Boavista, Cape Verde (1 Viewer)

[Steve Keen]

Off to Boavista next week for a week. Not really a birding trip as such but I'll get as much done as domestic happiness will allow (Based at Riu Touareg so in range of some of the better sites), and probably pick up c5 lifers in the process.

Despite much searching I can't find anything that gives an idea of what is and isn't regular there. Anyone have any ideas?

Also, is there someone I should be sending records to?

I will put stuff on ebird and Twitter (so a handle for someone suitable would probably suffice)

Cheers

Steve

 

[Hotspur]

Off to Boavista next week for a week. Not really a birding trip as such but I'll get as much done as domestic happiness will allow (Based at Riu Touareg so in range of some of the better sites), and probably pick up c5 lifers in the process.

Despite much searching I can't find anything that gives an idea of what is and isn't regular there. Anyone have any ideas?

Also, is there someone I should be sending records to?

I will put stuff on ebird and Twitter (so a handle for someone suitable would probably suffice)

Cheers

Steve

Hi Steve,

I stayed there in 2011. Bar tailed Lark, BC Sparrow-lark and Hoopoe Lark were present in the grounds along with Iago Sparrow, BN Raven and Alexander's Kestrel. I had Spectacled Warbler in bushes nearby and Osprey daily. Brown Boobies were regular offshore and I had Cape Verde shearwater on a blowy day. There is a pool c800m east of the hotel which gets a variety of waders Inc several vagrants and the breeding islet for boobies and formerly frigatebirds another 1km further. On the plain I had courses, more larks and Spanish Sparrows. Your timing may be better for tropic birds at Sal Rei. There are some trees south of Rabil and a lagoon which gets loads of waders plus the vagrant herons. There is a Cattle Egret roost there somewhere. Feral Guineafowl are in this area too. There is a FB group for sightings within Cape Verde which records get picked up from.

 

[Steve Keen]

Cheers for that, especially the FB group (although I'll not have access to FB whilst there).

I wasn't especially clear in my post to be honest: I'm sort of clued up about the resident stuff (you mention 4 of my 5 likely lifers: sparrow, sparrow-lark, tropicbird - which I thought was also at Curral Velho, shearwater; the other is the swift), it's more a matter of knowing which migrants are expected and which aren't. Mostly I realise it's common sense (American stuff for example), just trying to avoid the inevitable return ebird message asking for proof of something which it won't occur to me at the time is rare. Not a photographer, just phone scoped shots if I really have to.

Will only be birding around the Riu Touareg (other than a whale watching trip), not going to wind Mrs K up (even if I had the funds) by getting a taxi up to Rabil just to boost the trip list.

Steve

 

[Steve Lister]

I was in a team that visited for a day in January 2019. One of us had a Semipalmated Plover on the pools near the hotel but the rest of us could not relocate it amongst the hordes of Ringed and Kentish. It just goes to show what could turn up.
I don't think there are any resident birders on Boavista - or at least none that communicate widely.

Steve

 

[Steve Keen]

Cheers

Have signed up for a couple of Facebook groups, but sightings mostly seem to be from other islands.
Looking forward to the potential for something unusual, even if only in a vaguely familiar sort of way.

Steve

 

[Hotspur]

Cheers

Have signed up for a couple of Facebook groups, but sightings mostly seem to be from other islands.
Looking forward to the potential for something unusual, even if only in a vaguely familiar sort of way.

Steve

Keep an eye on Sal in that case as it has the most in common with BV. Pretty much everything is a good record due to the low number of birders. Tonnes has been added to the Sal and CV list through the resident birder there (Uwe Thom I think).

 

[Stephen Dunstan]

Keep an eye on Sal in that case as it has the most in common with BV. Pretty much everything is a good record due to the low number of birders. Tonnes has been added to the Sal and CV list through the resident birder there (Uwe Thom I think).

I would agree with this, though pushing it a bit to say pretty much everything is a good record perhaps.

I don't know if it has ever been sorted but last I knew several of the scarce birds I had on Cape Verde (including an archipelago first) were unvalidated on ebird even though there were pictures. EDIT - no it hasn't.

Stephen

 

[dandsblair]

We stayed there in December

Only birder we found on the island was a guy from Natualia, called Strava, the hotel know his name and number we went out with him for a day. He was guy who found Bufflehead on the island the previous year.


In terms of rarities both Woodchat Shrike and Grey Shrike were on the island we saw first but missed the latter and we saw a Greater Yellowlegs at Sal Rei with him.


Around Toureg we saw both Hoopoe and Bar-tailed Larks, Boobies, CC Courser, Spoonbill and all common waders. At the off shore rocks with the breeding Brown Boobies we had just a single CV shearwater past in strong winds and just a couple of Tropicbirds over the week.

Walking towards the sewage plant was where I had CV Swift.

 

[Steve Keen]

Back now.
Missed tropicbird and swift, despite much staring in appropriate directions. Also missed courser, less of an issue and less time spent looking.
Plenty of CV shears both from land and on a whale trip. All three larks easy.

So only three lifers, but loved the birding, the fact that there always seemed to be change, despite the island's locality.

Found two separate Spotted Sandpipers, three single Red-rumped Swallows (seems to be quite a rarity there) and an apparent Cape Verde Peregrine, all around the Touareg, the general area of which was the limit of my birding.

Cheers all

Steve

 

[Stephen Dunstan]

Found two separate Spotted Sandpipers, three single Red-rumped Swallows (seems to be quite a rarity there) and an apparent Cape Verde Peregrine, all around the Touareg, the general area of which was the limit of my birding.

Two Spotted Sands is notable as you probably know, but Red-rumped Swallows are not a rarity. Did you get any pictures of the Peregrine Steve?

 

[Steve Lister]

Last year we had a few coursers not far at all from your hotel, on the rising ground just inland of the flooded area.

Rather envious of your shearwaters - we saw none at all.

Steve

 

[Steve Keen]

SD: Last available Cape Verde report (2014) suggests R-r S was rare back then (22 records in total by then I think), glad it no longer is, rarities are too much hassle!
Got very poor distant phone scope pics of the peregrine, posted two on my Twitter feed (@SwaySteveK). One shows sort of clearly that it was an adult peregrine, the other needs a bit of squinting to see the pale round the crown. Flight views were to start with excellent, eye level and only about 30 metres distant and it was a miracle it perched at all to allow pics.

SL: I didn't really go that way, focus was seawards and upwards.
On our whale watching trip we had a few shearwaters around the boat for a bit, down to maybe 20 metres at times.

Steve

 

[Stephen Dunstan]

SD: Last available Cape Verde report (2014) suggests R-r S was rare back then (22 records in total by then I think), glad it no longer is, rarities are too much hassle!
Got very poor distant phone scope pics of the peregrine, posted two on my Twitter feed (@SwaySteveK). One shows sort of clearly that it was an adult peregrine, the other needs a bit of squinting to see the pale round the crown. Flight views were to start with excellent, eye level and only about 30 metres distant and it was a miracle it perched at all to allow pics.

SL: I didn't really go that way, focus was seawards and upwards.
On our whale watching trip we had a few shearwaters around the boat for a bit, down to maybe 20 metres at times.

Steve

Hi Steve,

Don't know if Red-rumped Swallows have got more common or it's just coverage, I went to Sal twice and saw mulitple birds on both trips.

If you go on 'Birds of the Cape Verde Islands (SOC)' and put Peregrine in the search you will see by contrast that the species is increasingly rare on the islands.

Stephen

 

[Steve Keen]

Hadn't expected peregrine at all.
It's for stuff like the swallow that I was after a source in the first place.

Steve