Conserving Chagos: More on the Three Brothers
The Three Brothers islands on the Great Chagos Bank is a magical place filled with more birds than you would think could fit on the tiny islands. On Middle Brother, a beautiful island with its own large lagoon, over thirty thousand sooty terns were nesting, as well as noddy terns and red-footed boobies.On North Brother, a more challenging island to land on, thousands of wedge-tailed shearwaters had nesting burrows in every suitable space on the ground that they could - except for that occupied by the ground-nesting brown boobies.These illustrate how important unspoilt islands are for these birds, as, being ground nesters, they would be completely vulnerable to rats, cats, dogs and of course man in inhabited areas...
March 25, 2012 — Charles Sheppard