On 7 February, Adrian Skerrett returned to Intendance with James Wareing to see if the Pheasant-tailed Jacana (see earlier post) was still, present. Its occurrence on Mahe is a world record for the species: the most southeasterly sighting ever. Indeed, it was still there, but this was not the only surprise.
 
On the opposite side of the Intendance wetland was a White-faced Whistling Duck, an African/South American species previously recorded in Seychelles six times. Five of these Seychelles records were in the Aldabra Group and one was at Mahe. This Intendance sighting is the world’s most easterly record for this species.
 
This is an extraordinary state of affairs. On one small stretch of water on Mahe, two species meet that technically should never encounter each other. They breed almost 5,000 kilometres away from each other, and each only usually migrates a few hundred kilometres at most, yet here they were happily feeding together.

In 2025, SBRC members considered 120 records, presented in summary in table one. The majority of records were accepted (108, exactly 90%), including seven submitted unidentified and a record misidentified as one vagrant but accepted as another. Eight records were classified as ‘unproven’ (that is, insufficient evidence to authenticate), two were pended for more discussion, and two were rejected as misidentified and not vagrant species of interest. Age, sex, and subspecies were assigned wherever possible.
 
A record pended in 2024 of Pied Wheatear Oenanthe pleschanka, was accepted in 2025 with a caveat regarding the slight possibility of Variable Wheatear O. picata. This was after taking expert advice from Ashwin Mohan, Brian Small and Peter Clements.

A copy of the report can be downloaded here.