Réunion July 2013, Saint André

Saint André is not particularly on the birders radar when it comes to Reunion. We however spend our first days on La Reunion here, for we were invited by the Société d´Études Ornithologiques de la Réunion (SEOR) to visit their office and their rescue centre, which is located near Saint André in Cambuston. We stayed just north of Saint André and we saw surprisingly quite a few endemics already: Reunion Grey White-eye (it is noticeably diffirent from its sister species on Mauritius), Reunion Olive White-eye, Mascarene Flycatcher (ssp. borbonnicus which has apparently been split from the subspecies on Mauritius) and most surprising several pairs of Reunion Harrier (a reliable site is the barren field next to the SEOR office).

Male Mascarene Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone (borbonnensis) borbonnensis)

Male Mascarene Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone (borbonnensis) borbonnensis)

Reunion Olive White-eye (Zosterops olivaceus)

Reunion Grey White-eye (Zosterops borbonicus)

Mascarene Swiftlet (Aerodramus francicus)

Reunion Harrier (Male) (Circus maillairdi)

Reunion Harrier (male) (Circus maillairdi)

The office and the rescue centre are also well worth a visit, for the staff is very helpful, knowledgeable and friendly and were very willing to show us around. We even got to release two Tropical Shearwaters! The rescue centre takes care of up to 2000 birds each year and 80% of them are petrels or shearwaters. Therefore, if visiting Réunion in March or April, when the peak season for the crashed birds is, I highly recommend swinging by in Saint André, for with a bit of luck you might even see a Mascarene Black Petrel up close! (they get one or two crashed juveniles each year. For more information on Mascarene Black Petrel, see this former post) Just make sure you contact the staff in advance. This can be done through their website: http://www.seor.fr/ The office can be reached by the bus from Saint André to Cambuston. 

Crashed Tropical Shearwater (Puffinus bailloni), ready for release