TRIP REPORT CHRISTMAS ISLAND AND COCOS KEELING ISLANDS NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2014

Transcription

1 TRIP REPORT CHRISTMAS ISLAND AND COCOS KEELING ISLANDS NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2014 In November and December 2014 I ran two back to back birding tours to Australia s Cocos Keeling Islands and Christmas Island. Both tours were twelve days in duration and involved five days on CI and seven days on Cocos. We re usually the first group of birders to visit the islands during the migration season, hence each day is filled with anticipation as to what vagrants we might find. This trip is also a good indicator as to what species we might find when we return in February, as many of the vagrants spend all summer on the islands. Overall, they were hugely successful. Red Turtle Dove (R.Baxter) Trip 1 (Nov)- We arrived on Christmas Island after 24hrs of rain, which was just enough to conveniently fill all the islands pools and small wetlands. We had received news of a RED TURTLE DOVE at Rocky Point and after a short search located it feeding on the lawn adjacent to the islands sea cliffs. Our group s photographers clicked into gear and within minutes close to 100 photos were taken. Whilst focusing on the dove, four Red-tailed Tropicbirds cruised overhead and several Great Frigatebirds patrolled the shoreline ready to descent on any unwary Red-footed Booby and Whitetailed Tropicbirds returning from their feeding trips. On our first afternoon we visited a young Brown Booby on its nest and saw a few cooperative Island Thrush, ever active Christmas Island White-eye, elegant Christmas Island Imperial Pigeon as well as the recently split Common Emerald Dove. Christmas Island Glossy Swiftlet was abundant, as were the Brown Noddy feeding offshore. We spent much of the next two days on the island s plateau where we had a day-high count of forty Abbott s Booby and seven Christmas Is (Brown) Goshawk. The highlight of these two days was a lone BLACK-NEST SWIFTLET seen late in the afternoon at Swift Alley.

2 One of the exciting things about birding these islands is that a rare vagrant can turn up anywhere and this was the case the next morning when we walked out of our accommodation to find three RED-RUMPED SWALLOWS flying over our carpark. A short drive out to the golf course revealed White-breasted Waterhen, a lone Barn Swallow and hundreds of Christmas Island Frigatebirds, which is the rarest frigatebird in the World and this is the only place in the world to see it. Spotlighting at dusk for nightjars proved unsuccessful but later that evening we were rewarded with a cute Christmas Island Hawk Owl along one of the rainforest roads. Red Crab migration (R.Baxter) Christmas Island (Brown) Goshawk (R.Baxter) The Red Crab migration was in full swing after the recent rains and we saw the incredible sight of thousands of crabs marching their way to the ocean across the entire island. Many of the island s roads were closed but we still managed to find Tree Sparrow, Java Sparrow and Striated Heron. Our final morning proved fruitful when we found two HOUSE SWIFT cruising over the forest canopy with three White-throated Needletail. After a great first week on CI we flew the 900km to Cocos, accommodating ourselves on West Island which is a peaceful and idyllic setting and base for exploring the atoll s other islands. Not long after arriving we headed out along the island s main road where we counted forty debonair Green Junglefowl and over thirty of the now ubiquitous White-breasted Waterhen. We waited for the plane to depart and drove out along the runway finding Oriental Plover, Pacific Golden Plover and Oriental Pratincole but the runway highlight was undoubtedly a RED-THROATED PIPIT found at the northern end adjacent to the lagoon. Red-throated Pipit (Jenny Spry)

3 Our second day started with WESTERN REEF EGRET in the lagoon and a lone White-winged Black Tern at the end of the runway. The afternoon was spent on South Island where we saw three SAUNDERS S TERN loafing on one of the few remaining sandbars. With the tide quickly rising we made our way to one of the island s beaches for an afternoon snack and swim in the warm lagoon waters. Saunders s Tern (Richard Baxter) We spent day three on Home Island where we soon had views of an elusive and cracking HODGSON S HAWK CUCKOO. Whilst searching for the cuckoo amongst the gardens we located a CHINESE SPARROWHAWK gliding across the grounds of Oceania House. Our group spent the entire morning in the grounds and eventually photographed both birds. After lunch we decided to walk through the banana plantation and within five minutes we d photographed a typically elusive JAVAN POND HERON. With a Hawk Cuckoo, pond heron and sparrowhawk on our list for the day we were a pretty happy bunch of birders. It was time to start heading back to jetty to catch the ferry and a final sweep through the plantation revealed a pair of ASIAN KOEL. Back on West Island some of the group decided to spend the last hour of daylight at the wetlands were they saw the long staying COMMON (EURASIAN) TEAL. What a day! Interestingly the first ever records of Hodgson s Hawk Cuckoo, Common Teal and Chinese Sparrowhawk in Australia were on this tour in 2010 and they ve been seen every year since on the islands. Hodgson s Hawk Cuckoo (Richard Baxter)

4 Day four was spent on West Island and started at the island s wetlands where the entire group had good views of the Common Teal as well as several sly Nankeen Night Herons and numerous stunning White Terns. While we watched the teal, a Chinese Sparrowhawk cruised over the lake being swooped and escorted away by several White Terns. Chinese Sparrowhawk (R.Baxter) Cocos Lagoon (R.Baxter) After lunch we located a typically difficult Himalayan type cuckoo as well as a very obliging PIN- TAILED SNIPE sitting on the roadside verge where we could conveniently soak it up for a while before it decided to move on. This is a species we very rarely get respectable views of on the ground. Interestingly, when Charles Darwin spent time on Cocos prior to his return to England, he recorded snipe along with the more common herons and terns. Pin-tailed Snipe (R.Baxter) Himalayan/Oriental Type Cuckoo (Jenny Spry) At the end of our first trip we had seen fourteen vagrants, which was a great number considering the monsoon had not yet arrived. I predicted we wouldn t see as many rare vagrants on the second tour but within a day of making my prediction an enormous low pressure system started to form south of Cocos drawing northerly winds from India, Sri Lanka and Sumatra directly onto Cocos. As the low increased in size, I knew we were in for a special second week on Cocos. My second tour started with five days on Christmas Island and despite some recent rain, the island was dry and the monsoon appeared to be still a long way north. Despite the parched conditions the island s endemics were easily found and we spent many hours between the island s coast and steep terraces witnessing one of the world s great birding spectacles as Red-footed, Brown and the stellar Abbott s Booby cruised the sky with spiralling Christmas Island, Great and Lesser Frigatebirds, along with the ever present stunning golden morph White-tailed Tropicbirds.

5 We were off to a flying start with RED TURTLE DOVE photographed at Settlement towards the end of our first day. On day two a few of our group decided to walk to The Dales. The road was closed due to the Red Crab migration, so it meant a four hour trek, with the last hour up hill. Luckily on our February trips the road is open to vehicles and we can easily drive up to the car park. The trekkers returned with news of a possible Malay Night Heron but their views were poor and they d have to return the next day to confirm the ID. The following day s hike only provided slightly better views of an obviously very cryptic bird. A pre-dawn start and a third long hike for Glen Pacey and John Weigel proved more successful with both obtaining flight views of MALAY NIGHT HERON. As we toured the island we had good views of Christmas Island Imperial Pigeon, Christmas Island White-eye and Java Sparrow. CI Glossy Swiftlets and Island Thrush were seen in large numbers along the rainforest tracks and Common Emerald Doves sitting by the roadside enabled us to compare them with the mainland s Pacific Emerald Dove. We continued to visit the island s best birding sites as well as several lesser known sites that I ve discovered over the last decade. Whilst driving back from the blowholes track on our fourth day, I spotted a small raptor sitting on an exposed branch. It was neither a Christmas Island Goshawk or a Kestrel. We jumped out of the cars to see a diminutive JAPANESE SPARROWHAWK cruise over and into the nearby forest. A second view minutes later resulted in the all-important photos, that confirmed the identification. Japanese Sparrowhawk (John Weigel) Island Thrush (R.Baxter) Even though we were enjoying our time on Christmas Island, many of us were keeping an eye on the now stationary broad low pressure system near Cocos. It had been hovering in the area for a week and was now covering the entire north eastern Indian Ocean, directing northerly winds onto the atoll, perfect conditions for a migrant fallout. The day before we were due to fly the 900km to Cocos the news started to filter through from the atoll of multiple flycatchers sighted on West Island, multiple Large Hawk Cuckoo and Hodgson s Hawk Cuckoos seen in people s backyards and a Eurasian Hobby photographed on Direction Island!

6 Eurasian (Northern) Hobby (Richard Baxter) Our final day on Christmas Island concluded with a delicious BBQ of freshly caught local Wahoo. The following day we flew to Cocos and with immense anticipation walked off the plane into a bevy of rare vagrants. A quick walk to the motel and just as we were about to walk into reception, local birders Geof and Pam waved us over to a nearby tree which contained a gorgeous little BLUE AND WHITE FLYCATCHER. We enjoyed a memorable half an hour before we remembered we hadn t checked in yet! Motel staff were left wondering where we had got to! With Blue and White Flycatcher seen between the airport and the motel, it was going to be a big week. Blue and White Flycatcher (John Weigel)

7 After we d unpacked our gear we headed out for a couple of hours to find Australia s only colony of GREEN JUNGLEFOWL and along the way we had great views of WHITE-BREASTED WATERHEN. We finished the day at the local wetlands watching the often elusive COMMON TEAL roosting on a coconut stuck in the mud. Day two we got down to birding in earnest, starting in one of the local backyards where some of us had views of HODGSON S HAWK CUCKOO. Over the following few days we all eventually got to see this elusive bird. After breakfast we visited the lagoon tidal flats where we took the time to locate a couple of WESTERN REEF EGRETS amongst the Eastern Reef Egrets and Nankeen Night Heron. As we surveyed the sand flats, several White Tern soared overhead and nearby three Fork-tailed type Swifts occupied themselves by following vehicles up and down the road. In 2011 Fork-tailed Swift was split into four distinct species with Pacific Swift being the common summer visitor to the Australian mainland. In Asia directly north of Cocos only Blythe s Swift and Salim Ali s Swift are known to occur with no known records of our Pacific Swift. After watching these swifts for six days we believe that some of them were BLYTHE S SWIFT, which would be the first Australian record. We caught the ferry to Home Island on the morning of day three and soon had seen White-tailed Tropicbird, White Tern, Red-footed Booby and three Barn Swallow. Initially the vagrants were elusive, with only glimpses of CHINESE SPARROWHAWK and Hodgson s Hawk Cuckoo but throughout the day we had increasingly better views. Some of our group decided to visit the nearby park and flushed a YELLOW BITTERN. They all had excellent views of this often cryptic species as it flew directly towards them. After lunch we visited the banana plantation where we saw three ASIAN KOEL Asian Koel (John Weigel) The following day was one we had all been waiting for since we arrived. A Eurasian Hobby was recently photographed on Direction Island and that was the day s destination. Within minutes of landing on the beach we found the bird sitting on a palm frond only meters from where we landed. With the hobby nailed we spent a few hours swimming in the lagoon s warm tropical waters.

8 Even though we had seen twelve vagrants so far, there was still three more to find that we knew were on the islands somewhere. We searched long and hard for the Javan Pond Heron we d seen the previous fortnight but after three days on Home Island we failed to find it. The other pond heron was a different story. Some of our group headed out across the sand flats after lunch in search of Chinese Pond Heron. Our initial search was unsuccessful so I looped around the back of the small island and flushed it towards the group. They were rewarded with good flight views of the CHINESE POND HERON that had recently over wintered on the remote sandbar surrounded by seagrass beds. Late that afternoon Mike Carter was walking across the island towards the Clunnies Ross mansion when a JAPANESE SPARROWHAWK swooped on a young White Tern, crashing to the ground with it in its talons, while the tern tried desperately to escape. The sparrowhawk alighted to a nearby tree and our group assembled nearby. Despite waiting for forty minutes the raptor didn t return to claim its kill but it did cruise overhead giving the group good flight views of this amazing little raptor. We finished the day with a fabulous Malay meal on Home Island before catching the 8 o clock ferry home. It was a great way to finish the day. White-breasted Waterhen WW2 Cocos gun Back on West Island we still had one of our prime targets remaining and over the next couple of days it was our goal to hunt down the inconspicuous and nervous local migratory snipe. Usually it takes considerable patience and much persistence to get good views and this week was no different. The following day mid-morning we focused on the open grassy areas and runway verge. At our first stop we flushed two PIN-TAILED SNIPE that we couldn t relocate. We tried the adjacent paddock for more snipe and as we walked through an area of knee high weeds I flushed a WATERCOCK from only one meter in front of me. It banked right across the front of the entire group giving everyone superb views of this very scarce vagrant. That evening we drove out to one of the island s remote beaches and had an amazing candle-lit beach dinner with locals Ash and Kylie James.

9 Pin-tailed Snipe (Steve Reynolds) Our last full day was spent on both Home and West Island where we reencountered some of the species we d seen during the week as well as having brief views of LARGE HAWK CUCKOO. We visited the local Big Barge Art Gallery and had a sensational final night s dinner at Dory s Café. In previous years we ve found new birds on our last morning prior to boarding the plane and this year was to prove no different. Mid morning we were stopped on the roadside near the garbage tip and luckily we were all looking in the same direction when a bird flew across the road directly in front of us. I said to the group, that s a WRYNECK! We were also fortunate to have two Irish birders in the group who confirmed the ID. At this spot the roadside verge is 10m wide so we had good long views of this epic bird. A great way to finish the trip. List of vagrants seen on the two tours: 1. Red Turtle Dove 2. Red-rumped Swallow 3. Black-nest Swift 4. House Swift 5. Japanese Sparrowhawk 6. Malay Night Heron 7. Common Teal

10 8. Blue and White Flycatcher 9. Eurasian Hobby 10. Western Reef Egret 11. Saunders s Tern 12. Asian Koel 13. Chinese Sparrowhawk 14. Javan Pond Heron 15. Chinese Pond Heron 16. Blythe s Swift 17. Red-throated Pipit 18. Hodgson s Hawk Cuckoo 19. Pin-tailed Snipe 20. Yellow Bittern 21. Watercock 22. Large Hawk Cuckoo 23. Possible Himalayan Cuckoo 24. Eurasian Wryneck Regards Richard Baxter - Birding Tours Australia