Masked Boobys on Cape Verde (1 Viewer)

I've been sent a link to a report from a trip to Boa Vista in January 2012:
http://birdblog.merseyblogs.co.uk/archives/2012/01/cape-verdes-tro.html

This mentions several Masked Boobys on Ilheu de Curral Velho (and shows a photo of them). This seems to be a vagrant to Cape Verde and is a hard bird to connect with in Western Pal terms, so there would be a fair bit of interest should this prove a regular site. I'm heading there in 10 days time and staying close to the islet, so am keen to check it out. Does anyone have any further up to date information? Brown Booby nests in good numbers on this islet; maybe the Masked Boobys will stay and try to nest in the colony?

On a related matter, has anyone done much seawatching from the southern coast of Boa Vista? I'm staying at the hotel Riu Touareg close to Curral Velho, so it should be well positioned for a bit of decent land based seawatching. Plenty of likely species offshore (Cape Verde Shear, Boyd's Shear, Fea's, White-faced and Madeiran Petrels, Red-billed Tropicbird, Magnificent Frigatebird etc) - just not sure on frequency from land as few people seem to have done much seawatching.

Mark

That trip had some remarkable records:

• Masked Booby (several in 'a mixed Gannet colony' - presumably not including Northern Gannets!): 2nd Cape Verde non-fossil record (an adult was regularly present at Ilhéu de Curral Velho during 2003-2005).
  
  
• Black Duck: 1st Cape Verde record.
  
  
• Pectoral Sandpiper: 1st Boavista record (previous records on Santiago in 2001 & 2003).
  
  
• Cape Verde Peregrine: very few records from Boavista.

...with the latter three all at the hotel cesspit at the same time!

Mark Newsome said:

I've been sent a link to a report from a trip to Boa Vista in January 2012:
http://birdblog.merseyblogs.co.uk/archives/2012/01/cape-verdes-tro.html

This mentions several Masked Boobys on Ilheu de Curral Velho (and shows a photo of them). This seems to be a vagrant to Cape Verde and is a hard bird to connect with in Western Pal terms, so there would be a fair bit of interest should this prove a regular site. I'm heading there in 10 days time and staying close to the islet, so am keen to check it out. Does anyone have any further up to date information? Brown Booby nests in good numbers on this islet; maybe the Masked Boobys will stay and try to nest in the colony?

On a related matter, has anyone done much seawatching from the southern coast of Boa Vista? I'm staying at the hotel Riu Touareg close to Curral Velho, so it should be well positioned for a bit of decent land based seawatching. Plenty of likely species offshore (Cape Verde Shear, Boyd's Shear, Fea's, White-faced and Madeiran Petrels, Red-billed Tropicbird, Magnificent Frigatebird etc) - just not sure on frequency from land as few people seem to have done much seawatching.

Mark

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Hi Mark

I visited Curral Velho last March. I was a bit disappointed as the strong wind over the whole two weeks prevented me from getting on to the island itself. A local Spanish birder (Pedro) organises private visits there but it depends on the local fisherman who don't want to risk the tricky landing. To see the White-faced Petrel, you have to camp out for the night on the island and see them by torchlight as they don't come in until dark. It's a performance but the trickiest issue is negotiating this with your Mrs as you were supposed to be going on holiday with her, not leaving her by herself in a nice hotel. I got the nod but the weather let me down.

Anyway, the area is a bit restricted for species numbers but the quality though is stunning. Shearwaters were always distant and only scoped. As mentioned, I missed White-faced and Madeiran, but did connect with two of the three remaining Tropicbirds, several Red-billed Tropicbird breed on the island, plus many Brown Booby. Masked Booby was not on the radar and that's a new one on me. I didn't even know they were there.

The surrounding area is well worth searching round early morning or later afternoon. I saw a lot of CC Courser, Black-capped Finch Lark, Bar-tailed Desert Lark, Desert Lark, Hoopoe Lark, Osprey, Brown necked Raven, Egyptian Vulture (pair only). About ten km back towards the airport, there were a lot of natural pools and I saw a lot of waders there, eg Wood Sands, Kentish P, Sanderling, Turnstone, Common Sand, Little Stints, Dunlin, Curlew Sand, Greenshank Grey Plover.

Spectacled Warbler is numerous as is the local Iago Sparrow. The local Kestrel I think is Alessandro's and the single Peregrine I saw is supposed to be a local speciality.

Otherwise mate I think you will enjoy it immensely.

trurobirder said:

I visited Curral Velho last March. I was a bit disappointed as the strong wind over the whole two weeks prevented me from getting on to the island itself. A local Spanish birder (Pedro) organises private visits there but it depends on the local fisherman who don't want to risk the tricky landing. To see the White-faced Petrel, you have to camp out for the night on the island and see them by torchlight as they don't come in until dark.

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Surely that's Ilhéu dos Pássaros (in the northeast) rather than Curral Velho (south)?

Richard Klim said:

Surely that's Ilhéu dos Pássaros (in the northeast) rather than Curral Velho (south)?

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that was my impression.

I stayed at the Riu Touareg last August and had a great time with Hoopoe Lark, Bar-tailed Lark, Black-crowned Sparrow-lark, Iago Sparrow, Brown-necked Raven, Alexander's Kestral & Brown Booby in the hotel grounds. Wandering up to Curral Velho I managed Cream-coloured Courser, loads of waders in a pool, Magnificent Frigatebird, Spectacled Warbler, Spanish Sparrow & Cape Verde Shearwater. Lots of tubenoses passed after a storm but they were largely passing too distantly for ID (I thought I had Sooty Shear). These would have passed closer to Ilheu de Curral Velho and I would have watched from there had my child not been poorly.

On the Ilheu itself there were only Brown Boobies although the Mag Frigs are still present. In the dunes behind is a Turtle protection camp set up to prevent poaching. These guys are present for 3 months at a time and a chap I was speaking to had been there for a couple of months and got his first frigatebird sighting with me so they arent easy. Apparently there is a lot of disturbance and poaching on the Ilheu which is largely the reason for the decline of the frigatebirds. Locals brave the sharks (visible with turtles from the rocky promentary as you leave the beach) and swim the 400m or so out to the island and kill the birds for food.

The pool halfway along the beach to the Turtle Camp held 2 pairs of breeding stilts and 4 pairs of Kentish plovers plus passage Whimbrel, Sanderling, Wood Sandpiper, Turnstone, Ringed Plover & Knot. We had an unusually heavy storm when we were there (first rain for 2 years, worst rain for 7) and this pool turned into a lagoon that ran discontinuously for miles behind the beach thus dispersing the waders.

Good luck!

Many thanks for the replies and tips. I'll hopefully have an update on the Masked Boobies soon.

Mark

The Masked Boobies are still present at Curral Velho. I saw one on 26 July, and this bird was still present on the same ledge on 29th, with a second bird sat higher towards the plateau of the island. There could quite possibly be others present, as you can't see all birds on top of the island from the mainland. Crap digiscoped photo attached.

I only saw one Magnificent Frigatebird last week - a male which roamed between Lacacao Beach/Santa Monica and Curral Velho. But it didn't appear to be lingering in any one spot.

Mark