CHRISTMAS IS & COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS TRIP REPORT NOV/DEC 08
PART 3 OF 4
Day 7 – Today we headed off in four different directions, covering as much of
the island as we could in a single day. Some decided to walk part of the
Blowholes Track which was still closed for the red crab migration. Others
visited LB3 and checked out the lone Wood Sandpiper that had been there all
week, while others visited the garbage tip locating White-throated Needletails,
which are an unusual visitor to Christmas Island.
Day 8 - We arrived on Cocos late afternoon and a quick drive to Q-Station swamp
followed by the garbage tip produced a good number of White-breasted Waterhen
and Green Junglefowl. An early night followed in preparation of our very full
schedule over the next few days.
Day 9- started with a motorized outrigger trip to South Is. After an hour we
arrived and our search for Saunder’s Tern began. As we approached the location
I had seen them several times over the last couple of years, they were nowhere
to be seen. A scan of the surrounding sand flats revealed only Ruddy
Turnstone, Bar-tailed Godwit and Greater Sand Plover. As we moved out onto the
sand flats I began to worry that they had not made the long journey from the
Africa/Middle East this year. I needn’t have worried as Pat spotted some small
terns loafing on a sandbank to our left. A quick look through the scope
confirmed their ID as SAUNDER’S TERNS. We repositioned ourselves with the sun
at our backs and counted ten birds, obtaining some nice pics of this uncommon
species in non-breeding plumage.
We cruised back across the lagoon’s clear turquoise waters to West Island and
after a quick visit to the supermarket we were off to Horsburgh and Direction
Islands. After lunch on Horsburgh Island we walked to the brackish wetlands
and not surprisingly, things were rather quiet during the middle of the day,
but we still found White Tern, CI White-eye, Pacific Black Duck, Common
Greenshank and an unusual dark morph reef heron.
Half the group opted to swim and explore Direction Island while the rest of us
snorkelled on the 100yr old wreck in the lagoon. The Phaeton was the sister
ship to the Cutty Sark and sank in the lagoon 100yrs ago coming to rest in less
than 20ft of water. Now it’s an artificial reef swarming with parrotfish,
angelfish, butterfly fish, surgeonfish and thousands of other reef fish, making
it one of the world’s best snorkelling locations.
The weather was looking good for tomorrows trip to North Keeling.
To be continued ........
I'll be running the same trip again in Nov/Dec 2009.
Cheers
Richard Baxter
Birding Tours Australia
www.birdingtours.com.au
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