Lord Howe Island 2005 - days 1 and 2

Mt Lidgbird and Mt Gower viewed from Old Settlement Beach

This was a special tour organized for the Canberra Ornitholgists Group and led by Ian Hutton of Lord Howe Island Nature Tours. Ian had kindly made it possible for me to join this tour by organizing my flights to and from the island and arranging for my accommodation. I am most grateful to him for this generous assistance which made it possible for me to see the island once again after 17 years absence.

Day one

Friendly Golden Whistler on our balcony

We all set off for Lord Howe Island on Sunday 13th November arriving on different flights but by 3pm we are assembled on the island. Our DASH-8 flew in to land on the strip from the E and therefore we passed close overMuttonbird Island and picked up Masked Booby Sula dactylatra even before we had landed! At the airport buildings and on the way in the shuttlebus to the settlement we noted Pied Currawong Strepera graculina (subspecies contempta), Welcome Swallow Hirundo neoxena, Pacific Golden Plover Pluvialis fulva, Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres, an Eastern Curlew Numenius madagascariensis, Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus, Magpie-lark Grallina cyanoleuca, Sacred Kingfisher Todiramphus sactus, White Tern Gygis alba, Golden Whistler Pachycephala pectoralis (subspecies contempta), Blackbird Turdus merula, Lord Howe White-eye Zosterops tephropleura, Sooty Tern Sterna fusca, Emerald Ground Dove Chalcophaps indica, Buff-banded Rail Gallirallus philippensis and two WOODHENS Gallirallus sylvstris! These Woodhens were seen on the side of the lagoon road a little N of the intersection with Middle Beach Road. What a start! We are all booked into the Somerset Apartments. The rooms are excellent.

The party includes: Barbara Allen, Frank Atkinson, Jenny Bounds, Kathy and David Cook, Colleen and Mike Crowley (from Moruya), John Disney (from Sydney), Suzanne and Peter Edgar, Andrew Henley, Julienne and John Kampard, Shirley Kral, Ruth Parker, Adele and David Rosalky and Linda Spinaze and Roger Clarke. An added reason for the visit was to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Woodhen Rescue with some special functions arranged for 15th November at the LHI museum in its fine new building.

After settling into our rooms we go off to buy some necessities for breakasts at the nearby Thompson's Store and then set off for a short walk along lagoon road towards the jetty. White Terns are everywhere, specially in the Norfolk Island Pines Araucaria heterophylla. Many are sitting on their single eggs but some have newly hatched downies. The chittering calls of these terns can be heard everywhere often accompanied by the strange twanging sound of the 'rubber band' call. Courting parties of 3-5 birds, sometimes more, wheel in and out between the spread limbs of the pines. The 'Island Trader' is tied up and unloading at the Jetty.

The Island Trader at the jetty



Signal Point and the mountains






White Terns


Note the protruding hemispherical eye on this bird





White Terns

Day two

Today we are making two trips by boat to Ball's Pyramid. The very calm conditions yesterday alerted us to the need to fit in this trip while the weather holds. I am on the afternoon run so with John, Collen and Mike we go for a walk in the morning to Old Settlement Beach. At the creek there are broods of hybrid duck. These birds are all clearly of Mallard x Pacific Black Duck (Anas platyrhynchos x A. supersciliosa) origin and presumably represent progeny from imigrants that have arrived from New Zealand. Perhaps we should call these birds 'Pallards' or 'Mallacks'! I do not see any convincing pure Pacific Black Duck except perhaps two birds seen at too great a distance some days later at Soldiers Creek below Capella Lodge. The several broods here at Old Settlement Creek are mostly half grown or large but some are broods of small downies about 10 days old and a few are near fledged only lacking their full grown flight feathers. I did not count all brood numbers but broods of 5, 3 and 2 were noted. All broods were accompanied only by the duck and all drakes were in dull feathering and still largely in eclipse (basic) plumage though having new flight feathers. The phenotype here on LHI is rather different from most of the 'feral' ducks now so often seen in the city parks and urban waterways of Australia, particularly in the south-east. Here the hybrids are presumably derived from domestic breeds of Mallard and hybrids between them and domestic forms of the Muscoy Duck. To add to the complications these 'ferals' sometimes breed with Pacific Black Duck.

Most of the hybrid drakes were associating in small parties by this time of the year but some pairs were noted, however, only when the duck was not still accompanied by ducklings. There must have been at least 5 broods, probably more, in the Old Settlement creek area!

Hybrid duck with 3 large and well feathered ducklings in Old Settlement Creek

On the meadows behind Old Settlement Beach we found several Ruddy Turnstrone 13 Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica, 27 Pacific Golden Plover, 4 Masked Lapwing Vanellus miles and 2 Common Starling Sturnus vulgaris - now becoming very scarce on the island we are told.

Bar-tailed Godwits and a Pacific Golden Plover on the Old Settlement Beach meadows

Blackbird and Golden Whistler were conspicuously in song from the lowland Drypetes-Cryptocarya closed forests and Howea forsteriana palm forested areas along the lagoon shore on the way to the creek. A few Song Thrush Turdus philomelos were also noted in full song. Magpie-lark, LH White-eye, Sacred Kingfisher and Welcome Swallow were noted. We saw a Masked Booby and there were 6 Pied Currawong in our count at Old Settelment Beach, mostly flynig over and calling from the surrounding hills. One White-faced Heron was also seen close up to the forest edge behind the meadow at Old Seyylement Beach and we found a Buff-banded Rail with a brood of three fluffy black downies. We noted that a small colony of Sooty Terns was now established at the far S end of Dawsons Point.

We departed from the jetty at 12:30 pm for Ball's Pyramid aboad the Phasmid....... We used the north passage to leave the lagoon and headed south along the shoreline below Mt Gower and out to the Pyramid in good conditions with a slight southerly swell and light wind. It took little more than an hour to get to the pyramid. A few fleeting glimpses of a Providence Petrel or two were had on the way down but by this time of year we could not expect to see many of this winter breeding species.

The mountains viewed across the lagoon

Mt Gower and to the right from sea level Little Slope- site of the first captive bred Woodhen release


Ball's Pyramid (photo by M. A. Crowley)

Excitement started once we got to the Pyramid. Here we drifted for a while and burlied in some birds. Mostly Flesh-footed Shearwater Puffinus carneipes with some Wedge-tailed Shearwater Puffinus pacificus and at least 5 maybe up to 10 Kermadec Petrels Pterodroma neglecta including mostly dark morph examples but with at least one pale morph though it still had the dusky head.

Wheatsheaf and Ball's Pyramid (phot by M. A. Crowley)

Flesh-footed Shearwaters

Dark morph Kermadec Petrels

Kermadec Petrel - Underwing pattern so like that of Providence Petrel

Kermadec Petrel -note undertail pattern of a pale morph

Pale morph Kermadec Petrel and Ball's Pyramid (photo by M. A. Crowley)

Sooty Terns, Brown Noddy Anous stolidus, Black Noddy Anous minutus and White Tern were seen and some Red-tailed Tropicbird Phaethon rubricauda and Masked Booby along with a few Grey Ternlet Procelsterna cerulea. Birds were circling high on Ball's Pyramid but too far off to readily identify them although some were tropicbirds and others likely to have been Kermadec Petrels. Lower down they were mostly the terns.

Sooty Tern

We circled the awsome pyramid and then moved north about 5 nautcal miles before trying another stop for storm-petrels. Almost immediately after the burly went out one came past fleetingly but was clearly a pale morph White-bellied Storm-petrel Fregatta grallaria. Flesh-footed and Wedge-tailed Shearwaters soon circled us but suddenly we spoted a Wandering Albatross Diomnedea exulans that passed then abruptly turned to come into the boat and land alongsidegiving us splendid views.

A White-bellied Storm-petrel dipping below a wave crest on its only close approach

Wedge-tailed Shearwater

A Wandering Albatross

From here we cruised up the east side of the main island putting into Boat Harbour briefly and circling round the north side of Roach island. A large raft of shearwaters was gathering NE of Roach. It was mainly Flesh-footed Shearwater but with many Wedge-tailed Shearwater amongst them.

Late afternoon rafting of shearwaters off Roach Island

Roach was teeming with Sooty Tern and Masked Booby and plenty of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters. Brown Noddies also noted in numbers. Not a lot of birds seen as we passed below Malabar and the northern cliffs but a few Red-tailed Tropibirds soaring above us and some Grey Ternlets towards Phillip Bluff below Mt Eiza along with Sooty Terns all along the cliffs to Phillip Point (North Head). Back through the North Passage and into the jetty by 4:30 pm. No serious sea sickness in our group nor the earlier one but some feeling a little queezy!