Monday 1 October 2018

Birds of Lizard Island: September 16th - 30th



It’s quite easy to spend a few weeks at Lizard Island, with walks and mountains to climb and shorebirds returning from breeding in Siberia.  A couple of Little Curlews, which mostly rest and feed up in the grassy fields of northern Australia, Pacific Golden Plovers, which travel on as far as Tasmania, olive-backed sunbirds and rainbow bee-eaters everywhere, and a pleasant change for us, no pesky welcome swallows!
Great Egret on the creek

Pacific Golden Plover in moult

A juvenile black noddy landed on our deck, didn’t seem to be injured, but sat for ten minutes, preened himself, then flew off to join his mates and the black-naped terns.  The terns follow the bait fish, who in turn are followed by bigger fish and the water regularly explodes with a fishing frenzy.  “Noddy” enjoyed himself so much on our boat that he returns every day now to preen his feathers.  I guess he has replaced the welcome swallows for now.
Black-naped terns following the bait fish

Our friendly noddy

Bird list so far: 
Rose-crowned fruit-dove, Pied Imperial-Pigeon, Bar-shouldered Dove
Little Curlew, Pacific Golden Plover
Wedge-tailed Shearwater
Eastern Great Egret, White-faced Heron, Little Egret, Eastern Reef Egret (white morph)
Eastern Osprey, White-bellied Sea-Eagle, Whistling Kite, Nankeen Kestrel
Brown Booby, Black Noddy, Black-naped Tern, Common Tern, Crested Tern, Silver Gull
Pheasant Coucal, Rainbow Bee-eater, Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike
Silvereyes, White-breasted Woodswallow, Olive-backed Sunbird


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