For our first full day, we decided to spend the morning birding the lowland grasslands at the north end of the island near the town of Fernão Dias. Here there were a few targets we wanted to get out of the way so we could concentrate on more specialist species when we returned to the island in a few days.
The grasses had been recently burned, but we
found several of the islands introduced finch species with Golden-backed Bishop
and Black-winged Red Bishop. However, they were not in breeding plumage so
identifying them was a nightmare and we could not draw accurate conclusions for
most of the birds we saw. The main target of the morning was Harlequin Quail,
but after not hearing any we started to worry a bit. Fortunately, we
accidentally flushed an individual from an area of burnt scrub adjacent to the
road, which we managed to tape back for phenomenal views.
Also during the morning we birded along the
beach. Here we found the endemic subspecies of Malachite Kingfisher, although
it did not pose well. We wanted to find some migrant waders, and on that front
we absolutely succeeded. First we found a few Whimbrel and Common Sandpipers,
both expected but nice. Then we had a flock of eight Greenshanks and 10
Sanderling roosting together, both rare for the island. But not as rare as the
two Curlew Sandpipers and two Little Stints we found on a dirty pond next to a
village! Our wader mission was a phenomenal success!
It was now late morning and warm. After an
ice cream we did a bit more birding near the airport, where we added the introduced
White-shouldered Widowbird to our trip list, before returning the car and taking
a short flight to the other island of Principe. Once there we were collected by
our hotel before having lunch. From the hotel restaurant we had our first
Principe endemic with the Principe Weaver, whilst we also enjoyed African Green
Pigeon and African Grey Parrot feeding on a fruiting tree.
At 15:30 we met with out guide for two days,
Ayers, and we set off to try track down the Principe Scops Owl! We had no idea
what was to come! We started with some nice birding adding Principe Sunbird,
Principe Starling, Principe Spierops and the very attractive Dorhns
Thrush-Babbler, a type of Sylvia warbler. However, we kept walking deeper and
deeper into the forest, and we soon realized that this was what was going to be
necessary to find the owl.
After almost five kilometres we finally stopped. By now it was 18:00, but already dark. No sooner had we started the tape than the owl stopped by, extremely close. Sadly it was very cautious of the light, so it took some time for us to get prolonged views of the bird. A pair was around us the whole time, and eventually we got amazing photos to go with our views. We then returned back five kilometres to the car, where we finally arrived at 20:00, absolutely exhausted. We had a bite to eat then crashed into bed, very satisfied with another fabulous day!
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