Lord Howe Island 2005 - days 3 and 4

Day three

Tuesday 15th. Today we all walk to Transit Hill in the morning and most of us to Clear Place in the early afternoon. The wind is freshening slightly and it is increasingly overcast as the day progresses with the mountain tops often in cloud. We see a Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo fly over the island towards the lagoon at the start of the walk and two Woodhens were found again just north of the intersection of Middle Beach road and Lagoon Road.

Pied Currawong at a headless White Tern carcase

We also come across a Pied Currawong at a White Tern carcase with another dead and beheaded tern nearby. Was the Currawong responsible for the kill or was this the work of a Masked Owl Tyto novaehollandiae? Signs were that the Pied Currawong might have been responsible - according to Ian Hutton. The two carcases were sent to Walter Boles at the Australian Museum (via John Disney!).

The path to Transt Hill

Lord Howe Island subspecies of the Pied Currawong

We find 4 Swamphens Porphyrio porphyrio on the slopes behind Pinetrees. Ian Hutton is a wealth of information on the native vegetation and tells us about some of the weed removal projects now in progress on the island. He explains how the local names for certain plants on the island were coined. We stroll slowly up the track to the highest point at 398 feet. A Kestrel Falco cenchroides was seen near the Transit Hill lookout and during our walk through the lowland mixed forest we see Golden Whistler, Emerald Ground Dove, Pied Currawong, Song Thrush and Blackbird. We also hear some Bleating Tree Frogs Litoria dentata - a recent introduction that seems to have been accidentally brought in with freighted vegetables or fruit.

Views north from Transit Hills towards the North Hills and towards the Admiraslty islands

The mountains from Transit Hill

The walk to Clear Place was enjoyable with 2 Cattle Egret Ardea ibis seen at the end of Anderson Road. A Pied Currawong was attentive as we entered the forest past some imprsssive Banyans Ficus macrophylla. It was a banded (white/metal:Blue/purple) and was seen a few days later when the band was confirmed. Nick Carlile told me later that this bird was the male of a breeding pair nesting at the time at the south end of Middle Beach. There was much signs of Flesh-footed Shearwater activity at the burrows in the large colony hereabouts and all the way to the Clear Place lookout. This colony has changed least of all colonies of this shearwater over the past 30 years on the island. At the lookout we eventually saw some Black-winged Petrels Pterodroma nigripennis but not very well. Otherwise only the expected seabirds offshore. Several groups of Red-tailed Tropibirds were in courtship flight along the cliffs to the south and out to sea.

Red-tailed Tropicbird overhead

Some of the party viewing birds from the Clear Place lookout

At 4:30 we assembled at the new LHI museum and Visitor Centre to celebrate the success of the Woodhen captive breeding program 25 years ago. A booklet prepared by Ian Hutton telling the Woodhen recovery story was officially launched and a new display and audio visual facility was opened as part of the proposed developments of the natural resources and the environment hall at the museum.

The Woodhen booklet and a first day cover

Day four

Wednesday 16th. This morning Mike, Colleeen, John and I went to the museum for breakfast at 9:00 am. Later the group watched some videos and some of us saw a splendid series of presentations by the children of the LHI school. Some of the children had prepared a 'powerpoint' show on the subject of the Woodhen and others had composed poems and still others had made papier mache models of Woodhens setting them in their natural habitat. The videos covered material from the early days of research on the Woodhens and included some of the sequences shot by the ABC for a publicity film on the natural history of Lord Howe Island together with TV footage taken at the time of the establishment of the captive Woodhen colony in 1979.

Marine ecology at Ned's Beach

We all go to Ned's Beach in the afternoon with the tide right for a look at the rock shelf and some of the marine creatures that can be viewed there with such ease. There are some hybrid ducks on the beach and I go for some more portraits of them. There are no broods in this area and the birds seem to be in eclipse (basic) plumages if they are drakes or show worn plumages or they have post breeding (basic) plumages if ducks. Some ducks show the interesting dark unpatterened tertials that I think may be found only in ducks in this stage of moult (period of basic plumage) and then only briefly (see for comparison the duck illustrated on day 2 at Old Settlement Creek). For most of the year patterned tertials are normal and often a useful diagnostic feature of ducks in the mallard group of Anas waterfowl.

A drake hybrid Pacific Black Duck x Mallard (Pallard or Mallack) probably from stock of NZ origin

A duck hyrid (Pallard or Mallack) showing unpatterned tertial often seen in the plumage at the time of full wing moult

A drake hybrid (Pallard or Mallack) in basic plumage following wing moult

Ian Hutton ran a very good class on the wonders of the marine life to be found in the rockpools but some of us were distracted by the busy Sooty Tern colony on the headland to the east of the Bay. A few Black-winged Petrels were sweeping across this headland, the cliff slopes and coastal bush on the east side of the Bay and these also were irresistable, attracting attention by some of us!

A 20cm Sea Cucumber Holothuria atra in the tide pools of Ned's Beach

A 10 cm Sea Hare Aplysia dactylomela in a Ned's Beach rock pool

Black-winged Petrels in flight

Black-winged Petels landing amongst coastal vegetation on the cliffs at the back of Ned's Beach

Sooty Terns at Ned's Beach

On returning to our rooms we see 2 Fork-tailed Swifts fly overhead. The weather begins to turn more windy from the south and the sky is overcast. We have rain during the night.

Buff-banded Rails