A weekend on Bird Island with friends from Kenya provided one opportunity after another to get all of us, kids included, thinking in terms of wildlife large and small.
Our visit to their neck of the woods last year took us to Tsavo National Park where we watched herds of elephants pick gigantic bouquets (trunkgays?) from vast fields of end-of-rainy-season blooms as baby giraffes clumsily cavorted under the far-distant noses of attentive mothers.
The whole of Bird Island being about the same size as the grounds of the Kilaguni Lodge, our Tsavo home-from-home, had to bring a completely different experience.
The ten-year-old in our midst was instantly taken with the tag-team of common noddies that found his family’s chalet the perfect perching point, so didn’t seem to miss at all the much larger mammalian fauna of home.
My kids are well acquainted with the local varieties of feathered friends, but with more than a million sooty terns calling Bird home for the breeding season, even two-year-old Cj was impressed, spending a good portion the first day on the island astonished by almost every single one of those more-than-a-million.
“Mommy! Mommy!” she’d shout, “Birdy … LOOK!”
Darned cute for the first, what? … eighty-five times? Just a tad tedious from then on. Thankfully, she developed an immunity by Day Two and spent more time trying to avoid stepping in bird poop.
“Yucky, Mommy!”
Sam, at almost five, was in his element with the freedom a small island gives a small boy, warm and calm seas, birds and lizards and giant tortoises everywhere, and full use of Mom’s digital camera to record all the wonders. His shot of a baby fairy tern earned him our combined families’ unofficial, but so prestigious “David Attenborough Award” that came in the shape of a bowl of coconut ice cream. 
By mutual agreement it was decided that Bird Island’s “Big Five” must-see counterpart to Kenya’s list — lion, leopard, buffalo, giraffe and elephant — would boil down to: dolphin, whale, whale shark, ray and sea turtle. (Land creatures on Bird being habituated to humans and far too easy to ‘spot’, the challenge had to come from the sea.)
One morning out on a boat produced fine viewing of three out of the five … the whales and whale sharks not cooperating, apparently … so everyone was happy as a clam (also not seen).
We’ll be doing this again.
A collection of my short stories:
I'm in this one, too ...
And I'm in here, as well ...
Paradise Preoccupied 
Everything about this island is tremendously appealing to me, except the bird shit part. If I ever visit, I’ll bring my black “gum” boots (western Canadian expression for “wellies”) – did I get that word right???
L.
All you’ll need is a pair of flip-flops. The poop’s not deep, just wide … splat! … and boots are nothing more than portable saunas in this climate.
How wonderful to hear of your trip to Bird Island which brought back beautiful memories of our stay there in August 2003. I rushed off to find my log of our holiday with Gay which reports:
On our arrival we were told there was to be a Turtle Release at 5.30pm! ….We walked with others to the NE corner of the island & a chap (our chef apparently) with a bowl and shovel joined us & began to dig at a point on the sand marked with a stick! He then began to dig with his hands & brought out 2 tiny baby turtles about 3″ long – black & cute. By the time he’d finished there were proably about 40-50 in the bowl, all scrabbling in the direction of the outside of the bowl, so all the sand accumulated in the middle. Babies that weren’t ready for The Big Sea were put back into the “nest” & 2 or 3 that were nearly ready (tummy buttons had to close up?) were to be taken in a bowl to the chef’s home to be kept in the dark & released 2 days later.
The bowl of turtles was taken to a suitable place for release where we could all see – about 10-15 of us. They were all put on the sand, handful by handful & those that strayed were guided towards the sea. It was quite sad to see them swept away, tumbling in the waves, especially knowing that maybe only one out of the bowlful would survive.
How lucky we were that our visit to Bird Island coincided with this exciting event!
Now THAT was a successful holiday!
It’s the laying season now, so there were moms coming up to make their nests in the night. I slept rather than waited and watched, but both mornings revealed new tracks to and from well-protected egg cites. Lovely!
Sandra –
I tried to leave a comment yesterday on the post of your family pictures, but somehow I messed it up!
I went to school with Mark many years ago, until my family left Seychelles in 1981. We were inseparable when we were 12! Where does the time go?
It was such a treat to see your lovely family and to learn that Mark is well and thriving! I couldn’t be happier for you both. Reading your blogs makes me pine for the Seychelles. Keep up the great work.
All the best
Simon V.
Simon,
Mark remembers you fondly and was so pleased to hear that you commented here! It is one of the wonders of our time that connections can be made so easily after so many years.
Now that I know you’re reading, I’ll post more on happenings here. I’m planning a post with Bird Island photos soon.
[…] places at the moment, I thought I would post some pictures (worth thousands of them, I hear) of our Bird Island trip for general […]