CHRISTMAS ISLAND AND COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS TRIP REPORT NOV-DEC 2008
PART 1 OF 4
Day 1-After departing Perth International airport on Monday morning 24
November 2008 and briefly stopping over in Learmonth, we were unexpectedly
diverted for the night to Cocos. Arriving just before dark we still managed to
see GREEN JUNGLEFOWL and Nankeen Night Heron. The Cocos-keeling Islands is the
only location in Australia where Green Junglefowl can be seen, so it was new
for the entire group. One of our group decided to walk up to Q-Station swamp
and located eight WHITE-BREASTED WATERHEN.
Day 2- After an early check-in at Cocos airport we returned to the beach side
café for breakfast and located ORIENTAL CUCKOO, as well as two White Terns
flying along the beach front. Red-footed Boobies could be seen feeding
offshore while we ate breakfast and Red-tailed Tropicbird, Grey-tailed Tattler,
Eastern Reef Egret as well as White-faced Herons were in the vicinity of our
motel.
We arrived on Christmas Island around lunchtime and after a quick visit to the
local supermarket, we checked into our accommodation. We spent the afternoon
exploring Settlement on foot and the northern coastline along to the Casino.
It was here we had our first encounters with Tree Sparrow, Christmas Island
White-eye, Island Thrush and Christmas Island Imperial Pigeon. Our walk along
the coastal cliffs gave everyone excellent views of Great Frigatebird, Brown
Booby, Red-footed Booby, Red-tailed Tropicbird as well as the World’s rarest
frigatebird – Christmas Island Frigatebird.
That evening we had a pre-arranged BBQ at Flying Fish Cove with Lisa Preston
from Christmas Island Travel. Prior to dinner we located three BARN SWALLOWS,
with the dark blue breast band clearly visible, flying along the front of the
cove buildings After a delicious ocean front BBQ we returned to our
accommodation to prepare for a very full week of birding ahead. An added bonus
of birding on CI is that there are no poisonous reptiles or spiders, no ticks,
no leeches and tropical diseases, such as malaria to worry about. The biggest
problem we anticipated all week was the millions of red crabs covering the
island on their annual migration.
Day 3 - On our first morning the pace began to quicken as we explored further
a field. As dawn broke, we were soon logging new species, with good views of
Java Sparrows near our accommodation. From here we headed down to the cove to
watch the Red Crab migration and spawning. The wet season had arrived early
this year with the first rains coming in late October. The island was green
and had a wet season look about it. Although the main crab migration had
occurred early, several roads and tracks were still closed due to this
secondary migration.
After breakfast we stopped at the obligatory Tourism Centre Lookout for Golden
Morph White-tailed Tropicbird which duly obliged with several close passes.
Golden Bosun Phaethon lepturus fulvus is surely the world’s most beautiful
seabird. Also here were Common Noddy, Red-footed Booby and Red-tailed
Tropicbird. Despite scanning the phosphate loader and nearby buoys we failed to
find any Lesser Noddy.
We’d been on the island for 24hrs and not visited the rubbish tip yet, which
I’m sure was a record for me. So next stop was the dump. As we strolled
through the tip Bill Ramsey said something like,” There’s an unusual swift up
there.” Soon after that we’d seen our first rarity of the trip, SILVER-BACKED
NEEDLETIAL. Once again the rubbish tip had delivered!
After lunch at the Noodle Bar we paid a visit to the plantation, which is a
good site for the recently split Christmas Island Goshawk. Before arriving we
flushed a goshawk from the road side and before long we all had good views of
this often very obliging species.
By late afternoon we only had two endemic species still to see - Abbott’s Booby
and the hawk owl. We finished the day off at Margaret Knoll with views of
Abbott’s Booby Papasula abbotti returning to the island from the south. This
Island is the only home of the endangered Abbott's Booby, which nests in the
tallest trees of the rainforest. Abbott’s Booby is not only the world’s rarest
booby but also has the largest wingspan of any booby and was once found on
other Indian Ocean islands and possibly in the South Pacific.
We also had some great views of the endemic Christmas Island Fruit Bat.
Margaret Knoll is the island’s most spectacular lookout and a great place to
spend an hour in the morning or evening. That evening we spent 20min at the
golf course seeing our last CI endemic- Christmas Island Hawk-Owl.
TO BE CONTINUED.........
Cheers
Richard Baxter
Birding Tours Australia
www.birdingtours.com.au
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