In March, I had a quite incredible invitation through work to spend a week on one of the remotest islands in the world, this being Saint Helena. The invite was through the tourist board and I joined 25 others in what would be a remarkable push for tourism for the island, this despite its many access challenges.
On Thursday 18th April, I took a direct flight to Jo'Burg where I had a free day on the Friday, to only explore locally, but this did produce Red-headed Finch (a South African tick), Greater Striped Swallow, Speckled Mousebird, Little Swift, Cape Robin Chat, Cape Wagtail, Hadeda Ibis, Karoo Thrush and a few other commoner species around the hotel, all of which were nice to reacquaint myself with, not having seen most of these since 2014.
The Saturday morning we took a flight to Saint Helena, stopping for half-hour at Walvis Bay in Namibia to re-fuel, but not a single bird was seen here! It was then a further three hours to the island and as we descended out of the clouds, the volcanic rock emerged and we soon landed on the short runway. White Terns and Masked Boobies were apparent on the approach.
On our drive to Jamestown I saw three Saint Helena Plovers (aka Wirebird, named for their long legs) which meant I'd seen pretty much every native bird before the trip had even started. After checking in at the superb Mantis Hotel, I walked down to the waterfront and seawatched for a while, finding Band-rumped Storm-petrels, a mystery and very distant Pterodroma petrel, Brown and Masked Boobies, Red-billed Tropicbirds, breeding White Terns above my head, but best of all, an unexpected Ascension Frigatebird was spotted circling high up and remained on view for a good ten minutes. Many non-natives were also seen, mostly Java Sparrow, Common Waxbill, Yellow Canary and Common Myna. Over the week I saw perhaps 40 plovers, most around the Golf Course.
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| Saint Helena Plover |
The week comprised taking in the various 'tourist sites', but this did include Napoleon's museum/house which was beyond incredible. I'm far from a history buff, but this was a true eye-opener. Several hikes and many swims were also had, the latter allowing some excellent views of the endemic fish life: Saint Helena Butterfly fish being the most impressive.
However, the best was saved until last when we managed to scrounge a boat and go snorkeling with the gentle giant, this being a superb Whale Shark! A majestic Devil Ray was also about! The shark was simply brilliant, this being a life-long ambition and it didn't disappoint as it casually cruised by back and forth for ten minutes and approached within yards!
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| Final descent towards Saint Helena |
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Jacob's Ladder - the record for going up
is 5mins 5secs... my attempt was 6mins 19secs |
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Off Jamestown. The sailing ship on the left was
departing for the Caribbean midway through the week |
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| View of Jamestown |
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| Millennium Forest |
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| Napoleon's tomb |
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| The shadow of a Whale Shark just about visible |
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| easier from below |
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