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BIRDING TRIP REPORT:
Australia &
Singapore: Lady Elliot Island & Return
20 October
to 24 October 2017
By Stephen
Burch, England
Journey north
from O'Reilly's
After three nights at the splendid O'Reilly's,
and just as the weather had apparently improved, it was time to
move on again. This was to be our longest drive of the trip,
north from O'Reilly's, past Brisbane and on to Hervey Bay,
which was the most accessible place to get a flight the next morning
to Lady Elliot Island. This was a journey of about 250 miles,
and as it was on a Friday, we were keen to get beyond Brisbane
before any possible weekend rush started.
So we were off from O'Reilly's reasonably early
without adding to our birding tally there.
At the bottom of the approach road, the area around Sarabah Road
appeared quite birdy, so we spent a few minutes driving
along this side track to see what was around. There were some
more, distant Galah Parrots, loads of Little Friarbirds
and one
lifer - an Australian Wood Duck in a tree.
But with a long journey ahead
of us we didn't linger, and pressed on, initially on small roads,
but then onto dual carriageways/motorways as we passed Brisbane
mid-morning without any sign of a weekend exodus. The main route
north is the M1 and few birds were seen on this busy but mainly
straight road.
Lake Afford,
Gympie
(GPS
-26.214622, 152.682937 )
Once well north of Brisbane, we began to think
about a rest and a pause for lunch and quite by chance found
Lake Afford right next to the main road. This looked to be a pleasant
spot and so we pulled in. Indeed it was, with several lakes, some
other wet areas, and a park
surrounding it. Despite a fair number of other people around (it
was a Saturday lunchtime), there were plenty of approachable birds as well,
including more Australian Wood Ducks, Hard heads,
Black Swans,
Dusky Moorhen and Purple Gallinule. Also nesting in trees on
small islands in the lake were Cattle Egrets and
White Ibis. We
even found two more lifers as well - Crested Pigeon and
Australian Reed Warbler.
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| Hardhead (click to
enlarge) |
Australian Wood Duck
(click to enlarge) |
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| Laughing Kookaburra
(click to enlarge) |
Australian White Ibis
(click to enlarge) |
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| Australian White Ibis
(click to enlarge) |
Purple Swamphen |
After this productive stop we pressed on north to Hervey Bay for
a one night stop, before getting the mid morning short flight
the next day to Lady Elliot Island.
Lady Elliot
Island
This island is at the southern end of the Great
Barrier Reef and, as such, has so far escaped the horrors of the
coral bleaching that have occurred further north. It is quite a
small island - it takes perhaps an hour to walk around it, and is
good for both snorkelling/diving and breeding sea birds, of
which there are large numbers. We spent three nights here which
gave us enough time to get a good feel to this superb place. For
those on a tighter schedule, day visits are possible. Indeed we
came across a birding group one day doing just that. But we
preferred our more leisurely approach, particularly as our stay
in Australia was unfortunately drawing to a close.
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Lady Elliot Island from the plane |
Reef View from our unit |
Access in entirely by flights in small planes
from various points on the nearby mainland. Ours from Hervey Bay
took about 40-50mins flying time north in a small propeller
plane (13 seater at a push). Fortunately it wasn't full - it
would have been very cramped if it had been. The flight was
quite smooth and scenic, especially as it approached Lady Elliot
Island.
The island is bisected by the grass landing
strip, which see a daily series of flights in and out. On arrival, the plane does a
short sight-seeing circuit of the island before landing. The
"terminal" is somewhat informal and all arrivals are given a
short induction talk about the layout of the island, additional
activities etc. This was quite useful for getting the low down
on where the different bird species were to be found. Luggage is automatically taken to your rooms
which is helpful.
Resort area
Almost immediately on arrival it was apparent
this was an amazing place, with breeding sea birds all over the
place, completely unconcerned by passing humans. There were
Bridled Terns nesting on the sides of the paths around the
accommodation/resort area and every bush was full of Black Noddies,
including those around our "Reef View" unit.
Pacific Golden Plovers were wandering over the
grassy areas between the buildings. At lunch, we
encountered our first Buff-banded Rails
scavenging for scraps in the restaurant!
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| Bridled
Terns (click both to enlarge) |
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| Pacific Golden Plover |
Buff banded Crake
(click to enlarge) |
A word of warning about the sea birds though.
They can be pretty noisy at night and the (constant) smell is like a large
sea bird colony in the UK (e.g. the Farne Islands or Bempton
Cliffs!). Taking
photos of the settled birds in the bushes all around is almost
too easy, but flight shots were more challenging.
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| Black
Noddies (click to enlarge) |
A really special bird that also breeds here in
small numbers is
Red-tailed Tropicbird - there was an adult with
a large juvenile
nesting in bushes just beyond the last unit, that was only a few
metres from ours. Only obscured views can be obtained with them
on the ground under bushes, but once or twice the adult took to the air.
These really are spectacular birds - which I last saw in Hawaii
back in 2006.
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| Juvenile |
Adult |
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Red-tailed Tropicbirds (click to enlarge) |
Around the resort area is a good place to look
upwards for Crested Terns (they hang around on
the restaurant roof) and also both
Great and Lesser Frigatebirds which
appear to gather, hanging in the wind, in the evenings outside
of the restaurant.
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| Crested Tern |
Great Frigatebird |
At night, there were some strange calls that we
tracked down to some bushes just by the toilets on the way back to
our unit from the resort buildings! They were
Wedge-tailed Shearwaters - possibly the first
shearwaters I have ever seen on land.
Southern Shore
A little further from our unit, around the
southern end of the runway, there was a sizeable colony of
Brown/Common Noddies. These generally nest on
the ground whereas the Black's preferred the bushes. A little
further along the coast towards the western shore there was a
White-bellied Sea Eagle in a tree.
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Common/Brown Noddy (click to enlarge) |
Eastern Shore
On the eastern side of the island, there is a
coral fringed lagoon and north of the main buildings is a
promontory with a rocky area that held a few waders including
Black Oystercatcher, Turnstone
and a distant Tattler species - possibly
Wandering given the habitat.
Western Shore
The northern shore was supposed to be the place
for a small colony of Black-naped Terns that
are probably the rarest breeding species on this island but we
didn't find any there. However on the rougher western shore we
did find small numbers (2-3) on two occasions including once
when we were wading out for some snorkelling - I even recognised
them without my spectacles and bins! The second time was when we
had walked over to enjoy the sunset one evening whereupon the
light from the setting sun on these birds was superb. Also here
were some Roseate Terns. This is a great spot
to enjoy and relax at in the evening - for the setting sun and
the atmosphere generated by the hundreds of noddies, terns etc
that come in off the sea to roost. There are even some chairs for
visitors!
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Black-naped Terns (click to enlarge) |
Roseate Tern |
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Sunset from the western shore |
Exhausted Green Turtle after laying eggs overnight |
Inland
The breeding sea birds are to be found all over
the island as are the Buff-banded Rails - that especially favour
the grassy airstrip. We also found a few other species in the
wooded/bushy areas of the 'interior' including Tawny Grassbirds
that were surprisingly obvious (for an Australian passerine) and singing in bushes just by the airstrip to the north of the
resort area. The only other passerine we saw on the island was
Silvereye.
Snorkelling
All visitors get a free short introductory snorkelling session
from a boat that last lasts about half an hour. Ours was off the
west shore from a boat and was good for the odd smallish turtle
and some colourful fish, including larger ones. However, Lady
Elliot Island advertises itself as the "home of the Manta Ray"
and this is what we wanted to see. The first evening we were
there, we went to a talk about rays, and the presenter said that
the best way of connecting with these is by going on one of
their snorkelling safaris. These are at additional cost and
provide up to at least an hour in the water from a boat. On our
safari, there was only one other guest, and the guide - much
less than the free session. Again the
boat departed from the western shore, but went out a bit further
than the free trip. Almost immediately the guide was jumping up
and down shouting MANTA RAYS!! The rays swim up a narrow current
that forms off the western shore of the island, hoovering up
plankton etc as they go. The guide's tactic was to get ahead of
them in the boat, and then to get us to jump into the sea, with
her, at the
right moment.
This worked brilliantly and we were soon having
amazing close views of the Mantas as they swam towards and then
underneath us going so close you felt you could almost reach out
and touch them. This was an amazing experience - and one that
was repeated several times as the boat would pick us up (not
easy to get back onboard), and then we would jump off again when
instructed. Quite arduous, but this was definitely the non-avian
highlight of the trip - and one of the reasons I had chosen Lady
Elliot Island as somewhere to visit. Its just a pity I didn't
have an underwater camera to capture these magic moments.
Hervey Bay -
Arkarra Lagoons & Tea room
(GPS
-25.276738, 152.759263 )
Prior to the trip, I did some Googling to look
for somewhere to bird in the Hervey Bay area if we had any spare
time. The Arkarra lagoons and Tea room seemed to be about the
only place, and so we tried this site after returning from Lady
Elliot Island and before heading back south towards Brisbane. We
had a short wander around the place and lunch at the
tea room afterwards. But by this stage of the trip, it was
becoming difficult to add to the trip list and we saw nothing
new here, although there were a few birds around such as Wood Duck,
Little Black Cormorant, Australian Reed Warbler,
Grey Shrike
Thrush (in the car park while having lunch) and a
Figbird. But a
pleasant place to spend a short amount of time.
Noosa
We spent the night after leaving Lady Elliot
Island at Noosa, that was notable only for a sleeping Koola up a tree
near the very busy car park for the National Park.
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Koola asleep up a tree |
Sydney
Thereafter we
caught an evening flight from Brisbane to Sydney for the last 3 nights of our
trip. Here we were just being tourists. The only notable
birds we encountered were at the cafe in the Royal Botanical
Gardens where a Laughing Kookaburra was "bombing" people's
plates for food as they were eating off them!
Return Flight
Thereafter we boarded an afternoon Singapore
Airlines flight from Sydney airport to Heathrow, via Singapore
(a 2hr stop and change of terminal at Changi airport - plenty of
walking and a monorail needed). The Sydney flight departed
at 16:30 local time and we arrived at Heathrow some 24 hours later
the next morning at 05:55! It took about 5hrs to cross the
northern coast of Australia. Thereafter it was a very long night as the
dawn was chasing us from behind, and only just catching up. Back
to work the following morning...
Accommodation
Details
| Place |
Comment |
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Emeraldene Inn & Eco Lodge, Hervey Bay |
A motel I picked on the basis of
reasonable TripAdvisor reviews for the night before our
flight to Lady Elliot Island. Not sure why it reckoned it
was an Eco Lodge - just a pretty standard motel. Downside,
not mentioned on TripAdvisor, was traffic noise and also
loud helicopters passing over at intervals through the
night - seemed to coming into the nearby hospital.
Provided an adequate continental breakfast we ate in our
room. Not somewhere to rush back to. |
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Lady Elliot Island |
The so-called "Eco resort"
is the only place to stay on the island. There are various
grades of accommodation. We selected reef view which was
very good, giving us a nice lookout over the sheltered
tidal coral lagoon. One night a large Green Turtle had
hauled itself up the beach and laid its eggs right in
front of our unit. The next morning it was found just
below its nest clearly exhausted, but was gone after
breakfast! The unit was adequate but not luxurious. The
meals were served in the restaurant/cafeteria which was very
noisy and busy. We preferred to eat outside where it was
much quieter but a lot cooler. The food was buffet style and
nothing special. But all in all this is a great place,
albeit pricey. |
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Noosa River
Retreat |
Another motel type place for a
one night stay chosen on the basis of TripAdvisor reviews.
It wasn't expensive and the accommodation was of a high
standard. The only snag was its location - surrounded on 3
sides by busy roads. So hardly peaceful. |
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Rendezvous Hotel, The Rocks, Sydney |
This hotel was well situated
right in the centre of the Rocks area of the City Centre.
We had a third floor room and could just see the Harbour
Bridge from the balcony. Higher rooms should also have had
good views of the Opera House as well - worth asking. The
room itself was fine, but we were surprised to find that
this hotel, despite its considerable cost, had no
facilities at all - no bar, no restaurant. Clearly I
hadn't read the website carefully enough. Some of the
recent TripAdvisor reviews mention this basic issue, but I
don't remember any of them doing so at the time of
booking! There is another Rendezvous hotel in Sydney near
the station, that does apparently have a restaurant and
bar. |
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© All pictures copyright
Stephen Burch
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