Hi All
Below is our trip report from the Torres Strait last week.
Thanks
Phil.
Torres Strait trip 1 – Trip report 7-14th October 2007 by Phil
Hansbro & Richard Baxter
This is the first of 3 trips to Australian Northern Torres Strait
Islands of Boigu, Saibai and Dauan in search of rare Australian birds
and vagrants from New Guinea and elsewhere. Trip 2 is currently
ongoing (16-23rd Oct 2007) and trip 3 is booked for November 2008.
There are around 4 places remaining on trip 3. The trips have been
organised by Richard Baxter and Phil Hansbro. The other participants
on the trip were Gail D’Alton, Rob Berry, Rob Quinan, Tom Smith,
Frank Pierce, Stuart Pell, Mark Taylor and Mike Carter.
Horn Island 6-7th Oct
We assembled at Horn Island from various parts of Australia and had
an afternoon of productive birding. Walking around the town we
managed to find our first real Northern birds of the trip, which
included; Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove, Pied Imperial-Pigeon, Radjah
Shelduck, a variety of migrant waders, Black-necked Stork, Blue-
winged Kookaburra, Helmeted Friarbird, Red-headed, Varied and Dusky
Honeyeaters as well as Broad-billed Flycatcher.
On the morning of the 7th we commissioned our provisions from the
bottle-shop and boarded the 60 foot air-conditioned cruiser “San
Miguel”, which would be our home for the next week. We left Horn
Island and cruised to our first stop of Little Tuesday Island. On the
way we located many large noddy and tern flocks and had good numbers
of Black-naped, Lesser Crested, Sooty and Bridled Terns as well as
Common and Black Noddies.
Little Tuesday Island 7th of Oct
It only took just over an hour to reach this island, which was the
site of our search for the restricted range Pale White-eye, which is
a Torres Strait endemic. We landed on the island and were greeted by
a pair of Beach Thick-knees and we soon began to search the island
for land birds. We quickly located Rufous fantails, which turned out
to be the commonest bird on the island as well as Dusky and Red-
headed Honeyeaters. Then we located a fruited tree and all managed to
get excellent views of the White-eyes and we saw around 10 in total
and a Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove also visited the tree. We also searched
the scrub and mangroves for other birds and found many Pied Imperial-
Pigeons, Mangrove Golden Whistler, Broad-billed Flycatcher and
Spectacled Monarch. Migration is more evident in this part of
Australia than anywhere else and we observed a flock of 30 bee-eaters
migrating as well as 15 White-throated Needletails.
We left the island and headed off to Boigu which was 10 hours
steaming. We saw Lesser Friagtebird as we were leaving and caught up
with other large tern and noddy flocks on the journey. Surprisingly
we came across a flock of all dark migrating land birds, which in the
end we decided were most likely Spangled Drongos.
Boigu 8-10th Oct
We spent 2.5 days on Boigu which proved to be very productive. On the
first day we arrived ashore before dawn and headed straight to the
wetlands near the airport in search of Spotted Whistling-Ducks. We
stopped on the way to look at the next Torres Strait speciality,
Singing Starlings which have made the areas around the village their
home. No luck with the ducks, although we did find nice flocks of
Wandering Whistling Ducks and the New Guinea race of Radjah Shelduck
and we spent the rest of the morning exploring the island for other
specialities and vagrants. Some species are surprisingly common on
the island including; Pied Heron, Rufous Night-Heron, Whimbrel,
Common Sandpiper, Gull-billed Tern, Bar-shouldered Dove, Pied
Imperial-Pigeon, Rainbow Bee-eater, Tawny-breasted, Varied, Brown-
backed and Red-headed Honeyeaters, White-breasted Woodswallow,
Spangled Drongo (including the endemic northern Torres Strait race),
Yellow-bellied Sunbird and Golden-headed Cisticola. We visited
several areas of forest in search of such rarities as Papuan
Flowerpecker and Collared Imperial-Pigeon and we stopped only to
return back to the boat for lunch. We had tantalising but brief views
of both the flowerpecker and Collared Imp but were compensated by a
range of other excellent birds. Red-backed Button-Quail are
relatively easy to see on the island and we had excellent views of
this normally very shy species. A pair of Little Whimbrel frequented
the airstrip everyday and a cracking male Eclectus Parrot flew over
our heads giving excellent views. Other birds of note that we managed
to catch up with were Orange-footed Scrubfowl, Buff-banded Rail, Wood
Sandpiper, Shining Flycatcher, Black Butcherbird and Large-billed
Gerygone. The next morning we returned to resume our search and this
time extended our route to cover many more wetlands on the inside of
the island. This turned up many more waders and other waterbirds but
no more whistling-ducks. We did get some interesting other species
including the first of our Large-tailed Nightjar and Cicadabird
sightings. We headed into some mangrove forest and we finally
rewarded with excellent views of a superb male Papuan Flowerpecker
which allowed good photographic opportunities. Just before lunch we
headed back to the boat and located a Yellow Wagtail of the race
similima. After lunch we boarded our zodiac and had a very enjoyable
cruise up the Boigu River to a beach on the far side of the island.
We heard many Kingfishers and sighted a Little kingfisher and a Red-
cheeked Parrot flew over our heads calling. A pair of Collared
Imperial-Pigeons also flew over but only one or two people got
reasonable views. We returned to the village to have another check of
the ducks but no luck and we headed back to the boat. Another
exploration of the island for the morning and the Flowerpeckers were
again located at the same site. More grey Imperial-Pigeons flew over
and this time some people finally got good views of two birds. Late
morning we headed back to the boat (with 25 fresh mudcrabs for
dinner!!) and headed off to Saibai.
Saibi 10th-12th Oct
We arrived in the afternoon and headed off straight onto the island.
We headed to some tall woodland where we soon found our first
Collared Imperial-Pigeons, which we flushed and didn’t give good
views. We then found several more, which we also flushed before
finding some perched which did give excellent views of this stunning
bird. We waited by a creek for a while and were rewarded by a close
fly-by of Little Kingfisher. While were waiting we also had good
views of pairs of Black Butcherbirds and Northern Fantails. Walking
through the town to the airstrip we watched a pair of Ospreys at
their nest and at the runway were 4 Little Curlews.
The next day we explored other areas of the island and visited known
sites for rarities. We started on the West end where a walk through
the forest and then visit the East side as well. The walks produced
our first Channel-billed Cuckoos as well as Spectacled Monarch and
several Black Butcherbirds. We arrived at a creek and within a few
minutes a Little Kingfisher gave the first of two fly-pasts and we
also discovered a pair of Collared Kingfishers beginning to nest
build in a termite mound. Several more Collared Imperial-Pigeons flew
over and we managed to get excellent views of an immature male Papuan
Flowerpecker. A stop at the airfield produced the first Oriental
Plover record for the northern Torres Strait islands and the 4 Little
Curlew were still there. At the rubbish tip we found the first
Zitting Cisticola of the trip and one of 3 obliging Pheasant Coucals
of the day, which are very dark in this region. After lunch we
boarded a ute and headed to the inside of the island to a series of
swamps. Here there were hundreds of Egrets, a flock of 240 Straw-
necked Ibis and many waders including Sharp-tailed and Marsh
Sandpipers, Greenshank and Red-necked Stint but the highlight was 2
Australian Pratincoles. We also had several tantalising views of
large raptors and a flock of 40 migrating Spangled Drongos. On the
drive we saw 3 Brown Goshawks of the dogwa race, 2 Brolga and a fine
male Eclectus Parrot. We finished off with a cleansing ale at the bar.
Up early again but an abortive trip to attempt to land on the island,
the tide was very low and a barge was blocking the slipway so we
returned to the boat for a sleep-in but we did watch our now pet
Ospreys eating fish on the marker buoys. Mid-morning we boarded
zodiacs for a trip along a river that proved to be most rewarding. We
set of and started well with 3 Black-necked Storks on the mudflats.
We then headed to the mouth of the river and soon found a large Eagle
soaring above the mudflats. The bird was all dark brown with bulging
secondaries and a long rounded tail. All birders saw the bird and
agreed it was a Gurney’s Eagle. This is around the 4-5th record for
Australia and was potentially the 800th bird for Mike Carter.
Dauan 12th-13th Oct
After lunch we travelled to the close by island of Dauan. Here we
walked around the village and explored the woodlands of the islands.
Pied Imperial Pigeons proved to be very common and we saw several
Australian Koels and 3 Eclectus Parrots. A lucky few flushed a
nightjar and had good enough views to identify it as a White-throated
Nightjar. Another new bird for the trip and an endemic subspecies was
Mangrove Golden Whistler. We headed back to the boat and saw a total
of 15 Channel-billed cuckoos flying the wrong way.
We spent all day exploring the island, with a break for an extended
lunch during the hot part of the day. There were no rarities but we
did managed to find some new birds for the trip. A real highlight was
at least 7 Noisy Pittas of the New Guinea race and excellent views of
Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove, as well as 6 Eclectus Parrots. New for the
trip were 3 Forest Kingfishers, Emerald Dove 5 Greater Sand and a
Grey Plover. We also saw large numbers of some species with 50 Grey-
tailed Tattler, 10 Lesser Sand Plover, 10 Koels, 25 Channel-billed
Cuckoos and 100 Yellow-bellied Sunbird, at least 10 Large-billed
Gerygones, 20 Shining Flycatcher and 8 Rufous Fantail. Other
highlights were Buff-banded Rail, Red-backed Button-Quail, 2 Mangrove
Golden Whistler, 3 immature Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike. We left at 3am
the next morning for the trip back to Horn Island.
Dauan-Horn Island 14th Oct
A quiet day today and we were back on Horn Island by 11.00am. On the
way we saw a few terns including Sooty, Bridled, Black-naped and
Lesser Crested and again 5 migrating Spangled Drongo. Back to our
hotel and a very enjoyable day relaxing and chatting.
For Butterfly enthusiasts we also saw at least 30 species of
butterflies.
If you would like to have a copy of our log or come along in November
2008 email myself or Richard
==============================www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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