A late report of the birds of Lady Musgrave Island, Bunker Group, southern
Great Barrier Reef. My partner and myself camped for three nights on the island
(20-23 of September), after catching the Lady Musgrave tour boat out from Port
Bundaberg. We spend a fair bit of our time in the water, and saw some pretty
spectacular marine life. Some of the (non-bird) highlights were watching a huge
(2m +) Moray Eel try to eat a rock lobster, plenty of turtles and fish, and
close views of a couple of Humpback Whales on the way back in. Now for the
birds:
Brown Booby - small parties were flying past the island most of the time. I
believe they breed on a nearby cay.
Frigatebird sp.
White-faced Heron
Eastern Reef Egret - Both white and dark morphs
Buff-banded Rail - Very common in the campground, and quite bold. On one rainy
afternoon one tried to enter our tent!
Bar-tailed Godwit
Grey-tailed Tattler
Wandering Tattler
Ruddy Turnstone
Pied Oystercatcher
Sooty Oystercatcher
Pacific Golden Plover
Silver Gull
Crested Tern
Lesser Crested Tern - A single bird seen on one occasion
Roseate Tern - Up to 6, in 3 pairs, but not seen on every day. Some were
courting.
Black-naped Tern - 3, resting on a glass-bottom boat at the tour operator's
pontoon
Bridled Tern - Quite common, and appeared to be claiming nest sites around tree
bases and cavities in the campground. Were very tame.
Black Noddy - Many thousands, with large numbers of birds coming and going the
whole time and pairs in courtship flights over the island. Most trees on the
island were full of nests, which the birds were building during our visit.
Defiantly one of the highlights of the trip was having these birds pick up
leaves from about our feet and have nests all around us (although be prepared
to have to clean bird crap off most of your gear!).
Sacred Kingfisher
House Sparrow - ~10 in the campground. This was probably the most unexpected
bird (for me). Silvereyes were the only other passerine present.
Silvereye (race chlorocephala)
I'm happy to provide more info on the camping etc if anyone is interested.
Cheers
Carl Gosper
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