WARNING: Long posting and a few paragraphs at the end concern bird song.
You may wish to delete now.
Hello Martyn,
In the course of your sounding off about Man's devastation
of this beautiful planet, you wrote, apropos of Bernie's Galapagos/Rio Napo
Ecuador trip:
>
> I can not picture roosters sounding off in a rain forest!
>
That comment caught my eye, for I was saddened to hear roosters sounding of=
f
in the rainforest on Lord Howe Island.
Apart from being one of the most beautiful small (16 square km) islands in
the world , LHI is a rarity in that it was never invaded by mankind prior t=
o
its discovery by the British in 1788. It's an isolated speck in the Pacifi=
c
580 km east of Australia, the nearest land, and apparently the Polynesian
and Melanesian navigators never chanced upon it. Just about Paradise on
Earth, it must have been, until the Brits found it. We humans have made up
for lost time since, and exterminated a number of species. Rats from a
wrecked ship have been part of it. In recent times, feral goats and pigs
have been eliminated but rats are far more difficult, with the Pied Piper
just a long gone legend.
It's a volcanic island with two high peaks, Mts Gower & Lidgbird. The top
of Mt Gower (875m) is accessible, just, but the Island administration
requires visitors not to go there unless with a local guide. There is no
mountain rescue team; the top is often in cloud; and there are only two way=
s
down: the single very steep climb you came up, or fall to your death down
vertical cliffs.
The top is a miniature plateau. It's a cloud forest clothed in moss and
almost every plant you see there is found nowhere else except on LHI. A
magical place.=20
The Australian Flora (vol 49) records 241 species of indigenous plants for
LHI, of which 105 (43%) are endemic.
But although humans have created havoc there, perhaps three-quarters of the
island is still natural, at least to the extent that the original vegetatio=
n
has never been cleared. Rats, and a serious weed problem (218 species of
naturalised exotic plants) mean it is not entirely natural. But the
island administration aims to keep it as natural as possible. Most of the
island has been made Permanent Park reserve - the equivalent of a national
park.
So I was surprised and saddened one morning when out before dawn hoping for
a tape recording of the Woodhen, a flightless Rail with some very
interesting calls, (which I didn't get anyway), to hear a rooster or
roosters crowing in the rainforest up on the lower slopes of Mt Gower.
The Woodhen is a species saved from extinction. It was nearly wiped out an=
d
certainly would have been but for the inaccessibility of the tops of the tw=
o
mountains. Pigs and goats couldn't get there, and apparently the rats
didn't. A small population (30 maybe?) survived on the mountain tops and
were the nucleus for a successful recovery plan which has seen them restore=
d
to many of their old haunts on the island.
Originally the Woodhen was probably the only bird feeding on the
invertebrate fauna of the rainforest litter - easy pickings - and they neve=
r
bothered to learn to scratch; just push the litter aside with their beaks
and eat. So when I decided to weed an area being choked by Crofton-weed,
the local woodhen was delighted to follow me around for the freshly
disturbed litter that had previously been inaccessible to it. Didn't seem
to realise however, that when I sat down for a rest, there was nothing on
offer, and it would come up and look questioningly at me. Even climb over
my extended legs.
But LHI birds are friendly like that. A delightful experience is to stand
on the cliff-top at Malabar with the Pacific a few hundred metres below you=
r
feet, and have a Sooty Tern riding the up-draft to remain poised in mid-air
staring at you from about a metre away - and occasionally pedalling like ma=
d
with its webbed-feet to maintain its stationary position.
On mainland Australia the Emerald Dove (Chalcophaps indica) is a wary bird.
On LHI I've often seen them strolling along the verandah of a resort
apartment looking for crumbs. And on one occasion out in the rainforest, a
family group of five walked past my feet as I stood still on a Mutton-bird
path. One even paused and considered walking between my boots, then decide=
d
not to.
The endemic subspecies of Currawong (Strepera graculina crissalis) has some
fascinating songs markedly different from those on the Australian continent=
.
And as Ian Hutton points out in his book Birds of Lord Howe Island, they ar=
e
extremely curious birds. A currawong, he writes, "will often locate hikers
on the Island's walking tracks, and follow them with beady-eyed curiosity,
hopping from tree to tree".
LHI has only a small number of Oscines but as they have come from afar they
have interesting song variants developed in their splendid isolation. The
European Blackbird and Song thrush are relatively recent arrivals. Both
species were introduced into Australia and New Zealand, but they found thei=
r
own way to LHI probably from New Zealand.
I'm not competent to compare them with the European originals, but the
Thrush at least, has developed an Australian 'flavour' to its song, by
incorporating mimicry of the Australian Magpie-lark (Grallina cynoleuca).
Perhaps the best songster of LHI is the Golden Whistler, again an endemic
subspecies (Pachycephala pectoralis contempta) with songs markedly differen=
t
from those of the mainland G. whistlers.
And the Island really is a paradise for the terns - not a single seagull to
take their eggs or chicks.
Cheers
Syd Curtis (Brisbane, Australia)
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