Today was a very important day, as for the first time we were trying for a species that, should we fail to find, we would be leaving on the island. There would be no second chances. To see the Principe Thrush, we needed to set off by boat from the main town, go anticlockwise halfway around the island, a distance of nearly 30 kilometres, and then explore the forest there. Once again we had our guide, Ayres, with us, to help show us the locations to best check for the target species.
It was quite the journey. The boat was small and the sea on the western side of the island was choppy. We got very wet thanks to ample spray coming off the waves, and there were a couple of occasions where the boat took on water, but it was never dangerous and after two hours we reached the beach from where we would access the forest.
And fortunately it did not take long for us to complete our birding here. Despite the constant drizzle, we quickly found two Principe White-eyes in a tree on the beach, before two more just after our hike started. The first location we checked for the thrush came up blank, but not long after starting our ascent to our next spot we spotted one in the vegetation, and had fabulous views of the bird before it took off. Since we were wet and had no more birds we needed to find here, we set off back!
In addition to our two main targets, there were a few other bits we saw here. The Principe race of both Blue-banded Kingfisher and Malachite Kingfisher were nice to see, and we also enjoyed a few Brown Boobies and another wader with a Turnstone that flew past. Deep in the forest we saw our first Mona Monkeys, which are not native here, but they did not linger for us. Once we returned to the town, there was a Curlew Sandpiper and a Greenshank on the mud there to greet us.
After lunch, we searched the north end of the island, on the road to the Bombon resort. This forest was more disturbed but was still pleasant birding. We saw the Principe race of Velvet-mantled Drongo and I had a new species with Splendid Starling, which we finally managed to separate from the endemic Principe Starling. Otherwise it was a similar selection of birds with the addition of more Mona Monkeys. Once we got back to the hotel at the end of the afternoon there was another new wader for us in front of the town in the form of a Grey Plover.
It was an exhausting day, but extremely rewarding and with all the endemics wrapped up for Principe, we can spend the following day doing more relaxed birding around the town, to see what we can find. This was also our last day with Ayres, leaving us to explore along tomorrow.
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