TORRES STRAIT BIRDING TRIP REPORT NOV 2008 PART 3 OF 3
After staying the night moored off Kodall Island we departed in our Zodiacs for
Ugar Island at 4am. Also known as Stephen Island, it, like Boigu and Saibai are
a long way further north than the main Torres Strait islands. Ugar is
completely different than all the other Northern Torres Strait islands in that
it is made of rich volcanic soil and covered in tall, lush vegetation, other
than mangroves. The island is home to only forty people, there are ten
children at the school and it’s here that in 1993 a Common Paradise Kingfisher
was seen. Its close proximity to PNG and rainforest covered hills made it a
MUST DO for us on this trip.
Within minutes of landing we had nesting Rose-crowned Fruit Doves (8) and
brilliantly coloured Red-headed Honeyeaters (8). During our morning on the
island we saw:
Koel (4)
Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher (6)
Rainbow Bee-eater (1)
Dollarbird (1)
Mangrove Golden Whistler (6)
Black-faced Monarch (1)
Chestnut-breasted Manniken (22)
Metallic Starling (3) and Pale White-eye (40).
On the afternoon of day 7 we anchored off Aureed Island and after a few hours
exploring ashore we had found:
Great Frigatebird (8)
Red-backed Button Quail (8)
Beach Stone-Curlew (4)
Lesser Crested Tern (4)
Roseate Tern (2)
Black-naped Tern (200)
Bridled Tern (5)
Superb Fruit Dove (1)
Oriental Cuckoo (1)
Northern Fantail (1) and Pale White-eye (15).
The 18/11 was day eight and our final day. We travelled south west from Aureed
Island towards Zuizin Island which is also known as Halfway Island, aptly named
given that it is half way between Cape York and Papua New Guinea. Zuizin
Island proved to be one of the most remarkable finds of the entire trip. Known
to be the only island in the Torres Strait to be lush and green all year round,
many suspect it has a spring and islanders have dug a well in the middle of the
island but this could not account for incredible size and shape of the trees on
the island. Zuizin must have a very accessible water table just below the
ground as the entire island is covered in very old, giant trees, mostly
pisonia. Many had trunks the size of small cars and grew over 100ft high,
creating an enormous enclosed canopy. It was birding in the land of the giants
and an incredible sight given the island is a sand cay less than 1km long.
Birding high lights were:
Beach Stone-curlew (2)
Lesser Crested Tern (2)
Mangrove Golden Whistler (2)
Noisy Pitta (2) and Pale White-eye (20).
The main birding high light of Zuizin Island was Black Noddy of which we
counted 4000 birds.
The rest of the day was spent travelling past a couple of small sand cays such
as Woiz Island which produced several species of terns, boobies and frigatebird
but the high light was the passing migrating flocks of Spangled Drongo (341)
heading south towards the mainland.
We disembarked at Horn Island Jetty on the afternoon of the 18/11/2009.
SPECIAL BIRDS SEEN:
GURNEY'S EAGLE
SINGING STARLING
COLLARED IMPERIAL PIGEON
PALE WHITE-EYE
Possible PINON IMPERIAL PIGEON
Conditions throughout the trip were ideal for birding with slight, cooling
winds most days, virtually no rain and no mozzies.
I have 1 vacancy for the final Torres Strait trip in Feb 09. These are
NON-PROFIT trips with all payments going to the boat charter company.
Cheers
Richard Baxter
Birding Tours Australia
www.birdingtours.com.au
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