Nature Notes 3

A belated summary of various observations following my visit to the island 16-18th April:

Blue-cheeked bee eaters (Merops persicus): I was very interested to find bee-eaters still present on the island we have had some birds stay on the island since the mass “invasion” in November when some 500 turned up for a period of days. Numbers rapidly declined after that, but there have always been some on the island since then. Interestingly during this last visit numbers definitely appeared up compared to March with several birds at a time to be seen hawking over the runway and from bushes along the east coast. A few days later I received an e-mail from Adrian Skerrett of the Seychelles Bird Records Committee (SBRC) asking whether Denis had received a new influx of bee-eaters as other islands had reported new sightings. It appears that birds heading north again to summer breeding grounds have passed back through the Seychelles archipelago. The mass influx of November and this return has apparently been seen throughout the archipelago and Adrian is working on a paper that summarises this migration pattern over the last 6 months. It is difficult on an island the size of Denis to estimate the number of bee-eaters that are present at any one time but I would have guessed there were approximately 20-25 on the island during mid-April representing an increase of 10-15 from March.

Whimbrels (Numenius phaeopus): A very distinct decline in Whimbrel numbers was evident. In November I counted a single flock of some 115 birds just on the reef flats off the North east coast and they have been abundant throughout the northern winter. A few birds stay all year on the island – presumably sub-adults – but it is clear that the bulk have started to return north again with only a few to be seen in small groups around the island in April.

Greater crested terns (Thalasseus bergii): a common sight in the morning at Pte Mme Guichard and later in the day on the sandstone outcrops just of the islands southern point – there currently appear to be nine birds on the island.

Grey Heron (Ardea cinera): The grey heron I first recorded in February is still resident spending quite a bit of its time now on the northern beach of the island hidden in amongst the fallen trees that project out across the beach and into the sea there.

Green turtle (Chelonia mydas). During my usual rounds I encountered my first green turtle track of the year – Green turtles can nest all year round but they show a distinct peak in nesting activity in the May-July period.

The island’s cattle have been kept north in the farm area at the estate for several months – being fed primarily on coconut shoots. This has allowed the vegetation at Belle Etoile to recover significantly in particular the Indian Mulberry trees (Morinda citrifolia), which the cattle particularly like to browse, have re-sprouted dramatically giving the pasture a more of a shrubland look. I also noted a lot of cotton plants in seed. Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) was grown on Denis in the 1830s – 1850s and was a major cash crop for Seychelles at the time. Despite it being over 150 years since its cultivation it can still be seen in scrubland areas on the island. It has also been quite a weed in our sooty tern project area where removal of the coconut trees last year created the space and disturbed ground it needs to prosper.