Today was a bit of a day of transfers, rather than any serious birding. We awoke at 06:00 at our hotel in Principe and headed down to the estuary for one final look for any rare wading birds. We saw the two Curlew Sandpipers there but little else. Over breakfast we birded from the hotel balcony, spotting another Velvet-backed Drongo but not much else, and at 07:50 we loaded up the car and headed for the airport. Although we were a little early, we had planned it to allow some time to bird the grasses of the airport where rarities often occur. However we found nothing. At 10:30 we boarded our plane and left Principe behind, returning to the larger island of Sao Tome.
We landed back at Sao Tome at 11:15 and
organized ourselves ready for the days we would spend at the south of the
island; fuel, cash and food supplies. Once done, we began our journey south.
Although not a long drive, we wanted to check out some wetland spots to try and
find rarities to boost our trip lists. The first we checked was in the city
itself, and produced two Little Herons.
As we headed south, the wetlands became nonexistent and we had to resort to birding on river crossings. This worked Ok and
we added Common Moorhen and many Reed Cormorants to our island list. We also
checked a location where Yellow-billed Stork had been seen recently, on the
coast. Although the stork was not there anymore, we did get Common Tern and our
first Noddys of the trip, although unclear which species.
Sadly, it was already mid-afternoon by now, the rain came in and it did not let up. So we headed to our hotel to prepare for the coming days, when we would ascend Mount Carmo in search of the remaining endemic species we had missed. The serious birding begins again tomorrow!
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