Mauritius January - July 2013, Pigeon Wood Field Station

The following posts will be a bit different from the usual site reviews, for most sites were visited while working for the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation as a volunteer on the Pink Pigeon Program. Therefore I spent several months at some sites, who are not or barely open for the "normal" birder. I will try to make the reviews considering these sites as useful as possible.

The first site in the field was the field station called Pigeon Wood. Here I got my training as a Pink Pigeon volunteer. The site is located in the east of the Black River Gorges National Park and holds the second largest Pink Pigeon population (90 birds). For birders, especially the purists among them,  this site should hold special interest, for non of the Pink Pigeons here are translocated and all originate from the last 12 individuals that were found here in the 90ties. However the pigeons of this subpopulation still get supplementary feeding. This area also holds the biggest wild population of Mauritian Fodies. These Fodies are tickeable, even by purists, for here they are not beeing fed or translocated. Other birds of interest in the forests around Pigeon Wood include Mauritius Bulbul, Mascarene Paradise Flycatcher (ssp. desolata, apparently recently split from the nominate subspecies on Reunion) and the ever-present Mauritius Grey White-eye. Other animals of interest are the endemic Blue-tailed Day Gecko and the only native mammal of Mauritius: the Mascarene (or Black-spined) Fruit Bat.

Mauritius Bulbul (Hypsipetes olivaceus)

Female Mauritius Fody (Foudia rubra) carrying nest material (check out those wingbars!)

Adult male Pink Pigeon (Nesoenas mayeri) sunbathing

Mauritius Grey White-eye (Zosterops mauritianus)

Access to this site is a bit difficult, for the track that leads to Pigeon Wood Field Station can only be accessed with a guide. (Contact MWF for more information) This might be annoying, but (very) close up views of Pink Pigeons around the field station are almost guaranteed.

Male Blue-tailed Day Gecko (Phelsuma cepediana)