birding-aus

Lady Eliott Island

To:
Subject: Lady Eliott Island
From: Niels Poul Dreyer <>
Date: Sun, 17 Jan 1999 06:56:31
Hi Folks

I had a rare opportunity to visit Lady Elliott Island over last weekend on
a special standby (large discount). Diving was great (manta Rays, still
good reef (best on the SE side), leopard Sharks, a lot of gren turtles,
huge Giant Eel. 3 turtles made an attempt to lay eggs, but returned to the
sea. Has tourism on the Island something to do with that? 25 people went on
turtle watching in a group, but a few went out at night by themselves.
 but I saw the following birds:

Wedge-tailed Shearwater (too noisy for a good night sleep)
Reef Egret 
Great Frigate Bird +10
Red-tailed Tropic Bird 1
Greater Crested Tern +250
Bridled Tern
Caspian Tern
Brown Noddy a lot nesting on the grassy scrub flats
Sooty Noddy nesting in Casaurina Trees
Black-naped Tern (on the ground or near the ground)
Silver Gull (Disturb the terns)
Seaeagle 1 juv (make a mess of the colony)
Buff-breasted Rail (a few around the inhabitation)
Grey-tailed Tattler +12
Lesser Sand Plover +100
Pacific Golden Plover +50
Bar-tailed Godwit: one only
Whimbrel +10
Grey-tailed Tattler +25
Turnstone +100
Pied Oystercatcher 1
Black Oystercatcher 1
Tawny Grassbird 2
Silver-eye:  a few
House Sparrow a lot

BUT NO ROSENATE TERNS (RT), where are they?, RT should nest there, but I
looked everywhere early morning and late afternoon (of couse without
disturbing any nesting sites), also looked during midday but did not see
any sign of them. But a lot of Black-naped Terns!!!

What is the breeding cycle and populations of RT on lady Eliott?

Regards from Niels


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
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