Today was our final day on Sao Tome, but since our flight did not leave until 21:45 at night, we essentially had a full day in which to enjoy the island for the final time. We decided at the last minute to try and arrange a cetacean watching trip with the company Agua de Coco STP, which we managed to do, departing from the town of Morro Peixe nice and early at 06:30, so to be back at the hotel before checkout so that we could clean up and pack. We were set back a little by a motor problem on the boat, but by 07:00 we were on our way.
In total the trip lasted three hours, but sadly we did not find any cetaceans. This disappointment was offset by the boat trip being remarkably productive for birding. While not incredibly lively throughout, we had another Storm Petrel fly by and a host of other goodies. However, after discussion with Ricardo de Lima, the local researcher, it seems this storm petrel is a member of an as-yet-unknown taxon closely related to Wilson's Storm Petrel. Hopefully its identification will become clearer in years to come. Terns were very much on the menu, and we both life-ticked Sooty Tern here, whilst enjoying many Bridled Terns, Common Terns and a rare Arctic Tern. But the highlight was a nice close Black Tern, which is only the second record for the country per eBird. Also a second for the country based on eBird data was a flyby Sooty Shearwater, but this is almost certainly due to lack of effort.
After three hours we found ourselves back at port, so had the best part of 90 minutes to organize ourselves in the hotel. This meant we had seven hours to kill in the afternoon, but we sorted this by finding a hotel/resort with a pool and bar, where we just relaxed after a short but intense trip. Although we missed one endemic (the Sao Tome Grosbeak), we still recorded 81 species, making us the second highest listers on eBird for the country of Sao Tome and Principe. And above all we had an enjoyable time birding the islands!
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