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G'day all and apologies for the lack of reports over the past
month. When I have not been out gallavanting around the country, I have been
moving house and Telstra managed to cut off my internet access for two weeks, so
it is only now that I can give you an update.
So where was I? It all seems so long ago.
Oh yes. On the 9th of March, with the list on 331 ( I forgot
to mention last time that on the 28th of Feb I added Purple-crowned
Lorikeet and Banded Lapwing in the outer
suburbs west of Melbourne) I headed out to Melbourne Airport to meet up with
Mike Carter for the beginning of our trip to Christmas Island. Mike, who has
more species on his Australian list than any other twitcher, was hoping to find
something new for Australia, whereas I would be happy in getting all the
endemics with any vagrants a bonus. We were very hopeful of something good
turning up as we had news that the day before on Christmas Island,
Glenn Holmes had seen a Malayan Night Heron and David James a
Watercock.
The next morning at Perth Airport I managed to keep the list
ticking along with the addition of Singing Honeyeater along
with Brown Honeyeater and masses of (well a dozen) White-cheeked Honeyeaters. A
word of warning for those flying to Christmas Island, the airline
rigorously enforces weight limits on the flight. As we were taking our
binoculars and my telescope on board it took a lot of juggling and persuading to
get our combined gear on board.
Why the need for the optics? Well the flight makes two stops
en route to Christmas and both have good birding potential. The first stop is at
Learmonth which services the Exmouth gas and oil fields. Located in the desolate
Cape Range country, there is always the chance of seeing an arid zone species or
two from the terminal. All I managed to add was Zebra Finch,
but we think we could see two Western Bowerbirds sheltering from the heat under
an airport structure by the runway, but the views weren't conclusive- I shall
have to wait until later in the year to try again for that species.
The next stop is the Cocos Islands which sit in utter
isolation out there in the Indian Ocean. Just how isolated these islands are was
brought home when looking at the Qantas map, they seemed almost as close to Sri
Lanka as they are to Australia. As we landed on the airstrip we could see
several Green Junglefowl feeding on the grassy verges. This
bird is the Indonesian cousin of the Red Junglefowl and must have been released
sometime last century. There is now a healthy feral population of unquestionably
genuine birds, unlike most of the other chooks in other parts of Australia.
Quite a bonus species for me, as I didn't think I'd be able to get out here to
tick them off.
It was here that the trip almost ended in disaster, as
rather than go into the terminal, Mike and I wandered off
across the runway for a better look at the birds, (also adding Eastern
Reef Egret the only other bird we saw on the Cocos) thereby apparently
breaking all sorts of civil aviation and customs rules. It looked like we were
about to get into some serious trouble from a burly customs official after
we sauntered back, until a local came to our rescue by creating a diversion with
some other crisis allowing Mike and I to slink back on the plane. If anyone else
does the trip, it is possible to scope the birds from the terminal, thereby
avoiding any trouble with the authorities.
We finally arrived at Christmas Island around five o'clock and
as the plane touched down I could identify my first endemic, a pair of
Christmas Frigatebirds patrolling the runway like a a pair of
pre-historic sentinals. By the time we had picked up our baggage and sorted out
the hire car:- potential visitors beware: due to insurance problems the regular
car hire firms have gone out of business and it may be difficult in procuring a
car. Luckily for us, the place we were staying at had arranged for another
operator to provide a vehicle.
So you've just arrived on a new, lush, tropical island, with
the potential for all sorts of rarities, where would you go? We did what any
self-respecting twitcher would do and headed straight for the rubbish tip. And
what a magnificent tip it is- right up there with my all time top ten rubbish
dumps. Within minutes of arriving and suppressing the gag reflex from the
stench, I had added three more endemics: Christmas Island Imperial
Pigeon, Christmas Island White-eye, and Christmas Island Glossy
Swiftlet as well as a pair of Barn Swallow, decked out
in bold, fresh summer plumage, and to top it all off, we got very excited over
some odd looking Kestrels, for a while thinking we might be looking at a Common
Kestrel amongst the many Australian Kestrels. It wasn't to be, but it gave us a
brief thrill.
"Just how good is this place!" I was thinking, "No wonder they
put the refugee camp here." For indeed, our wonderful, compassionate,
caring government, had plonked the refugees alongside the tip, so that they
could be near all those Asian species, just to make them feel at home. By the
way, I hope all twitchers (and the people making the next checklist) realise
that under new legislation, any migratory species seen on Christmas Island (or
Ashmore Reef for that matter) must be taken off your Australian list as these
places fall within the new Migrant Exclusion Zones pronounced last year by the
Howards Government.
The refugees are doubly lucky as through the razor wire on the
other side of the camp is some degraded land (an old billy cart track) that
yielded Island Thrush and White-breasted
Waterhen, both new birds for me. By the time we had dragged ourselves
away from this magical area (gee I wish I was a refugee) and down to our motel
in the main settlement, I had further added Red-footed Booby,
White-tailed Tropicbird (in all its golden morph glory) and
Greater Frigatebird.
As we watched the tropical sun set over the Phosphate loading
facilities, my year list now standing at 345, with the last rays of the day
reflecting off the Golden Bosunbirds (the local name for White-tailed
Tropicbirds) making them positively glow, I thought, it doesn't get much better
than this.
And this was only the first day.
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