birding-aus

TORRES STRAIT BIRDING TRIP REPORT NOV 08 PT 3 OF 3

To:
Subject: TORRES STRAIT BIRDING TRIP REPORT NOV 08 PT 3 OF 3
From: Richard Baxter <>
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:55:59 -0800 (PST)








TORRES STRAIT BIRDING TRIP REPORT NOV 2008 PART 3 OF 3
 
After staying the night moored off Kodall Island we departed in our Zodiacs for 
Ugar Island at 4am. Also known as Stephen Island, it, like Boigu and Saibai are 
a long way further north than the main Torres Strait islands.  Ugar is 
completely different than all the other Northern Torres Strait islands in that 
it is made of rich volcanic soil and covered in tall, lush vegetation, other 
than mangroves.  The island is home to only forty people, there are ten 
children at the school and it’s here that in 1993 a Common Paradise Kingfisher 
was seen.  Its close proximity to PNG and rainforest covered hills made it a 
MUST DO for us on this trip.


Within minutes of landing we had nesting Rose-crowned Fruit Doves (8) and 
brilliantly coloured Red-headed Honeyeaters (8).  During our morning on the 
island we saw:
Koel (4)
Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher (6)
Rainbow Bee-eater (1)
Dollarbird (1)
Mangrove Golden Whistler (6)
Black-faced Monarch (1)
Chestnut-breasted Manniken (22)
Metallic Starling (3) and Pale White-eye (40).
  
On the afternoon of day 7 we anchored off Aureed Island and after a few hours 
exploring ashore we had found:
Great Frigatebird (8)
Red-backed Button Quail (8)
Beach Stone-Curlew (4)
Lesser Crested Tern (4)
Roseate Tern (2)
Black-naped Tern (200)
Bridled Tern (5)
Superb Fruit Dove (1)
Oriental Cuckoo (1)
Northern Fantail (1) and Pale White-eye (15).
 
The 18/11 was day eight and our final day.  We travelled south west from Aureed 
Island towards Zuizin Island which is also known as Halfway Island, aptly named 
given that it is half way between Cape York and Papua New Guinea.  Zuizin 
Island proved to be one of the most remarkable finds of the entire trip.  Known 
to be the only island in the Torres Strait to be lush and green all year round, 
many suspect it has a spring and islanders have dug a well in the middle of the 
island but this could not account for incredible size and shape of the trees on 
the island.  Zuizin must have a very accessible water table just below the 
ground as the entire island is covered in very old, giant trees, mostly 
pisonia.  Many had trunks the size of small cars and grew over 100ft high, 
creating an enormous enclosed canopy.  It was birding in the land of the giants 
and an incredible sight given the island is a sand cay less than 1km long.  
Birding high lights were:
 
Beach Stone-curlew (2)
Lesser Crested Tern (2)
Mangrove Golden Whistler (2)
Noisy Pitta (2) and Pale White-eye (20). 


The main birding high light of Zuizin Island was Black Noddy of which we 
counted 4000 birds.
 
The rest of the day was spent travelling past a couple of small sand cays such 
as Woiz Island which produced several species of terns, boobies and frigatebird 
but the high light was the passing migrating flocks of Spangled Drongo (341) 
heading south towards the mainland.
 
We disembarked at Horn Island Jetty on the afternoon of the 18/11/2009.
 
SPECIAL BIRDS SEEN:
 
GURNEY'S EAGLE
SINGING STARLING
COLLARED IMPERIAL PIGEON
PALE WHITE-EYE
Possible PINON IMPERIAL PIGEON 
 
Conditions throughout the trip were ideal for birding with slight, cooling 
winds most days, virtually no rain and no mozzies.
 
I have 1 vacancy for the final Torres Strait trip in Feb 09.  These are 
NON-PROFIT trips with all payments going to the boat charter company.
 
 
Cheers
Richard Baxter
Birding Tours Australia
www.birdingtours.com.au


Start your day with Yahoo!7 and win a Sony Bravia TV. Enter now.


      Start your day with Yahoo!7 and win a Sony Bravia TV. Enter now 
http://au.docs.yahoo.com/homepageset/?p1=other&p2=au&p3=tagline
==============================www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com

To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 
=============================
<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
  • TORRES STRAIT BIRDING TRIP REPORT NOV 08 PT 3 OF 3, Richard Baxter <=
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU