Barefoot Luxury on Bird Island

Steve Garley considers the many attractions of Bird Island in the Seychelles including the obvious ones…

Bird Island is a truly unique place.  If you are looking for a designer hideaway with butler service, you have definitely come to the wrong spot!  No designer, other than nature, has touched this place and butlers are likely to be a local nickname for wildlife.  There’s no TV, no radio, no swimming pool, no air conditioning, no room service.   After all, this  Seychelles paradise is primarily a bird sanctuary.

It’s the last stop before thousands of miles of ocean en-route to India or the Middle East for over a million migrant birds. Between April and October sooty terns breed here. You can see them in late March evenings as they mass over the island, but they do not come ashore. Something in their body clocks tells them to wait.  You can get really close to birds here. At breakfast the Madagascan Fody, Doves and the occasional Pigeon and Turnstone will come to your table.  These birds don’t try to sneak in when you are not looking like they’d do in Europe!  Oh no, they walk around the bread and jam and help themselves. Without fear because it’s very considerate of you to lay on a breakfast just for them!

The female Fody looks like a sparrow but the male is bright red in the mating season. Their young don’t cry or cheep, they flap their wings for attention and food and they are not fussy where that comes from.   You can feed them by hand and even touch them!  Outside on the grass and swooping around the island you are bound to see Noddy and lesser Noddy Terns – elegant grey black birds. We had one that sat on our balcony and read a book over my shoulder. The star of the show has to be the Fairy Tern. They sit on branches and flap around usually in pairs. They are all white and look like star crossed lovers on their perches. When you approach they do not fly away, but actually fly down to see you.   To the south, on the tallest trees, is the territory of the Frigate bird.  They take to the air with swept back wings gracefully and effortlessly climbing on the thermals. They are the elegant thieves of the air, stealing food from returning seabirds.

So what else do you do on Bird Island?  Well, a lot of swimming in the beautiful warm Indian Ocean for a start!   We were also very lucky when the resident naturalist, Robbie, collected 80 baby Hawksbill turtles to release.  Green and Hawksbill Turtles nest here and the naturalist digs up the eggs and reburies them in a hatchery so that the crabs don’t eat them all.

They are usually released into the Ocean at sunset and a small crowd of us went to watch and help.  Later that evening we all went to the bar and then on to a dinner of barbecued king fish steaks, chicken and lamb with simple vegetables and chilled red wine – fantastic!

Next day I walked half way round the island, saw a gaggle of crabs and turnstones in front of me, and stared at the piles of seaweed and beautiful shaped pieces of driftwood on the beach.  They could have been taken straight to the Tate Modern, they were so sculptural and elegant.   We snorkelled twice and watched the gorgeous sunset.

Bird Island isn’t for everyone, although some guests come for a week or more to experience the ultimate escape from the modern world!  Many people seem to prefer an island hopping trip with Tropical Sky instead, spending three nights in Mahé, six in Praslin and two nights on Bird Island.  However you do it, it’s definitely worth visiting even if you’re not into bird watching.  Its tranquil, unspoilt beauty alone is worth it and bird watching takes on a whole new dimension when you have glorious colourful creatures that don’t flit about as a dull brown blur at the end of binoculars,  but come right up and look you in the eye!

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