São Tomé and Príncipe; Day 2 - Fernão Dias & Pico Príncipe lower slopes

   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! 

São Tomé and Príncipe; Day 1 - Arrival & Bom Successo

   My next personal trip was another with my friend Max Baumgarten from Germany, and was a short 12 day trip to the Atlantic Ocean islands of Sao Tome and Principe, just off the west African coast in the Gulf of Guinea. Although there are no spectacular species here, there are several endemics and a short trip is all that is required to clean up on the island specialties.

  We arrived from our overnight TAPortugal flight from Lisbon at 05:20, although we then had a setback as the hire car we arranged for 06:10 we did not get until 07:10 thanks to the driver sleeping in. Once we collected the car, and dropped the driver off back in the city, we drove an hour up the mountain to the village of Bom Successo, from where we could walk into the forest to start working our way through the island endemics.

  The road was not too bad surprisingly, and we managed to start our birding at around 08:30. After we paid the small donation to be allowed access we got started. We very quickly started picking up endemic species as we walked through cultivated habitat, with Sao Tome Paradise-Flycatcher, Sao Tome Spinetail, Black-capped Spierops and Sao Tome Prinia all falling very quickly. We also picked up our first potentially tricky species, with Sao Tome White-Eye, which showed nicely.

  As we approached the forest we added Sao Tome Weaver, Sao Tome Oriole and Principe Seedeater to our ever growing list. The birding was very lively and very enjoyable. Once we entered the forest it did start to slow down somewhat, but we had what will be a strong contender for bird of the trip with a fantastic showing from Sao Tome Scops Owl in the middle of the morning.

  The first stage of the trail was absolutely brutal, with steep climbs and descents with extremely slippery mud underfoot. Both of us were felled multiple times by the conditions. Fortunately the second half was much better and we were able to complete it without too many more issues. We finally returned to the car at around 15:00 and then headed to the hotel to finally relax after our long day.