Vallee de Mai panorama

One of the main wildlife attractions on Praslin Island in the Seychelles is the highly endangered Seychelles Black Parrot, which is found only there and in only two sites on the island - one of which is the Vallee de Mai nature reserve. When we arrived (aftera long, crowded bus ride - the only way around on the island), the staff of the reserve told us when I asked about the famous parrots that "Oh, no one ever sees them". Well, don't believe them and the best place in the reserve to see them is from exactly the spot shown in this photo. When you take the main roundtrip trail through the valley, on the left hand side near the end of the valley, there is a short side trail which leads up to a small viweing platform looking out over the valley. The view is what you see in my photo. Just be patient and in about 15-20 min you will see a flock of these marvelous birds burst out of the foliage, fly briefly around the valley and then disappear in the trees. This happens every 15-20 min, and we stayed for about an hour to watch them. Unfortunately they are pretty far away and moving VERY fast, so I couldn't get any decent photos, but you can certainly see them. The reserve staff were amazed when I told them!