In
March 2016 we visited Boa Vista, the easternmost island of Cape Verde, which
is a nation on a volcanic archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa.
Cape Verde is known for its mild sunny climate, its many beaches and
shipwrecks. Wildlife on the mostly barren grounds consists largely of goats
and donkeys (maybe not really wild, but they seemed to move about freely)
but the birds were more interesting. The number of bird species on the
island is somewhat limited, but we didn't find them to be very shy and they
provided us excellent photo opportunities. Travelling with a small group of photographers,
led by our good friend Martijn de Jonge,
we went in search of the Red-billed Tropicbird, with its beautiful (and
seemingly somewhat impractical) long tail (see above). The Red-billed TB
nests in cliffs at the ocean's edge and displayed itself in the wonderful
morning light. An Alexander's Kestrel hunted nearby and didn't take much
notice of us when it sat down to eat its prey. A pair of Ospreys had built
their nest on a wreck nearby and Brown Boobys were patrolling the ocean in
small flocks. Little Plovers ran the sand dunes a bit further inland and
Brown Necked Ravens kept a close watch on small lizards in the shrubs and
low bushes. Cape Verde is also a well known breeding site for
Humpback whales in the North Atlantic. March and April are normally the peak
of the breeding season, when the whales can be sighted off the W and SW
coast of Boa Vista, jumping about spectacularly. Unfortunately, they didn't
seem to be there during our visit.
Life on the island seemed to concentrate on
tourism and local small scale fisheries, which gave hungry photographers
ample choice of wonderful local fish dinners with the corresponding
Portuguese wines.
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360 panoramas taken from our appartment and the beach can be viewed by
clicking on the pics below.
