Mauritius, 17th-29th March 2022

Overseas travel has been off the cards for several years due to covid (and my own personal circumstances before that). I'd last been abroad birding in spring 2019, now a distant memory. 

Karen and I had booked several holidays only for them to fall victim of covid restrictions. Fair enough, there are much bigger things happening in the world. But finally, on our fifth attempt and with the relaxation of travel bans, it was time to head off. Naturally birds formed a part of my destination planning but, counter intuitively, I’d chosen to go somewhere known for a relative dearth of birds - Mauritius. Why here as a birder? Simple, this was our first proper holiday as a couple and I didn’t want to be overly distracted by birds. I’m not sure if that’s a considerate or selfish act, but Karen had always wanted to go so a win-win in my book. Depressingly, the island has one of the highest extinction rates in the world and has lost around half of its native birds. The remainder cling on, although gladly there are concerted effort and their fortunes are beginning to turn. There is a slightly romantic childhood attachment to Mauritius for birders of my age - as a kid I was aware through early nature programmes of the famous Mauritius Pink Pigeon and Mauritius Kestrel. The Gerald Durrell zoo featured on programmes at the time, and I seem to remember they were instrumental in saving these species. The kestrel in particular went to the brink; in 1974 there were just four individuals left, only one of which was a female. There are something like 400 birds now, an incredible victory for conservationists but still a very vulnerable species. Add-in a few more endemics and there were certainly birds worth seeing in Mauritius (as there always are), but not enough for me to be driven to distraction.

in addition to the landbird endemics, I had hopes of a few Indian Ocean seabirds, in particular tropicbirds (unfinished business for me as I'd only ever seen one as a distant spec off a boat in the 1990s). 

The journey was quote long, flying via Paris, but uneventful aside from a lack of sleep. We arrived early morning local time and were soon in a taxi to the hotel.  From a bird perspective, what was noticeable on arrival is that there are almost no native birds in the countryside, or around the hotel, or anywhere. Common Mynahs, Red-whiskered Bulbuls and Madagascer Fody's are the most abundant birds, but House Sparrows, Common Waxbills, Yellow-fronted Canaries, Zebra Doves and Feral Pigeons abound. To be fair it was a pleasure even to see some of these given the time lapsed since I’d last travelled. The whistling of bulbuls is everywhere and pleasing to the ear. The one exception was the constant presence of Mascarene Swiftlets, the first endemic of the trip and again a pleasure to watch. 

The hotel was luxurious and we wiled away time on the beach, in the sea and around the pool for a few days. We slept a lot too, clearly much needed.

I finally explored the hotel grounds and quickly found a couple of endemics were common enough - Mauritius Turtle Dove and Grey White-eye. There turned out to be a small colony of the localised endemic Mascarene Swallow, and I enjoyed watching them daily. The occasional Striated Heron, or Whimbrel flew past. Offshore the reef meant that any birds at sea were very distant, but I kept trying. each evening impressively large Mauritius Flying Foxes emerged in numbers; the only land mammal we encountered.

Mascarene Swallow

Striated Heron

Mauritius Turtle Dove (endemic)

Mauritius Flying Fox

Madagascar Fody (introduced)

Grey White-eye (endemic)

Quite unexpectedly whist we were in the pool I looked up and there were two White-tailed Tropicbirds circling high up. A target bird but not the views I’d hoped for yet.

We took a dolphin and snorkelling trip. The conditions weren’t ideal for swimming with dolphins but the views and numbers of Spinner and Bottlenose Dolphins from the boat were spectacular. A few Brown Noddies flew past - the first time I’d seen this species in 20 years. Moving closer to the shore and inside the reef, the snorkelling was excellent.

A real highlight was taking a tourist catamaran to the northern isles. On the journey out there were more Brown Noddies, along with a single Lesser Noddy, a few Masked Booby’s and more distant tropicbirds. A flying fish was impressive, as they always are. On arrival at Flat Isle, it was a pleasant surprise to realise we were in the midst of a White-tailed Tropicbird colony. There were hundreds, constantly chasing and dancing around, vocal like terns. Incredible birds to watch. The island was quite heavily vegetated and on landing it was obvious there were multiple nests deep in the bushes. Karen swan whilst I marvelled at these avian fairies. We returned to the boat and headed off to snorkel by Gunner's Quoin; another island - this one with tall with sheer cliffs. More tropicbirds soared the cliffs, this time including the very different Red-tailed Tropicbirds. As we arrived back at the mainland a Green Turtle appeared by the boat to end an excellent day.

Flat Island, home to huge numbers of tropicbirds

White-tailed Tropicbird

Red-tailed Tropicbird

Masked Booby

Given our limited success with dolphins and on local recommendation we tried again - this time successfully being investigated by a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins. It really is very special being this close to wild animals, even for the briefest of moments. I’m glad to say that both of the trips we went on were respectful to the animals and did not harass them at all.

Green Turtle

Back to birds, I of course had the endemics on my mind. In particular the kestrel and pigeon. In the preceding weeks I'd tried to arrange a local guide to help me quickly see the key birds, but by our second to last day I’d got nowhere with the incredibly inefficient Mauritius Wildlife Foundation. Time for an alternative approach, so I spent some time reading trip reports and - for the first time - interrogating the excellent 'e-bird' website and made my own plans, then booked a taxi up to the main site for our last morning in Mauritius. 

The Black River Gorges park is the last remnant of extensive semi-native forest, as well as being a popular walking spot. eBird reports clearly indicated that the Le Pétrin Information Centre was the place to head, and from there the Macchabee Trail. I arrived at 6.45am and headed to the area behind the information centre, where the Pink Pigeon release area is. There were (presumably) released pigeons around - good to see but not exactly what I was interested in. The usual non-native species dominated, with African Masked Weaver new for the trip in this respect, but no immediate endemics. Parakeets flew over which may have been introduced Ring-necked or native Echo parakeets. 

Black River Gorges NP - semi native forest

I set-off along the trail which was initially quiet, but after around 20 minutes came across a small and noisy group of endemic Mauritius Bulbuls, which were smarter than expected. We were up and running. As I watched the bulbuls a flash of a rufous tail could mean only one things - Mascarene Paradise Flycatcher. Now we were talking, I had expected this to be the toughest endemic. Noisy parakeets flying over were clearly not Ring-necked by the call, so I followed them up and found 3 endemic Echo Parakeets in nearby trees. 

Mauritius Bulbul

Mascarene Paradise Flycatcher. Poor photo, great bird.

Echo Parakeet

Heading further down the trail, the dominant birds were still Red-whiskered Bulblus and non-natives, but I increasingly encountered small groups of Grey White Eye's. A few Ring-necked Parakeets appeared. I began to get a little concerned about how I would track down the main targets, at least until I walked around a corner to find a Mauritius Kestrel sat on the trail. An amazing stroke of luck. It quickly flew towards me and landed in the closest tree where I fired off a few shots before it slipped back in to the forest. I was over the moon, but also slightly annoyed that I had reached for the camera rather than by bins. 

Mauritius Kestrel. Once down to a mere four birds, brought back from the brink.

Carrying on a Mauritius Pink Pigeon flashed across the trail in front of me and looped down the slope out of sight. Hardly good views, but enough to have as a wild bird - the release pens had already provided lengthy viewing (and I was underwhelmed by the species anyway!).

Pink Pigeon at the release site. 

Time was slipping away now and it was getting hot. I had three target birds left. The last success was with the most charismatic of the three - a pair of Mauritius Cuckoo-Shrike's put on a good show in a flock of Grey White-eyes. It was time to head back - I'd managed 5 from my 7 targets and was pleased. The missing two were another white-eye and a Fody, so basically birds I was happy to live without.

Mauritius Cuckoo-Shrike (male above, female below)

Time to head home to the UK and hopefully for spring. I definitely need more foreign birding in my life.