East Meets West at Intendance, Mahe

White-faced Whistling Duck (Adrian Skerrett)

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.