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Mountains, Beaches, and Condor Wannabes

by Ellen Walford

Whenever you hear about Seychelles, and perhaps take the time to investigate a bit more by looking on the internet, it is all about beaches, superb diving, and more beaches. Justifiably so, I might add, as the beaches are really very pretty and I am told the diving is amazing. But as far as parrots are concerned, beaches are a bit of a waste of space.


All photos courtesy and copyright Ellen Walford

Beach crest vegetation is one of the habitat types that I am looking at to find habitat preference, and it’s a crying shame parrots don’t like to be beside the seaside. When coastal plots are planned for the next day, it’s really a very nice feeling waking up in the morning and knowing you aren’t going to have scale some vertical hillside festooned with young palm trees armed with vicious 3 inch needle-like spines; and instead drink fresh coconut milk and go swimming at lunchtime. I have spent a significant amount of time on the aforementioned beaches and the only parrots I’ve seen or heard are in the occasional hotel garden which may boast some nice guava fruit which they peel in order to get to the pink flesh and seeds, even if there are other known food trees in the area. But then, they already are a lovely colour brown and who wants to be around icky salty water and sand that sticks to your feathers when there are plenty of sweet freshwater springs higher up in the valleys and mountains?



What they rarely mention in the adverts though, is what the inner islands mainly consist of - stunning central ridges of pink granite mountains with deep misty valleys and high peaks with breathtaking vistas. Accessibility to these areas is not immediately obvious, which poses some problems as far as my habitat plots are concerned. There is one track up to the highest peak, called Zimbabwe because it is miles away from anywhere, but all other roads are limited to the coastal areas where the vast majority of civilization stays. However, due to the very real danger of bush fires, the forestry department who oversee these wild areas regularly maintain firebreaks all over the island, which handily double-up as footpaths.





Each time we slog up one of these to find a plot, it must be said that I shed a few pounds in sweat, all due to the humidity of course and not the fact I am any way in the slightest bit unfit. The usual pattern is that I start out eager enough, and then gradually lose my sense of humour as I slip on loose gravel for the umpteenth time and start questioning why I didn’t pick a project in Kansas or the Netherlands...and then everything is always alright again when I sit down at the top, the red mist lifts, and Seychelles in miniature unravels. Thousands of miles of tropical aquamarine ocean stretches as far as the eye can see in any direction, slightly bending with the curvature of the earth, with frothy white waves breaking over reefs and shores of the other islands far below. The peaks of most of these mountain ridges are for the most part pretty bare and eroded due to past fire damage, but provide great vantage spots. Not a place to expect parrots, although we had to check.



Whilst admiring yet another magnificent panorama one morning, we heard the familiar cheerful whistle of the bird in question. My field assistant and I were just discussing how nice it would be to be able to fly, which led inevitably to recounting flying dreams and flying fantasies of childhood; and lo and behold there was a parrot soaring about in the pretty significant breeze above the highest point on Praslin. He was making no effort whatsoever to flap, and just glided around us for a good 10 minutes before he decided it was breakfast time and drifted down to the village below. Do parrots glide for so long? Anyone would have thought he was acting suspiciously like a condor, but instead of searching for meat, he was contemplating where to drop in for his first fruit salad of the day.



With the end of my project drawing alarmingly near, I set out to do the final and from my own personal point of view one of the more enjoyable parts of my fieldwork; socialising!! I wanted to find out in more detail what the general populace thought about the Kato Nwar. As well as visiting many more fruit farmers and quizzing unsuspecting tourists and residents, I also chatted to the local secondary school.
It seems a general trend in farmers, that they really don’t view parrots as pests (as stated previously) but feel something should be done soon so they don’t lose so much of their livelihood. There were almost unanimous suggestions of planting food trees like star fruit around where the stronghold of the population is thought to be in the Valleé de Mai. Suggestions of compensation in the forms of seeds and lower fertiliser prices that are supplied by the Ministry of Agriculture, and translocation of some birds to other, farmer free islands were also made. However, for the mean time, for most, sharing the island’s fruit is satisfactory - the parrots munch the fruits at the top of the trees, and the humans get the ones on the bottom!



The secondary school was a delight to visit - the children were receptive and very forthcoming about what they knew (or didn’t) about parrots, although I think bribing them with lollipops may have helped.....It turns out there is quite a large hole in the education system when it comes to parrots - one I intended to fix as soon as possible! With the help of the long suffering head warden of the Valleé de Mai, their school teachers were cordially invited to attend my final presentation on Praslin.



Raising black parrot awareness on the main island of Mahé; a rather timely article written by my mentor at the Seychelles Island Foundation and myself appeared in a nationwide newspaper (on page 4!!), and the announcement that I would be giving a public talk at a local exhibition centre was on the next page. The fact the press appeared with some rather alarming filming equipment was a little nerve wracking, but armed with my parrotphenalia (sorry, sorry) - parrot earrings, WPT shirt and a newly acquired parrot necklace, everything went fine and I think we all had a good time - apart from the gentleman in the corner who went to sleep, but it was Friday afternoon.....



I am spending my last weekend on Praslin revisiting favourite places discovered these past few months, and following paths we had no time previously to explore. Up here on Zimbabwe peak, the breeze has dropped and all is peace and tranquillity - a far cry from the catastrophic circumstances in the country of its namesake - and I’m trying not to contemplate the impending pressures of being thrust back into top gear with the accompanying strain of imminent deadlines. Not to mention the fact that those post-Seychelles blues are bound to hit hard as soon as I want fresh fruit salad for breakfast but have to settle for a pop-tart instead.

But for now, nothing matters, because I have just seen two beautiful chocolate brown parrots are enjoying the view from the telecommunications line near where I am sitting, and I do believe they want a chat.

Posted by Ellen Walford on 07/10 at 04:53 PM
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Do black parrots have a refined palate?

by Ellen Walford

The nice thing about black parrots is that they have taste. Not in the fashion sense - they are a distant cry from the catwalks of the neo-tropical birds, and their table etiquette needs work, but as far as food goes these psittacines have it down to a fine art. To get an inkling of perhaps why parrots enjoy certain fruits - do black parrots have a refined palate? -and not others, I sampled some food plants that were most frequently on the menu. Cocoplum (Chrysobalanus icaco), although numerous and listed as a food source does not appear to be eaten at all and tastes as if you have bitten into a rather soggy bag of flour, but I have repeatedly seen birds around bilimbi fruit (Averrhoa bilimbi), which although bitter is very juicy and refreshing . Of course mangos are a great favourite - who doesn’t like mangos - and at the top of the list seems to be star fruit, which is very yummy and I urge you to go out and try one if you can. The parrots and I do have a difference in opinion about conifer cones, though.


Black parrots feeding on star fruit.
Photo courtesy of Usis Samedi from Seychelles Island Foundation


Black Parrots on island Pine tree (Casurina species).
Photo: Ellen Walford

In the past few weeks, I have been visiting cultivated areas away from the forests, mainly gardens and small private farmland. Praslin island has a small human population of just 7,500 - many of whom are employed in the tourism industry. Tourism is one of the main money earners in the Seychelles, and most visitors escape here to its stunning world famous beaches and tranquil pace of life.

Seychellois people for the most part are very house proud, and their gardens are a rainbow of colours, often lined with Crinum lilies - massive white and magenta lilies which remind you of those peppermint striped candy canes you get at Christmas. Although most garden plants are not native to the Seychelles, they none the less look as if they belong in this exotic setting. Bright crimson hibiscus, soft pink frangipani and mauve bougainvillea contrast beautifully with lime green breadfruits set against darkly verdant tree leaves. Parrot flowers (my favourite for obvious reasons) add splashes of bright artificial orange on spiky flowers, which using your imagination could be a parrot with a very funky hairdo. The national flower of the Seychelles, called the Tropicbird orchid on account of its white wing-like sepals and protruding long slender green spur can also be found nestled between rocks or larger bushes.

The agreeable climate here makes it ideal for growing a large array of fruit locally for relatively little expense, so most homesteads boast at least a couple of papaya, mango and banana trees. The more enterprising go further to grow fruit on a commercial scale adding guavas, passion-fruit, oranges and lemons. Less familiar fruits like breadfruit, jamalac, golden apple, star fruit and the massive ungainly jackfruit are also grown. However, a lot of these delicacies never make it into nearby fruit bowls. Although fruit production on a broad scale is little affected by the resident wildlife, the combination of giant fruit bats with appetites to match, black parrots who are mostly after seeds, common mynah birds who will eat anything they can get, blue pigeons and whatever other critter can get there in time (even the hordes of giant African land snails manage), leaves remarkably few of the more palatable fruit like mangoes and star fruit unblemished.


Papaya trees attract Black Parrots who feed on the flowers.


Photos courtesy of Usis Samedi from Seychelles Island Foundation

Taking all this into consideration, I have been amazed at the hospitality and warmth with which I have been received when house owners have been asked, somewhat tentatively at first, if we can possibly have access to their land as we are doing a study on the black parrots. Faces become animated and they go off into high speed Creole about which specific trees the parrots feed from, what time of day is their favourite to come to this particular spot, and where one pair nested in 1985 until the old tree fell down. Some commercial farmers shrug when I mention their potential losses at the market and put it all down to nature. A lot of them are Rastafarian, and I wonder if that peaceful philosophy has anything to do with it.

On a particularly warm day we were measuring various habitat bits and bobs on a high footpath with a magnificent view all across the island, accessed through the last house at the top of the hill. It was so hot that as soon as you drank any water it seemed to just run off you again, and my field assistant and I took turns darting into pocket handkerchiefs of shade provided by the stunted thief palms. Needless to say, neither the view nor the habitat was appreciated. We were just debating who should climb all the way down and refill our water bottles when the boy from the farm below appeared with a bag at least half his size full of passion fruit, guavas, papaya and bananas and two chilled bottles of water that his dad sent up. Of course it was only polite to accept.

On another occasion when I was alone visiting some sites on the south of the island, a farmer whose land I was just about to leave insisted that upon my return at 3:30 that afternoon he would have a special Creole dessert waiting for me. Not one to argue, I smiled and said that would be lovely, pretty bowled over by the fact that a.) he would do such a nice thing and b.) that he thought I looked like I needed feeding up. Not quite sure to expect, I arrived within the allotted hour which for the Seychelles is pretty good, to be presented with a large Tupperware container and a fork. The old boy obviously expected me to consume at least half then and there, so I took a large bite and was delighted with the result. It was gorgeous - fresh coconut milk and spices obviously - but the main part was a mystery. When I said so, he presented me with a large sack of the main ingredient to take home - sweet potatoes! Not the lightest thing to carry about in the field with you, the proverbial sack of potatoes.

A couple of days later I was scrutinizing a group of parrots feeding on some papaya flowers, and I’m convinced now that their good - natured faces and constant joyful whistles reflect their general contentment with life in general and their human company in the Seychelles. I know how they feel.

Posted by Ellen Walford on 05/30 at 09:27 AM
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Work begins on the Black Parrot project

by Ellen Walford

I touched down in the Seychelles with a feeling reminiscent of Dorothy finding herself in Oz. The black, white and grey shades of early morning London drizzle transformed into a thousand different shades of turquoise ocean, vibrant green vegetation, lined with sparkling ivory beaches against a cornflower sky. Wow.

The first week was spent on the largest of the 115 Seychelles islands, Mahé, visiting the Seychelles Island Foundation (the organisation that I am working with) offices in the capital Victoria, which is incidentally one of the smallest capitals in the world. The main street is a single lane and if you blink whilst driving through you miss the whole experience!

I also gave a presentation to members of interested government departments and Non Governmental Organisations about the project I will be doing during my three month stay. Everyone was most supportive and pleased to know that some work was being done on their beloved national bird. The Seychellois people are extremely proud of their parrot, and faces light up when the ‘Kato Noir’ (Creole for black parrot) is mentioned, which is wonderful to see.

With most of the preparations out of the way, I was chomping at the bit to get going. The one hour ferry ride across to Praslin, the main island where the parrot is found, on the ‘Cat Coco’ ferry was an uplifting experience ; skimming across the glass calm ocean accompanied by flying fish ( which I stupidly thought were seabirds at first) was a fantastic way to arrive to the island I will call home for the next three months.

The next day I rose early and whist I was eating my breakfast on the veranda, when who should be somersaulting about in the fruit tree in the garden, but two lovely chocolate coloured parrots! What a great welcome. I caught the bus - I still haven’t figured out the timetable, if there even is one - up the jewel of the island, one of the smallest UNESCO Natural World Heritage Centres, the stunning Valleé de Mai palm forest.



The Seychelles Island Foundation are the caretakers of the area, and it was their ranger station I went to, both to meet the local staff and pick up my field assistant, who will be helping me throughout my stay. After meeting a lot of smiling faces, we made our way into the Valleé to begin work........

On entering the forest, silence descends like a blanket, occasionally broken with the low “putter putter” of the Seychelles Blue Pigeon or the hysterical shriek of the Seychelles Bulbul. Occasionally there will be a softer, double tone whistle of a black parrot, always high up in the palms and as elusive as a shadow. In this primeval palm forest, one expects to come across slightly larger residents - a pterodactyl or two, or perhaps one of those velocer raptors who terrorised the screens in Jurassic Park.





Instead the only pterodactyls are the massive Seychelles Fruit Bats (wingspan is 1.1 meters!) gliding about above the canopy and the only raptors are cute little hedgehog type creatures called Tenerecs, snuffling about in the thick leaf litter for unfortunate insects and lizards that cross their path.
But the essence of the forest is the palms, including several endemics which are thought to be intricately linked with the black parrots’ survival. Massive 30m high Coco de Mer trees, having amongst the largest leaves on the plant kingdom tower above you, bearing double coconuts thought to appear as a lady’s posterior, and coveted by many until its enforced protection in the 1980s. The nut is the largest seed in the world and weighs 28kgs - the ultimate example of seed dispersal by gravity! And in this fascinating place lives the Seychelles Black Parrot.


Perhaps before I go any further, I need to elaborate a little on the aims of my project. In the distant past, it is believed that black parrots flew about on many other islands in the Seychelles, but due to us, they are now restricted to just two. Because this is such an endangered parrot - although I have found it to be locally quite common - there could be plans in the future to perhaps reintroduce it to some of the islands it previously inhabited. To do this, you obviously need to know a whole lot about black parrots - which is where I come in, because no one really does. I tell a lie - lots of people living on Praslin know a lot more than I do about them, but no one has really written anything down.

During my time here I will be looking primarily at the habitat requirements for the parrot and get a current population estimate. The two major factors governing this (and many other) populations is food and nest sites. Unfortunately I will not be here during what I am told is the breeding season, but I will be looking in detail into the parrots’ feeding ecology. As the parrots seem to be more frugivorous than their cousins on other Indian Ocean islands, they visit not only the wild, native fruit trees, but enjoy introduced domestic fruits like mangos, guavas and starfriut. This causes a bit of an issue with the local human population, who, whilst they love their parrot, they love their guavas and starfruit too. People are understandably a little frustrated when all the ripe fruits they have worked so hard to grow are scattered all over the ground because the parrots enjoy the seeds; not the flesh in a lot of cases. Education of course is the key to conservation, and I will also be chatting to local kids about how much they know about their national bird. By talking to different members of society, I aim to get a clearer picture of the human-parrot relationship.
I have set up 33 study sites all over Praslin and Curieuse (roughly 20% of the islands), and I will be recording the habitat composition and structure of these sites, and doing multiple counts of the parrots in each. During these periods I’ll also be looking out for feeding behaviour. By linking the habitat and count data together, I’ll hopefully get a defined habitat preference of the black parrots, and a good idea of the population.





My sites to begin with all centred around the Valleé de Mai, so getting to know the palms was a must. One morning as I was admiring a particularly fine one known as Millionaires Salad - so called because the “heart” at the top of the tree was a delicacy in the past, but to get at it you have to chop the whole thing down, which was very expensive - I got a stream of pollen and bits of palm husk in my eye. After using the contents of my water bottle to restore my vision, I found my misfortune turned out to be quite the opposite - enjoying his breakfast of flowers and seeds (palms flower and fruit simultaneously) was a very handsome black parrot, highlighted in a shaft of early morning sunlight. He was not in the least put off by our presence, and kept on stripping the long inflorescences, his table manners having a bit to be desired, getting pollen all over his handsome face. In the days to come, I have seen them feasting on trees by the roadside, inches from vehicles roaring by with a single mindedness to get at that tasty berry just over there...

These birds are indeed a joy to behold, graciously putting up with my giggles at their antics and replying encouragingly to my feeble attempts to whistle at them. We’ll be having conversations about philosophy before the month is out.

Posted by Ellen Walford on 05/10 at 05:18 PM
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