Independent Indian Ocean Islands Oct 2017 (1 Viewer)

Hi all,

After finishing up in the Comoros, Josh and I headed to Reunion where we met up with Melissa (she had gone home for a few weeks). Over the next two weeks, we visited the islands of Reunion, Seychelles, Mauritius, and Rodriguez.

Our first stop was Reunion, where we spent a single morning in the mountains at La Roche Ecrite where we easily picked up the few remaining endemics and then spent two days on the ocean looking for Mascarene Petrel. Unfortunately we were unable to find the petrel, which still seems to be exceedingly rare and difficult to track down. What is a bit curious is the number of people who have twitched the petrel from land (*cough* Birdquest *cough*). The ID of Mascarene is far from straight forward and ruling out dark morph Wedge-tailed, Great-winged, and Jouanin on a distant bird is very suspect at best!

For those interested in trying to twitch Mascarene, a trip a bit later on in the season would be advisable as it seems the largest numbers/most success comes from trips out of Saint-Pierre. Unfortunately, in October, the swell is too large out of Saint-Pierre and there are zero boats operating from there. We settled on two boat trips out of Saint-Gilles. If you go later on in the season, such as Dec, you should be able to get a boat out of Saint-Gilles. We chartered a boat through Reunion Fishing Club who has also run trips in the past for the bird, so they are recommended.

Check out the blog for more details on our three days in Reunion!

https://budgetbirders.com/2018/02/08/reunion-the-indian-ocean-islands-a-reunion-on-reunion/

Best,

Ross

Seychelles

Well, after Reunion, it was off to the Seychelles, for another week or so of island birding. Luckily birding the Seychelles is pretty straight forward and we really didn't encounter too many problems tracking down the targets. It did take us a little while to finally see the Seychelles Scops Owl the first night, but a few hours of perseverance paid off. The white-eye was also a little bit tricky, but only because we didn't have a recording. Once I recorded the bird, it was extremely responsive and a few birds came in for nice close looks. All the other islands' endemics came easily and provided for a nice relaxing week of birding.

Check out the blog for more

https://budgetbirders.com/2018/02/18/the-seychelles-indian-ocean-islands-living-the-dream/

Best,

Ross

Mauritius

Hi all,

It's been a little while, but after finishing up in the Seychelles, we headed to Mauritius. In general, the island was a pretty depressing place to visit. Although it was beautiful, it was all to familiar to another place I've been to and lived in, Hawaii. Exotic flora and fauna dominated the landscape and you couldn't help but wonder what the island once looked like. Although a large number of the native land birds have gone extinct, Mauritius is also home to some of the greatest conservation success stories. The Mauritius Kestrel, Pink Pigeon, Rodrigues Fody, and Rodrigues Warbler were all down to single or double digits and have since rebounded to sustainable levels due to heroic conservation efforts. It was great to see these rare birds that have been brought back from the brink, but the thought of what was missing was always in mind.

Check out more about our time on Mauritius and Rodrigues on the blog

https://budgetbirders.com/2018/03/10/mauritius-indian-ocean-islands-wait-are-we-back-in-hawaii-and-wanted-by-the-officials/

Ross