Mark Newsome
Born to seawatch...
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
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