Anne and I arrived in the tiny island nation of Comoros in the Indian Ocean this afternoon, and things got off to an interesting start. The jet parked right in front of the shiny new terminal building, we exited out onto the tarmac, we were instructed to hike instead to the old terminal building a few hundred yards to the south, and then skies opened up. Anne and I did our best to hustle with our luggage, but we were both pretty soaked as we went through passport control and immigration. At least I kept my camera bag dry. Ha!
But the show must go on, and so we took a taxi to the hotel Anne picked out for us, we checked in, we stepped out the back to check out the ocean view, and I saw the weirdest looking bird flap lazily by. The body looked at least as big as a Cooper’s hawk and almost as big as a red-tailed hawk. It was the most incongruous sight.
I said to Anne, “that looks like a giant bat!”
Sure enough, we didn’t have to wait long before we saw a couple perch in a nearby tree so we could get a better look.
Best of all, one eventually perched close enough for me to get a real good look. Say hello to a Seychelles fruit bat or Seychelles flying fox (Pteropus seychellensis). I could hardly believe my eyes or my luck to get to see such an amazing sight.
As it got closer to sunset, they became more and more plentiful, and we estimated that there were as many as a couple dozen flying or perching over the grounds around the hotel. I read that they can weigh “approximately 600g, and can have a wingspan of up to 1.1m long.”
Finally, to wrap up on a more traditional note, Anne also spotted this stunner, a red fody (Foudia madagascariensis), just hanging out on a palm frond about 20 feet away. The light was getting pretty low by then, so the image is real grainy and the red runs together, but I think you get the idea. Comoros is amazing!
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 