Forwarded on behalf of Richard Baxter who had trouble attempting to send.
Due to cancellations, Richard has one or two spots available on the
forthcoming trip with a similar itinerary on the same boat from 21-28
February 2009 Horn Is to Horn Is.
TORRES STRAIT TRIP REPORT NOV 2008 Part 1 of 3.
From the 11-18 Nov 2008 eleven birders travelled to several islands
of the Torres Strait aboard the 60ft vessel San Miguel. This was the third
of four such trips, with the last trip running in Feb 2009. For which I
still have a vacancy.
Those on board: Bill Alcock, Richard Baxter (Organiser/Leader), John
Bergy, Mike Carter, Nigel & Anne Harland, Jim & Gail Macready, Peter Marsh,
Mike Tarburton, Jill Warner.
The group stayed the first night on Horn Island, home to the airport
that services adjacent Thursday Island where several of us spent a relaxing
day birding and visiting the local cultural centre prior to the trip.
We boarded the vessel San Miguel on the morning of the 11th and were
soon on our way due north towards Saibai Island. Saibai is only 5km from
mainland Papua New Guinea and the Papuans visit the township on the northern
side of the island in their runabouts each day. Several species of birds
also make the daily trip across our EEZ and a couple of these were our
target species for the trip.
Species seen on day 1 from the boat included
Brown Booby (1)
Bridled Tern (19)
Pied Imperial Pigeon (21)
Common Tern (5)
White-bellied Sea-Eagle(2) as well as several other terns and
noddies.
Generally it was a quiet crossing with many opting for a midday
sleep and a good book rather than birding in the heat.
Day 2 and we landed on Saibai Island at dawn. Our main target for
the day was COLLARED IMPERIAL PIGEON (6) and we had several views of these
in flight prior to locating a very co-operative individual perched amongst
the mangroves which allowed us all good views of what has to be one of
Australia's most stunning birds.
We didn’t expect to see Singing Starling (3) until we arrived on
Boigu Island but we had an early fly over of three adjacent to Saibai Island’s
cemetery. Unfortunately not all in our group were able to get good views.
We birded the island all day with a break for lunch back on the boat.
High lights on the Species List for day two were:
Radjah Shellduck (15)
Lesser Frigatebird (1)
Pied Heron (15)
Glossy Ibis (25)
Brown Goshawk A.f.[dogwa] (2)
Little Curlew (1), Caspian Tern (2)
Little Bronze Cuckoo (1)
Little Kingfisher (1)
Collared Kingfisher (1)
Large-billed Gerygone (5)
Northern Fantail (1)
Rufous-banded Honeyeater (1)
Cicadabird (1) and Yellow-bellied Sunbird.
Day 3 On day three we returned to Saibai Island where we spent most
of the morning searching for Papuan Flowerpeckers that had proved elusive
the previous day. We searched all of the regular locations for
Flowerpeckers from previous years until lunchtime but again they proved
elusive.
Species seen on Saibai during the day were:
Orange-footed Scrubfowl (3)
Osprey (2), Little Tern (3)
Peaceful Dove (1)
Pheasant Coucal (1)
Dollarbird (1)
Tawny-breasted Honeyeater (5)
Varied Honeyeater (10)
Dusky Honeyeater (1)
Mangrove Golden Whistler (1)
Leaden Flycatcher (5)
Shining Flycatcher (2)
Rufous Fantail (1)
Spangled Drongo (30)
Metallic Starling (18)
Varied Triller (2)
Black Butcherbird (2)
Torresian Crow (30) as well as 14 wader species.
After lunch on day 3 we decided to head east to Boigu Island,
arriving in time to spend several hours of birding around the township
before sunset. Our few hours revealed:
Wandering Whistling Duck (10)
Little Egret (6)
Pied Heron (180)
Striated Heron (2)
Buff-banded Rail (3)
Red-backed Button Quail (5)
Gull-billed Tern (50)
Brown-backed Honeyeater (8)
White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike (2)
Golden-headed Cisticola (5) and Australian Pratincole (1).
The highlight of the afternoon was good extended looks at SINGING
STARLING (10) on the Boigu Island waterfront.
Cheers
Richard Baxter
Birding Tours Australia
www.birdingtours.com.au
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