It was a case of right place, right time for once with my camera last week when
I caught up with plenty of Red-tailed Tropicbirds at Rocky Point, Norfolk
Island.
Rocky Point is the roughly the south-western corner of Norfolk Island and it is
accessed by a lovely walk through the 100 Acres reserve. The endangered endemic
Tasman Parakeet hasn't found its way there yet (mostly in the national park)
but the other two endemics (Norfolk Island Gerygone and Slender-billed
White-eye) are there. During summer you walk right under the biggest Black
Noddy and White Tern breeding colony on Norfolk. There are still a few
straggler Noddies nesting, but the White Terns appear to be all done.
At the point I had about 40 minutes of 10 or so tropicbirds doing all sorts of
aerial acrobatics right in front of me. Sometimes they came so close, I almost
wondered if they might also have some chicks still around and I was disturbing
them, but I'm almost certain they are all finished. A couple of months ago,
there was an adult sitting under a bush about six inches from the edge of the
track!
I took plenty of pictures and put them on my Norfolk Island natural history
blog if you're interested - http://naturalnorfolk.com/wp/?p=343
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