As the monsoon approaches there are many days when the winds subside and the sea goes like oil, like a sheet of glass it becomes so clear, snorkelling trips are a real treat, the rich shallow, turquoise waters which cover the reef are full of underwater delights from fish to turtles. But we know that during these times what we are experiencing is merely the calm before the storm.
In between the monsoons the wind will fool us, it will change directions many times and will often revert back to the north west, and we enjoy the calm of the southern beach sheltered by the granite outcrop of Aride behind. However when the winds finally turn we prepare for a very different life on the island. It is one of few visitors, and long periods of limited trips to neighbouring shores. We stock up our food cupboards and close the windows and doors to prevent the salt laden winds from penetrating into our possessions and clothes. We know that the island is going to become a very different place for two or three months, as we swop the calm seas, perfect sandy beach and pure blue skies for the big waves, white horses, rocky beach and cloudy unsettled skies.
However this time of year brings visitors of a different kind, the south east monsoon marks the arrival of thousands of seabirds, which come to Aride to breed. At first they arrive in small numbers, as we hear the familiar calls sometimes as early as January. But with the turn of the winds the island becomes alive as the many, many terns come to share this wonderful place and make it their own.
This granite outcrop, a small dot in the Indian Ocean, provides a breeding destination for species such as the sooty tern, brown noddy, lesser noddy and rare roseate tern. Although all a species of tern, they are very different. The sooty tern, has a very distinctive black and white plumage and is very clean cut, with a black cap and mask, black wings and back, they look like gentleman dressed for dinner in their black suits, as they hold their wings behind their backs, . They are built for flight, with long wings and tail and streamline bodies, and their wide-awake call can be heard echoing along the Aride shores.
The brown and lesser noddys are heard all year round in small numbers, but they too come in on mass and they pepper the beach, and with their all brown plumage, they look like shadows on the sand. They spend a lot of time on the beach, where they display, court, collect nesting material and eat coral fragments, as the latter they need for the producing their eggs. They are comical birds, with short legs and a nodding display, they stumble as they try to impress their partners with funny walks and poses and their calls are more crow-like than that of a tern.
Then there is the roseate tern, a very special seabird that breeds on Aride, the island provides the only nesting colony in the granitic islands. Although in appearance quite delicate, they are bulky terns, with pale plumage, distinctive black cap, red legs and feet, with a rosy chest. Probably one of the most special sights on Aride is the flight of the roseate tern along the beach, with the clear Seychelles’ light catching its pink tinged chest.
Then there is the roseate tern, a very special seabird that breeds on Aride, the island provides the only nesting colony in the granitic islands. Although in appearance quite delicate, they are bulky terns, with pale plumage, distinctive black cap, red legs and feet, with a rosy chest. Probably one of the most special sights on Aride is the flight of the roseate tern along the beach, with the clear Seychelles’ light catching its pink tinged chest.
But all these wonderful birds will be up against difficult times, the breeding season isn’t easy for them. With the only desire to produce young to keep their species going, they face many obstacles. First they need to find a suitable place to nest, which can be fraught with difficulties as habitats change and present new dangers from year to year, and with that there needs to be a food supply. Last season we saw a change in the sea currents, causing a shortage of fish for our avian friends and many of them failed to breed with young dying in the nests. They also need to stay clear of introduced avian predators such as travelling barn owls which may venture across from neighbouring islands such as Praslin.
But it is not just these natural events that they have to face, which can prevent them from completing their natural cycle. Poaching will play a big part too, as people come and steal both sooty tern eggs and birds and crush others such as roseate terns in this quest.
So our avian visitors of the south east monsoon take their chance when they come to Aride to breed. Nature has ways of coping with the natural events, but will poaching force these birds to such low numbers that next year the south monsoon on Aride will be a very different place?
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