Low Islets

After a morning cycle around Port Douglas, a brekky stop at the Artisan Bakery, then back to wash the boat, fill the tanks and do a last load of washing, we were on our way for the gruelling one hour sail to The Low Islets.  They are so small they don’t even get to be “islands”.  As we moored a black-tipped reef shark, with a remora almost as big, and several huge batfish came up to our stern to greet us.

A family of ospreys are nesting in the mangrove on Woody Island and we could hear the three chicks begging before we saw the parents arrive to feed them.  They may be newly fledged as they flew from the nest with the parents shortly after their feed.

We paddled over to the Low Islet and found there is a (very short) walk, but with plenty of interpretive signs about the lighthouse history, built in 1878, the reef and the wildlife.  Another family of ospreys have taken advantage of the lighthouse and built their nest on the eastern side of the dome, giving them an afternoon shady spot with great views.  One juvenile emerged from the nest to join the parents on the railing as we passed by below.

Varied honeyeaters were dashing about the trees, calling to each other, and as we watched them a collared kingfisher landed.  Hundreds of pied imperial pigeons are starting to nest in the trees, calling their haunting “wooo-wooo” and bar-shouldered doves seemed to be flying back and forth between the islets, unable to decide.

Along the beach ruddy turnstones were playing with the waves: strolling to the water’s edge then scurrying back as the waves break.  They are hilarious!