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Thursday, 17 October, 2013

 

Today was my day for Lady Elliot Island.  I was up at about 5:15, and I was over at the airport at about 7:45 for my 8:40 flight.  Bundaberg is a city of about 60,000 people, and the airport has four gates.  No one was on duty at the counters when I got there.  When the people showed up, I checked in, which was very informal.  The guy told me I wouldn’t have to go through security, that the pilot would escort me through a side door to the plane.  Very informal.  We actually ended up using the General Aviation part of the airport, which is where private planes land.

 

The plane was late arriving, and I had just called the reservation office when it showed up and there was an announcement.  That was at about 8:50 for the 8:40 flight.  Here is our 9 passenger (plus pilot) plane.

 

All the seats were full, although some of the people had gotten on at an earlier stop.  The pilot gave us the safety pitch, and we all got on board.  Here is Bundaberg from the air, as we left.

 

They gave us ear plugs, which was a good thing, as the engine was about five feet from where I was sitting, and it was loud.  The first five minutes of the flight, while we were over the land, was kind of bumpy and we pitched around a lot.  I was worried about getting airsick, but I got through it.  When we got over the water, it was much smoother.  After about 25 minutes, we saw Lady Elliot Island, looking pretty small in the big ocean.

 

Here is the runway, as we approached.  As you can see, the runway goes all the way across the island – that is how small the island is.

 

You can also see that they don’t bother with niceties like paving the runway – it is dirt and rocks and weeds, with a little grass.  There are red lights on each side of it that flash when a plane is using it; visitors are supposed to stay off the runway at that time.

 

A representative of the resort met us and gave us a little tour.  She told us the schedule for various events and gave us our tickets for the buffet lunch that was included with our day trip.  She noticed my binoculars and asked if I was there to look at birds, and when I said yes, she marked up the map she had given me with the locations of some of the birds.  Here is a picture of part of the grounds of the resort.

 

They have various types of accommodations, but it was all much too expensive for my budget, which was why I was doing a day trip.  I wouldn’t have wanted to spend more time on it, either.  Day trippers were a minority, but a significant one.  It might be their slow season, I don’t know, but it didn’t seem full or crowded.  Most people were there for more than the day, though.

 

There were various activities, including an hour long ride in a glass bottomed boat, snorkeling, an eco tour of the island, and probably others.  I ignored them all and just wandered around all day, except I did take advantage of the free lunch.

 

There were birds everywhere.  They were nesting in the trees, on the ground, in bushes, everywhere.  They were flying around everywhere, too.  Over 90% of them were noddies, of two species.  I had a hard time learning to tell the two species apart, although by the end of the day I think I had it figured out.  Here is a picture of a COMMON (BROWN) NODDY (lifer), I think.

 

In my pictures, the Brown (or Common) Noddies do look more brown, but at the time, the colors of both species seemed very similar.  The Brown Noddy is stockier and larger, and its bill is shorter and thicker.  Here is a BLACK NODDY.  I had seen them in Hawaii, so it wasn’t a lifer, but it is new for my Aussie list.

 

Looking at those pictures now, it makes me wonder why I had such a problem telling the two species apart for most of the day.

 

Most of the noddies seemed to be nesting in trees or bushes, but this Brown Noddy was on the ground and had an egg.

 

There was beach all around the island, of course.  I walked much of it, and visited other parts.  Here is one of the beaches.

 

Another bird that was around the resort itself was BRIDLED TERN (lifer).

 

You had to be careful not to step on them.  Here is a close up of one’s head, since you can’t see the eye in the last picture.

 

Here is a picture of the resort across the runway.

 

Another bird that was extremely common was Buff-banded Rail.  They are kind of elusive most places, and Ken had shown me one on Saturday, our big day.  They were all over the place today, in every habitat.

 

I walked across the island to where the helpful resort girl had told me to look for another species I wanted to see.  They were all nesting or roosting in one small area.  Here is a picture of a ROSEATE TERN (lifer).

 

Here is a picture of a bunch of them.

 

One of the activities I had passed on was the glass-bottomed boat trip.  I’m sure it would have been interesting, but it is exactly the kind of thing I don’t do when I’m on a birding trip.  Here is a picture of them loading and unloading the boat.  If you don’t understand why it just doesn’t appeal to me, then I probably can’t explain it.

 

I don’t do lines, and I don’t do crowds of people, if I can avoid it.  I also resist any kind of organized activity or entertainment.  People often ask me why I don’t go birding in Central or South America, or in Africa or Asia, and that picture says it all to me  You have to go on tours to bird in those countries, which means lining up and following a schedule, while rubbing elbows with strangers.  It just isn’t my cup of tea.  I’m not in any way putting down people who enjoy such things.  I’m sure I am missing out on a lot by being the way I am, but that is how I am, and I know it.  I like rambling around on my own.

 

One species that I “discovered” for myself today was BLACK-NAPED TERN (lifer).  I saw one flying, and later saw a few perched.  They were less common than the other terns.  Here is a picture of one.

 

Here is a picture of a Roseate Tern and a Black-naped Tern standing together.

 

Another species I added to my trip list was EASTERN REEF EGRET.  They come in two color morphs, a dark one and a white one.  I think this is the first time I have seen white ones.  Here is a picture of one of them.

 

I probably would have seen that one without coming to the island, unlike the various terns and noddies.

 

I had already counted Ruddy Turnstone, back in Sydney, but there were a fair number of those around today.

 

There were also a fair number of Grey-tailed Tattlers around.  There are supposedly Wandering Tattlers, too, but I doubt I could distinguish the difference.  I saw Wandering Tattler in San Diego this year, anyway, so I’m not bothered about seeing them here.  Here is what I presume is a Grey-tailed Tattler.

 

I’m going to knock off now and finish this tomorrow, maybe in the morning, before I leave Bundaberg.  It’s 9 PM, and I’m beat.

 

Friday morning.

OK, I pulled myself out of bed about 5:35 today – I’m slipping later and later, but this is still very early for me.  I’ll see if I can finish this and get it off before I leave this morning, as I’m not sure if I’ll have internet access tonight.

 

While I was walking along the beach looking for shore birds, I happened to look inland and saw three frigatebirds sitting in a couple of trees.  This was exciting, although there was an identification issue with the two species of frigatebird that could be there.  They sat there while I took pictures of them and consulted my field guides.  Based on what I could tell, they were all females, and they were all mature adults.  I finally noted one key difference between the two species – the color of their throats.  One had a dark throat, to match the dark cap, and the other had a light colored throat.  Based on that, here is a picture of two female adult LESSER FRIGATEBIRDS (lifer).

 

That is the more common species seen on the island.  To my surprise, the other one seemed different.  I decided that this is a picture of female GREAT FRIGATEBIRD.

 

That second one disappeared while I was consulting my field guides, but it flew back a few minutes later, and I got this picture of it in the air.

 

There is another difference between the species that involves the extent of white in the armpits, and this one matches the Great Frigatebird pattern there, too.  Then this one harassed the two in the tree and chased them away, and when that was going on, I could see that this one was noticeably larger than the other two as well, another key difference between the species.  So, although I am far from an expert on frigatebirds, I think I saw both species.  I would be glad to be corrected if I have it wrong, as always.  I had seen Great Frigatebird in Hawaii, so it wasn’t a lifer, but it was a good one for my Aussie life list.

 

By then it was lunch time, so I hiked back across the island to the resort and presented my lunch buffet ticket.  It was a fairly good buffet, considering we were out on an island, and I stoked up the furnace.  After lunch, there wasn’t much more to look for, so I wandered around and took pictures.  I had asked about a particular species of shearwater (a sea bird) in the morning, and was told where there were burrows that they use for nests.  The adult birds fly off all day long to catch fish, then come back at dark to feed the young, which spend the day in the burrows.  I was told that one could see a young bird in one of the burrows, so I went looking for it.  I couldn’t really tell which holes under the trees were burrows, and I couldn’t see anything in any of them.  Later in the afternoon, I saw the young woman resort employee who had told me about them, and she kindly offered to show me.  She found one of the burrows and got down on her hands and knees in front of it and said she could see the young bird in there.  So, I did the same, and I got a dim view of part of a bird.  Since there is only one species of shearwater that nests there, and I did see a bird, I decided to count WEDGE-TAILED SHEARWATER for my trip list.  I guess I had seen the species on my first Aussie trip, in 2002, as that is what my records show, but I don’t remember where it was.  That record is at home.  It was another unsatisfactory look at a bird that I counted.

 

In the morning, I had gone to look for another species, following directions, and had seen one bird and in another spot, a young one.  They were poor looks, and I got pictures, but in the afternoon I went again.  This time I found the mother lode, a little batch of adult and young RED-TAILED TROPICBIRDS.  That is one I had had a very distant flying view of in 2006 in Western Australia and have seen flying in Hawaii.  It was kind of cool to see them on the ground, ten feet away, with three chicks in various stages of growth.  Here are a couple of adult Red-tailed Tropicbirds.

 

You can see the single long red feather that streams out behind them when they fly, if you look closely.  Here is a picture of an adult with one of the chicks.

 

Here is a picture of the oldest chick.  It was stretching its wings, which kept bumping into the branches of the bush it was under.

 

I walked the beaches, looking for birds, stopping from time to time to rest in the shade.  It was pretty hot, and even though a nice breeze was blowing, walking in the sun heated me up.  Here is another beach view.

 

It was low tide, and the people you can see were walking on the sand between bits of reef, looking at the reef life.

 

There was one more species that I hadn’t seen yet, and I had asked about that one, too.  Based on the advice I got, I trekked across the island again to the area of the lighthouse and sat in the shade at the hut here.  I was looking for a large sea bird, and I scanned the ocean from time to time.  I was hoping to see one sitting on a buoy or a boat, but that never happened.  I did see three large birds flying up the beach, and it looked like they were my target bird.  I foolishly stood up and moved out to get a better view, and then I couldn’t find them again in my binoculars.  It had looked to me like they were flying right up the shoreline, but it turned out they were angling away from me, and when I saw them again, finally, they were too far away and right into the sun.  I am pretty sure they were my target species, but I decided it wasn’t a good enough look.  A little later, I saw a single bird, and this time I kept it in my binoculars as it approached.  Before it flew into the sun, I was able to determine from its size and shape that it was a booby, which is what I was looking for.  It was also dark, and that made it a BROWN BOOBY, another one for my Aussie life list, but I have seen them in Hawaii.

 

It was approaching time to leave, so I made my way back to the resort and checked in for my return flight, which was scheduled to leave at 4 o’clock.  While waiting, I discovered that the office area was air conditioned, and I spent 15 minutes in there, sitting down and cooling off.

 

We actually got off ten minutes early on the return flight, and there were only 7 passengers going back to Bundaberg.  Here is a picture of our takeoff, down the bumpy grass runway.

 

And here is a final view of Lady Elliot Island.

 

The flight back was smoother than the one over in the morning, and even over the land, the bumps didn’t bother me like they had in the morning.  Here is Bundaberg airport, as we approached.

 

My caravan park is the green area of trees on the left side of the picture, so I didn’t have far to drive after I paid my ten bucks for parking at the airport all day.

 

It was a successful birding day, netting me 11 species for my trip list, of which 5 were lifers and two more were new for my Aussie life list.  That brings me to 275 for the trip, of which 23 are lifers.  Since my original goal was 300 species with 20 lifers, I am obviously doing very well.  There will be more new species, when I get up north.

 

I enjoyed the day, and seeing the island was interesting, but there was something unsatisfying about it, too.  I decided that the unsatisfying part is because it wasn’t really birding – it was more like shooting fish in a barrel.  The birds were all so easy to see that it took some of the fun out of it for me.  I hadn’t expected that reaction, and it is interesting.  Anyway, I’m very glad I went, and it helped my list a lot, so I have absolutely no regrets, but it wasn’t really birding like I’m used to.  I had thought I might snorkel, but the snorkel areas were far from the changing area, and you need a buddy to go with, and I didn’t have one.  It would have been too inconvenient, so I don’t regret not doing it.

 

So, today (Friday), I head north.  My next real birding destination of significance is Townsville, and that is about 11 or 12 hours of driving away.  I don’t like long days of driving, so I have broken it up into three days of driving, which means two one-night stands along the way, one of which will entail a detour up into the mountains in search of a lifer bird.  I have some birding sites to check out each day, but there is every reason to think I will get skunked on one of the next three days.  We will see.