Salt Lake at Santa Maria, Sal, Cape verde, Jan 2012

If you were to travel from Dakar, Senegal, out into the Atlantic Ocean, you may be lucky enough to encounter an archipelago known as The Cape Verde Islands. The ex-Portugese colony is seldom heralded for its bird life and more mention is usually made of its place in the history of slavery and salt.

Salt production on the island has taken second place to tourism over recent years, especially on Sal Island and its southernmost town of Santa Maria. Salt pans here have been dug up and built over, but a few remnant bodies of salty water remain attracting wading birds that can be seen at quite close quarters.

Just on the West side of town is a lake that held a nice selection of birds this morning. Immediately obvious from a distance were the Black-winged Stilts. The birds moved independently of each other rather than feeding closely together and moving as a small flock.

Smaller birds on the edge of the lake included Kentish Plover, Common Ringed Plover and Curlew Sandpipers.

On the far side a Little Stint fed amongst the other species while a White Wagtail was seen on the distant shore. It was too far away for a decent photo, but I managed a bad one to document what is thought to be a vagrant bird.

The race of Common Kestrel on Sal takes alexandri as the third part of its trinomial. It is bigger than the nominate and struck fear into the tiny fluttering hearts of the waders that were roosting on a small sand bar.

Three birds passed over together , a repeated “vrii“ coming from the young birds. Once they had passed over the waders settled down again and spread themselves out along another roosting bar. Common Redshank and Ruddy Turnstone were seen here to add to the list.

On the way back to my apartment, one of the Kestrels was seen escorting a Brown-necked Raven from the neighbourhood for my third lifer of the visit.

Birds seen; 16

Cattle Egret 45, Common Kestrel 4, Black-winged Stilt 7, Common Ringed Plover 15, Kentish Plover 25, European Whimbrel 2, Common Redshank 2, Common Sandpiper 1, Ruddy Turnstone 35, Sanderling 60, Little Stint 2, Curlew Sandpiper 15, Black-headed Gull 1, White-wagtail 1, Brown-necked Raven 1, Cape Verde Sparrow 25.

See also the link to the first Cape Verde post

Sal, Cape Verde, Jan 2012

Cape Verde is not usually considered as one of the brightest stars in the bird watching firmament, but this archipelago of 9 inhabited islands, in the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of West Africa has a unique place as the most south-westerly landmass to be included in the Western Palearctic region and is thereby able to claim a number of breeding birds that would normally be considered as part of the Afrotropical region’s avifauna.

I made a quick 48 hour visit to the Island of Sal and only had the opportunity for a couple of brief outings, but without walking too far from the tourist town of Santa Maria in the south of the island, I managed to find a selection of birds that included three lifers.

The islands also boast a number of endemics and sub-specials, but a thorough and wide ranging tour of the chain would be needed to find them all. One endemic that is easy to find is the Cape Verdean (or Iago) Sparrow. It can be found on all the islands and is commonly seen in towns. Compare it to a House Sparrow and you will see that the Cape Verdean Sparrow is smaller and more slender. The male’s crown is black to the House Sparrow’s grey; he has a much reduced black bib on his breast and shows a rufous rump.

This one is a bit curious. The Islands use the marketing motto,“No Stress”, yet this individual has turned prematurely white.

Stroll from the town towards the south-west and pick up the road heading north between Hotel Rui and Villa Verde. Desert and short scrub on either side of the road make this a good place to find Greater Hoopoe-Lark. 

I had missed this bird on my previous visit and was following directions from a trip report found on the internet. It was exactly in the spot described by John Lee, just beyond the pile of rubble on the left hand side, travelling north (Google Earth ref; 16 36 05N 22 55 21W).

The Google satellite photos of Sal are very old and need up-dating. There has been a lot of tourist development at either end of the road as well as the road that reaches there from town.

Bar-tailed Larks also like this habitat and were seen on a few occasions. They were loathe to fly and show off their tail which would have been the clincher. Despite their reluctance to display their most characteristic feature, the identification was straightforward due to the lack of choice.

A flock of Black-headed Sparrow-larks waited for me on the way back to town. The males reminded me of the Ashy-crowned Sparrow-lark and I had to wait until I got home to confirm that the red crayon was required.

There are a few tracks that cut through the dunes to the shore and the popular beach at Ponta Preta. Here you can find the Cape Verde Kite (-surfer). A few waders were seen along the shore line and a Whimbrel posed well as the sun began its fall towards the ocean.

Birds seen;

Whimbrel 2, Common Kestrel 1, Sanderling 6, Ruddy Turnstone 4, Greater Hoopoe Lark 3, Black-crowned Sparrow-lark 9, Bar-tailed Lark 6,