The above is a white fairy tern and it serves as a teaser to some of the outstandingly striking citizens of Aride Island. More on this after a briefing on the island itself.

Aride Island is considered one of the world’s most consequential  nature reserves.  Though small, it provides a protected sanctuary for wildlife and as such most of the inhabitants have no fear of humans.  Aride has no hotels or commercial buildings.  Similar to other islands we had visited, the only humans  are a small group of scientists and conservation rangers.  In addition, very strict  monitoring is in place to prevent the accidental introduction of invasive species, flora and fauna..

Aride hosts more breeding species of seabirds (like the little tern above) than any other single island in the Seychelles – about 500,000 birds across 10 species.  The island holds the world’s largest populations of the Lesser Noddy, Tropical Shearwater as well as  the Seychelles’ `largest population of the Roseate Tern.

There are also  five endemic land birds, including the world’s largest population of the Seychelles Warbler  which was successfully saved from the brink of extinction and the critically endangered Seychelles Magpie Robin (there are less than 10 of these birds on the island )

Aride also has one of the highest lizard densities on the planet, I can confirm this as they constantly ran across the paths we followed and cropped up seemingly everywhere – skinks, geckos , etc.

 

There were also many very large spiders – which I photographed from a distance:

But what truly amazed me were the birds.  Imagine seeing up close and personal one of the highly endangered  Magpie Robins – our guide said there were only 5 or 6 adults left on the island:

The fairy terns are some of the sweetest  birds I have ever seen – and we were so lucky to spy a few chicks:

The pièce de résistance was sitting peacefully in the crook of a tree – most likely a nest, though I could not  see any eggs.  This is a tropicbird and I was stunned by its beauty:

 

 

 

And another type of tropicbird at another tree:

 

I had one another gorgeous sighting to cap off this day.  When we got back to the ship, the captain told us to run up to the Observation Deck as quickly as we could to see something amazing.  It was only 3 flights of stairs so my adrenaline pushed me to an almost sprint – and this was my reward:

 

Ain’t nature grand.

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