: 1 Curlew (Numenius arquata) amongst the whimbrels at Belle Etoile.
• 6th December: 2 white wagtails (Motacilla alba) at the pig farm.
• 9th December: 2 Lesser sand plovers (Charadrius mongolus) at Belle Etoile.
• 10th December: 2 Red-throated pipits (Anthus cervinus), one of which was a male in full colour, at the west end of the runway.
  
  On the 9th of December Anne-Marie and I spotted and were able to photograph a Yellow wagtail (Motacilla flava) at the pig farm (see sidebar).
  
  Finally in early January, island resident RMM spotted and photo’d a small tern on and around the coast of the island. it was either a Little or Saunders tern but these are hard to differentiate so he sought assistance from Adrian Skerrett of the Seychelles Bird Record Committee (SBRC) – see link in side bar.
  
  Adrian replied that it was almost certainly a Saunders’ tern (Sternula saundersi)
  
  “...Birds in non-breeding plumage are extremely difficult to tell apart just from photos, but we know from the first birds arriving in Seychelles in September and the last ones leaving in April in breeding plumage that they are almost always Saunders’. In fact we have only once confirmed Little Tern. Features pointing to Saunders in the photos were:
  1. The primaries of Saunders Tern have black shafts and Little Tern white. No white was discernible in the pictures, but it could possibly be hidden. If ever you find a dead bird, check this feature.
  2. The extent of the black in the primaries is greater in Saunders’. The photos appeared to show extensive black but this is difficult to judge without a comparison.
  3. Saunders’ Tern is uniform above whereas Little Tern has a contrasting white rump. This feature is obvious in breeding birds but less so in non-breeding. However the photos certainly appeared to show very uniform upperparts pointing to Saunders’.
  
  Basically I would say it’s 99% certain to be Saunders’.”