The Locals Don’t Always Know Best – Principé – ST&P

It is necessary to visit both of the islands of São Tomé and Principé as they each hold a slew of endemics. But after buying our flight to São Tomé, we learned that the flight we had hoped to take to Principé was full. Ross went into full “make it work” mode. We couldn’t just go to São Tomé and skip Principé! Eventually Ross found us a flight with only three seats remaining, just enough for Ross, Jason, and I — but not enough for Rich (who hadn’t yet bought a ticket to São Tomé and thus could no longer join). What was supposed to be an even four person trip would have to make due with just three. It was a last minute decision to come to the islands of São Tomé and Principé after our hopes of visiting Angola were thwarted by the ongoing coronavirus and the closure of borders. As a result of this last minute decision, Ross was scrambling to plan our trip and get all of the logistics in place. Our trips are often successful because Ross specializes in logistics and prepares well in advance. Advance notice was NOT a theme of this trip. This was last-minute through and through. Honestly, with what we were up against, I’m not sure anyone else would be able to make this work…
Ross may have found tickets to Principé, but they were not ideal by any means. Our flight was square in the middle of our trip. Instead of being able to stack a bunch of days on São Tomé and then fly, we needed to bird on São Tomé for 2, fly to Principé for 3, and then fly back to São Tomé for a few more. It wasn’t pretty, but it was the only way. It became even less convenient because to fly between the islands we had to get rapid COVID tests 24 hours before take off. As a result of testing we lost out on two mornings of birding. (The irony of a “rapid test” done 24 hours in advance is not lost on me.)
Oh, but then we had flight trouble. After a quick two days on São Tomé, we boarded our flight to Principé, took off, and were about to land, mere meters above the tree line in fact, when our captain pulled the plane sharply up because we were nowhere near the runway! Looking out the window, Ross could just barely see the runway out to our far right. Visibility was very bad during this flight and with the fog and rain limiting the view the pilot wasn’t even above the runway! Good thing he didn’t’ land! We went up and circled over but the clouds were so thick and visibility so poor, that soon an announcement came over the speaker that we were turning around and flying back to São Tomé. We knew our time on Principé was tight, but now it was made even tighter. After a four hour delay, we eventually flew successfully to the neighboring island, but by the time we landed it was after 3:30PM with sunset at 5:30PM, effectively causing us to lose out on a full day.

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The only plus side was that one of the most important birds we needed to try for was to be found at night. Principé Scops-Owl, one of the three more difficult endemics found on this island, was only recently discovered. We hoped to try for this bird right away but were told by the lady running the park it was not advised due to the weather and that we should wait until the following night. We planned to camp and while rain wouldn’t be ideal, missing the bird would be worse, so we explained we wanted to go tonight regardless and then again the following night if we missed it. She advised against it but let us go because we insisted. People often say the Scops-Owl is difficult, but I think it’s just because few people owl quite like Ross Gallardy. We hiked up, set up camp, and quickly had a pair of Principé Scops-Owls above our heads. If we had known it would have been that easy we could have just came up for a quick night walk! We managed excellent photos, but sharing them will have to wait until the paper describing the species is out! Sorry! Oh, and it didn’t rain at all — the weather was absolutely perfect. Trust me when I say, the locals do not always know best. Had we not insisted upon going that night, we could have easily missed them because it rained the following night.

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The following day we planned for a full day of hiking around one of the national parks. Hiking on Principé isn’t exactly pleasant given we were traversing rocky and steep, often slippery terrain in what felt like 99% humidity, but, that being said, the ocean scenery and the absolutely stunning forests along the beach, full of rare and exciting birds, more than makes up for it. We walked for miles along a beautiful beach before climbing up into the forest. The forest canopy and mid-canopy were buzzing with activity as we walked and we encountered flock after flock but we noted a surprisingly inactive forest floor. Principé Thrush, a bird that likely inhabits this niche, is scarce and is the second of the three hardest birds to find on the island. We hiked all morning and climbed to above 400m elevation, and our hard work paid off when we had great views of a confiding Principé Thrush. Once you find one, they often do not care at all and just sit right in the open. This is not a sneaky thrush, just a rare one! We sat and had lunch with an inquisitive thrush watching nearby. Principé White-eye, the last of the three hard species to find, ended up showing nicely in two areas along our hike. This single day of hiking was incredibly productive and despite the fact that an all-out downpour ensued halfway through, we managed almost all of our main targets and then some! Another day on the islands = another day of rain! I have to laugh too because on our hike back, we had to traverse over a tidal stream and did not factor in having to cross back through during high tide! We had to walk waist-deep through water right at the end of an extremely long and tiring day just to get back!

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On our last day, we took a boat trip to a small offshore island for a subspecies of Principé Seedeater that lives there. If this subspecies ever gets split, it will likely become the most range-restricted bird in the world!
We thought three days wouldn’t be enough time to find everything we needed to find before flying back to São Tomé, but it all worked out in the end. Principé was incredibly successful! And if you ever need to visit, I highly recommend Yodi! He never complained and accompanied us despite the long hours and the intense nature of a Ross Gallardy birding trip! He took us to the COVID testing and drove us to the airport.