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!

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

Lord Howe Island 2005 - days 5 and 6

Emerald Ground Dove outside the LHI Museum and Visitor Centre

Day five

We wake to strong southerly winds and rain. Most of the day we stay in our rooms with some of the group venturing out briefly from time to time. With the rain easing during the day we head down to Little Island to see some Woodhens. We are taken in two load to the hillside below Capella lodge and above Soldiers creek. Here in the creek we see briefly some more ducks, mostly hybrids but including at least two that looked at a distance most like Pacific Black Duck but my view was not good enough for detailed examination. We also saw in the creek 2 Latham's Snipe Gallinago hardwickii, Buff-banded Rail, Whimbrel, Ruddy Turnstone and Pacific Golden Plover and by the time we had walked past King's house and along the Salmon Beach track towards the last patch of lowland thatch palm on the lagoon shore we had also seen Magpie-lark, Welcome Swallow, Pied Currawong, Sacred Kingfisher and Blackbird. We find 5 Woodhens and I take a few rather indifferent pictures mainly due to forgetting that I had attached a circular polarizing filter to the lens the last time I used the camera and therefore I had made the camera more or less un-workable in low light despite racking the ISO up to 1600! We found two banded Pied Currawong in the same area: pale green over metal with yellow over orange and another bird with an unrecognized colour over metal and blue over purple on the other leg.

Banyan on the roadside near King's house, Kings Beach

Wind in the palms below Mt Lidgbird

John and me renewing friendship with a Woodhen

Woodhens at Little island

On the beach

Day six

Assembling to go to North Bay

A beautifully reconditioned B Centauri - once a tender used during the days of Flying boats at LHI

On the ferry to North Bay

Today we go to North Bay. We assemble on the lagoon beach at the end of Ned's Beach road and take the 'ferry' to North Bay. We then climb Mt Eliza. Along the way Ian Hutton tells us more about the facinating vegetation of the island and in particular the newly revealed processes of flowering and fruiting in the Curly Top Palms Howea belmoriana. The final stage of the climb in blocked because the Sooty Terns have an active breeding colony spead across the pathway beyond this point. We take in the fantastic views back across the lagoon to the southern mountains and also those towards the east along the north cliffs. We can look down into Old Gulch. Red-tailed Tropicbirds are seen and we relax before going back down to the beach for lunch. There are Golden Whistler, Blackbird and Sacred Kingfisher seen along the way. We also spot a White-faced Heron.

Most of the group on the slopes of Mt Eliza

Ian Hutton telling us about Sooty Terns

View south from the slopes of Mt Eliza

View down to Old Gulch from the slopes of Mt Eliza



Sooty Tern on nest on pathway up Mt Eliza and Sooty Tern egg



Sooty Terns

The tide is now well on the ebb and waders are evident on the seagrass beds. We count c 100 Ruddy Turnstone, c 30 Bar-tailed Godwit, c 15 Pacific Golden Plover, 2 Red-necked Stints, a Whimbrel, 2 Grey-tailed Tattlers and a Common Sandpiper flying overhead towards the eastern rocky shoreline later in the afternoon just as we are about ot leave. A few hybrid ducks are found but no broods. I photograph a pair at the top of the beach.

Drake hybrid on North Bay Beach. Eclipse plumage

Duck hybrid on North Bay beach. Note the stripe on the tertial

Bar-tailed Godwits

Two Red-necked Stints

A Ruddy Turnstone and a Red-necked Stint




Ruddy Turnstones

Grey-tailed Tattler

There is now an extensive Black Noddy colony in branches of the grove of large Norfolk Island Pines planted years ago on the west side of the bay. I take some pictures in this colony and try for some sound recordings of this species of noddy for inclusion as an added track on a revised version of the CD 'Birds of Lord Howe Island'. there are White Terns with them. On the beach I can find Brown Noddies for comparison. They and Sooty Terns are breeding along the western beach shoreline and at the north end of the reef. They all provide some good photo oportunities.

White Tern in the pines

Black Noddies

Black Noddy and Brown Noddy- note shades of brown differences







Brown Noddies


Black and Brown Nodies

Portraits of Brown Noddy and BlackNoddy



Hang-gliding Sooty Terns

Lord Howe Island 2005 - days 7 and 8

Howea forsteriana

Day seven

Saturday 19th. Today we go to Old Settlement Beach after breakfast to look for a reported Black-winged Stilt Himantopus himantopus - the second record for the island for this species. We see some of the hybrid ducks and at least 6 Masked Lapwings, 2 Common Starling (again), 4 Purple Swamphen, 30 Pacific Golden Plover, Ruddy Turnstone, Bar-tailed Godwit, 1 Pied Currawong and we find the stilt in the creek and Mike Crowley gets a 'record' shot of it using my IS lens. Judging froms its clean-cut appearance it seems to be of Australian origin and not a bird from NZ.

Black-winged Stilt (photo by M. A. Crowley)

After lunch we (that is HJdeSD, MAC, CC and PJF) walk to the Clear Place and on the way back find ourselves dodging showers of rain. However, we do see c 10 Red-tailed Tropicbirds, some Sooty Terns, Masked Booby, White Tern and at least one Black-winged Petrel at the Clear Place. There was much sign of activity in the dense colonies of Flesh-footed Shearwaters in the Valley of the Shadows.We see aPid Currawong white over metal with Blue over purple and on the return walk find a jittery Woodhen calling in the forests near the junction of Middle Beach and Anderson road (close to Hideaway Lodge). It was banded and seemed to be green over black with black over metal but I am not sure of the leg orientation for these bands.

Fungus on wood

Just before dusk Ian Hutton organized for John and me to be interviewed by Chris Murray which Ian video recorded. This was done at the picnic spot beside Old Settlement Creek at the N end of Lagoon road. Afterwards we had our last evening meal together at the nearby Arajilla restaurant. While we were being interviewd a Woodhen hove into sight! A Masked Owl may have passed overhead but I was not certain of the identity of the bird seen in the gloom and flying amongst the branches of the tall Norfolk pines. Perhaps is was one!

Day eight

Sunday 20th. I am booked in for the first flight out today together with John and a few others. Mike and Collen are on an afternoon flight. Ian wants to film John and me with the Woodhens at Little Island so, after breakfast and when we are packed and reay to go he aranges for Chis Murray to take us to the end of the road and we hike in. On the way we pass Nick Carlile and he cches up with us and walks in with us. I am able to bring him up to date with what we have seen and he is able to explain a lot of what we are seeing with the Pied Currawongs. Nick is now concentrating on banding these Pied Currawongs to try to find out how many there are and sort our a little of what they get up to on the island.

Woodhens at Little Island (photos by M. A. Crowley)

Mike and Colleen go to Neds' Beach in the morning and find a Masked Owl feather on the road. They also report finding another Woodhen behind Humpty Mick's cafe.

LIST OF BIRDS SEEN

Hybrid Ducks (Mallard and Pacfic Black Duck complex)
Pacific Black Duck?
Providence Petrel
Kermadec Petrel
Black-winged Petrel
Wedge-tailed Shearwater
Flesh-footed Shearwater
Wandering Albatoss
White-bellied Storm-Petrel
Red-tailed Tropicbird
Masked Booby
Little Black Cormortant
Great Cormorant
White-faced Heron
Cattle Egret
Nankeen Ketrel
Buf-banded Rail
Woodhen
Purple Swamphen
Latham's Snipe
Bar-tailed Godwit
Whimbrel
Eastern Curlew
Common Sandpiper
Grey-tailed Tattler
Rudy Turnstone
Red-necked Stint
Black-winged Stilt
Pacific Golden Plover
Masked Lapwing
Sooty Tern
Brown Noddy
Black Noddy
Grey Ternlet
White Tern
Feral Pigeon
Emerald Ground Dove
[Masked Owl]
Fork-tailed Swift
Sacred Kingfisher
Golden Whistler
Magpie-Lark
Pied Currawong
Welcome Swallow
Silvereye
Common Blackbird
Song Thrush
Common Starling

48 species listed this trip. Of those species possible to see at this time of year only the Little Shearwater was not observed.

SOME USEFUL REFERENCES

• Rodd, A N & John Pickard, Census of vascular flora of Lord Howe Island. Cunnighamia 1: 269-280. Not readily available.
  
• *Fullagar, Peter & Ederic Slater, 2005 Birds of Lord Howe Island. CD with 48 tracks featuring 19 species, all recorded on the island.
  
• Hutton, Ian, 1986 Lord Howe Island. Discovering Australia's World Heritage. (Conservation Press: ACT); 157pp. Out of print.
  
• Hutton, Ian, 1991 Birds of Lord Howe Island. (Ian Hutton: Coffs Habour); 154pp. Out of print.
• *Hutton, Ian, 1998 The Australian Geographic Book of Lord Howe Island. (Australian Geographic: Terry Hills); 152pp. Copiously illustrated in colour. Replaces the earlier books by Ian Hutton.
• *Hutton, Ian, 2002 A field guide to the Plants of Lord Howe Island. (Ian Hutton: Lord Howe Island). 128pp. A very handy pocket sized guide fully illustrated in colour.
• *Hutton, Ian, 2002 A field guide to the Birds of Lord Howe Island. (Ian Hutton: Lord Howe Island). 48pp. Another pocket sized handy guide in full colour.
• *Hutton,Ian & Peter Harrison, 2004 A field guide to the Marine Life of Lord Howe Island. (Ian Hutton: Lord Howe Island). 168pp. An essential pocket sized guide illustrated in full colour.
• *Hutton, Ian & Sue Nichols, The Woodhen. (The Lord Howe Island Historical Society and Museum: Lord Howe Island). 32pp.
  
• *McAllan, Ian A W; Brian R Curtis, Ian Hutton & Richard M Cooper, 2004. The Birds of Lord Howe Island Group: A Review of Records. Aust. Field Orn. 21 supplement. Available as a reprint.
• Pickard, John, 1983 Vegetation of Lord Howe Island. Cunninghamia 1: 133-268. Includes a coloured vegetation map. Essential reading for an understanding of vegetation stucture on the island. Not readily available.

References marked with * are available for purchase at the Museum on Lord Howe Island.