Another long delay between posts; if there are any regular readers of det fixar sig, I apologise for the wait! I think I got a bit burned out birding so hard over the summer… nevertheless, many exciting adventures have occurred in the interim and hopefully I’ll get around to writing them a bit quicker than I’ve gotten around to writing this up. This post wraps up my epic Indian Ocean Territories trip as a ‘young birder’ (ha!) with Richard Baxter; check the archives for the other IOT blogs. Without further ado, then…
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
28/12/22
Waking up to the sound of the waves on the beach about 50m from our house, I got up and got my gear together before having a nice cuppa. The troops assembled in the pre-dawn glow, and we set off for the traditional morning cruise to the northern end of the island. In the past Richard, Glen and the locals have had great success with this tactic; birds arriving overnight tend to sit on the roadside verge to recover before moving into the endless coconut grove that represents the majority of the habitat on West Island. If you time it right, and are out there before any other car (or jogger) has passed, you can see brand new ULTRAs at close range. Only a few days ago a Cinnamon Bittern had been roaming the verge.
We didn’t connect with anything on that first morning and after doing the lap we pulled into Bechat Besar. I had read so many of the old trip reports and blogs from Cocos trips that I knew the names of all these places, but I didn’t really know what to expect. The swamp stretched out before us and the first thing I did was to grill every duck I could see. A female Northern Pintail has for the last seven years been splitting her time between a swamp on Horsburgh Island and Bechat Besar. No sign of her on that morning though. Richard, Sue and I left the others on stakeout for Sparrowhawks and lurked quietly into The Farm, flushing an Asian Koel on the way in. We spread out and moved slowly into the banana plantation. Suddenly, a buffy-coloured gallinule darted between the rows in front of me. I whistled to Richard and Sue and pointed to where it had gone. We grouped up and took one step further forward and it flushed! WATERCOCK. The first morning of birding on Cocos and I’d nailed one of the near-mythical Cocos specials. Awesome.
We cruised a few more of the jungle tracks before heading to the surf shack for a little rest and a bit of a sea watch. Most of the punters were happy with scope views of Masked Booby here but the sea wolves longed for something more (although bedouti was a ticklet for me too). The supermarket was open by this time so we cruised back to town to get some supplies. During the siesta time I couldn’t sit still; we’d run into Geoff earlier and he had given me some gen on Eurasian Curlew. After a quick chew I jumped into ‘my’ car and zipped down to the inner lagoon to look for the big beast. I set the scope up and within a minute was looking at the monster xirself, preening and stretching and showing the white underwing about 100m away… It’s hard to describe the feeling I had being back on Cocos and being free to roam the islands in search of MEGAs. For those first few days at least it felt like literally everywhere I went there were lifers waiting… that feeling never really went away actually. Anywhere I looked there could have been a MEGA lurking in wait. The constant running commentary from Glen and Richard also kept me fired up: “Hey this is where we found that Indian Cuckoo, and that tree over there is where the Square-tailed Drongo-Cuckoo liked to hang out in 2018… yeah turn left here mate, this track goes to Corncrake Crossing.” Their shared knowledge was epic to experience. Between them they’ve basically seen the entire Aussie list!
That afternoon we got the ferry over to Home Island to look for an Asian Brown Fly that Geoff had found a few days prior. Again, I was frothed as we were heading to another super-famous Cocos hotspot – the Big House! I can’t recall any mention of the mozzies in earlier blogs but they were fierce that arvo… it is amazing that any of us escaped with our lives. The first bird we saw was a ticklet for me – the asian subspecies of Dollarbird Eurostomys orientalis abundus. The dollars were a different shape. Very cool! Barn Swallows were also buzzing around the treetops as we spread out. I hung back a little bit and as Richard and some of the punters moved under a large tree a tiny raptor flushed and flew over my head. I knew what it was straight away – my homework had paid off – but I was boggled by just how small it was. What was probably a male Chinese Sparrowhawk ripped past me and disappeared into the dense trees alongside the big house. Awesome!
We hung around in the gardens for a couple of hours (practising our Zen birding) before reconvening and heading to the Malay buffet for dinner. What an amazing spread… there were heaps of vego options, including curried Gunggong (a local abalone equivalent caught fresh within the atoll). After we were stuffed to the eyeballs the staff brought out the desserts (which were absolutely elite). My favourite was the green pandanus ball, but they were all good. Replete, and tired out from our first full day of birding on Cocos, we had a lovely ferry ride under the bright stars back to West Island and bed. This was going to be a good week!
29/12/22
If I’d done my sums right this was going to be a fateful day for me; 700 loomed large. We checked the road again before breakfast but found nothing unusual so returned to the accom to feed, caffeinate and slip slop slap. Most of us were heading over to South Island to look for what is surely Australia’s most bizarre ‘resident’ – Saunders’ Tern. We met up with Ash and hopped into our motorised canoes for a fun ride through the crystal-clear waters over to South. Once all of us were safely ashore (which took some doing) we formed up and trooped through the coconut palms to the other side of the isthmus, emerging onto the mud flats revealed by the low tide. A Reef Heron was lurking about nearby and I got the scope onto it… thanks to my ID briefing from Glen, I was happy that it ticked all the boxes.
Richard plonked his scope down next to me and looked out into the distance – shortly after, a group of Saunders’ Tern was revealed on their favourite sandbar. As we watched, one took off and flew towards us, getting closer and closer before flying over our heads. I shook hands with Richard and he welcomed me into the 700 Club The timing was good; it had been about 10 years since I started birding and this trip was a nice way to cap off that journey. And what an awesome milestone species! Thanks to all my birding pals for the fun times over the years… it is safe to say that birding changed my life. Who the hell knows what I would be doing otherwise.
We moved closer to the terns, eventually getting breathtaking views inside minimum focal distance. Madness. The tide was coming in quick and so most of the crew started the walk back to where we had left the canoes… I stayed out and grilled the shorebird flock in hopes of MEGAs. Sadly, it was not to be. Back at the shack Ash and Richard broke out the bubbly and I celebrated my latest lifer with a Solo and some coconut ‘apple’. Very nice. We then twitched the insurance population of ‘captive’ Blue-tailed Skinks on a nearby island. A future reptick perhaps? They’ve been there for a few years and are doing very well. A very pleasant snorkel preceded our return to West Island. Some noodlies went down the hatch back at the house and we then went to look for the Eurasian Curlew in the inner lagoon. We found the big bruiser without too much trouble; soon after, the resident Purple Heron strode out of the forest on the opposite side of the lagoon. Huge! Another MEGA down, and an awesome bird to start my journey to 800 Sadly, just before we left, we also scoped two big, strange-looking cats patrolling the mudflats in search of prey. I’ll have to send my pictures to my pals working in South-east Asia as they didn’t look at all like House Cats to me. I wonder if any others have been introduced to the atoll?
30/12/22
Home Island today – we were on the first ferry over. Richard had gotten hold of an ATV so we cruised to the south side of the island in that. An ‘Asian’ Intermediate egret loomed over the football fields as we drove round to the point. The thing was massive! We donned our reef shoes and got ready to wade across the channel. It was currently low tide, but the tide was coming in and we would have a maximum of an hour on the far side to find the main target of the day… the Chinese Pond Heron that had taken up residence here. The wade across took us about 20 minutes and we were buzzed by a Chinese Sparrowhawk about halfway through. Pretty cool. On the other side we got our birding kit out of the dry bags and slowly patrolled west around the edge of the atoll, heading for the Pondy’s favourite bay. Apparently the beast was super skittish.
Once in position we first glassed the sand flats with no result. Bugger. We then turned our attention to the bay, again with no result. A little dejected we stood there wondering what to do when a big white egret thing flew in and landed at the end of the bay. Holy shit! It was the Pond Heron! It stood there for a few seconds before realising we could see it and bailing. Both Richard and Glen had told me it was a different bird in flight and they were absolutely right. It’s like it transformed when it took off, changing from a deep burgundy purple to pure almost pure white.
We thought it had perched up, so we tried to stalk it in the octopus bushes with no success. Richard sent me further south around the island to hunt it. In the channel on the back side, I rumbled a large Peppered Moray – awesome looking animal. Continuing around the coast and turning back to the north I was disturbed to see masses of plastic waste washed up on the beach. I picked my way further north along the rocks and then had an eerie feeling – the mega was near. I turned to my left to look behind me and the Pondy was sitting quietly on a dead branch about 6m away! I hit the deck but it was too late; as soon as I stopped moving it took off. I snapped off some action shots and then followed it in the bins as it headed back to the south across the channel. It briefly perched up again before heading deeper into the palms. Awesome.
Job done, we headed back across the channel, which had now gotten significantly deeper. We all made it across ok and then split up to go mega hunting. I got Glen on the radio and we met up to stake out the three ways with Sue Taylor. We zen birded pretty hard for about halfa before giving it away and heading into the farm. WOW. The mosquitoes here were on par with the Mt Lewis lowlands in March. Don’t know how the locals survive it to be honest! With no mega’s unveiled we headed to the Seafront café for luncheon. After getting sunscreened and insect sprayed again most of us headed back to the Big House. Glen and I parked up to watch the big sea almonds along the avenue. About 15 minutes later I thought I heard a high-pitched, drawn out ‘seeeep’ – a contact call!!! I called Glen over, and we watched for another 15 minutes before I got a glimpse of a little bird zip out from a perch, catch an insect, and return to where it had come from. Damn!
It honestly felt like magic. We had put in the time, endured the mosquitoes and the tropical sun, and the birding gods had rewarded us by revealing a MEGA. We gathered the troops and surrounded the tree. We probably spent another hour there (seeing nothing) before dispersing and heading into the gardens to try and refind it. Another half an hour passed before Richard called on the radio – he’d tried some tapes and the bird had come in! It had responded to the song of Asian Brown Flycatcher, which matched the contact call I’d heard and (broadly speaking) what I’d seen… but my views were way too brief to tick it. We didn’t see it again that afternoon; Richard, Sue and I had a poke around some other hotspots on the island using the ATV but with nothing doing. We got the afternoon ferry back and I spent the last of the daylight looking for Common Redshank in the inner lagoon with no luck.
31/12/22
The last day of the year! We had a look around the bottle dump again before getting the 0900 ferry to Home Island again. This time, the ferry crossed to Direction Island before heading to Home. On the way, I had some average views of Spinner Dolphin riding our wake – begrudgingly, I accepted my last furtick of 2022 but BVD for sure. Pulling up at Direction I was scanning hard and almost immediately onto Buff-banded Rail (subspecies andrewsi). Hell yeah! A real monster ticklet. Back on Home Island we split up at the big house – Glen and Sue ripped around the back of the garden to try and find the cuckoos and the rest of us stayed out the front where we’d last seen the Flycatcher the day before.
As usual most punters could not contain their excitement and moved away fairly quickly but Richard and I just plonked ourselves down in the shade and waited. Almost immediately our patience was rewarded as a cracking little ABFL flew from the big sea almond in which I’d first seen it yesterday to perch above our heads! Wow! The little blighter put on a great show this time, constantly zipping around foraging. Richard suggested that xe may have been a new arrival and that yesterday xe may just have been settling in to xir summer digs. I ended up watching xir for about an hour… I was loving it. Eventually I dragged myself away to look for other items, leaving my recorded under the ABFL’s tree to try and grab some recordings of the calls xe was making. You can listen to one here. Amazing stuff innit?
The crew dispersed across Home Island after that, failing to turn anything else up apart from an amazing curry puff lunch. We headed back to West Island on the ferry soon after, and I showed some more pax the BBRA on the way. Once we got back most went down for a nap but Bill and I were there to bird, and bird we did. We it the inner lagoon again, hunting Redshank and Bill soon called me over to him. He had found the monster! Thanks Bill! My last lifer of 2022… we watched it nervously feeding with some Greenshank for a while before I ripped back down to get the girls. A nice way to end the birding year. I spun a lap of the footy field to get my runtick before dinner. We all had a little gathering before heading down to Scout Beach for the fancy dress NYE party… Glen’s much-hyped costume was underwhelming to say the least. Only a few of us made it to the firework display but it was pretty cool to see! We were the last people in Australia to ring in the New Year.
1/1/23
We rolled out of the house at about 0700 to check the road to the north end again. Most punters fanned out through the farm looking for snipe sp. and Watercock… we were successful on both counts, seeing about eight Pin-tails and one Watercock. No sign of the Pintail on Bechat Besar… enthusiasm was fading fast as lunchtime approached so we all headed home for a nap. I took a car down to the Scout Beach instead and went for a few laps of the awesome drift snorkel. I was the only person there! Once I’d had my fill of the fishies and the nice warm water I headed home for a shower. On the way back, I rumbled Glen searching the south end of the runway for an unknown passerine that Richard had seen briefly on a quick drive. Damn!
I was back on site about 10 minutes later with Bill and the others and it didn’t take me long to find an awesome Rosy Starling eating berries in an octopus bush. Fuck yeah! My first lifer of 2023! Eventually everyone who needed it had seen it and we closed out the arvo with a lap of the airstrip, getting amazing views of the Purple Heron and a Common Redshank in the bay at the northern end. Tomorrow we would be hunting Common Kingfisher in the same area…
2/1/23
We left before dawn to time the tide correctly and parked up at the northern end of the runway. It wasn’t far to walk through the scrub before we popped out on the shoreline. We sloshed across as quietly as we could before slowly creeping through the bracken to get a look at the Kingfisher’s preferred inlet… at first we couldn’t see anything, and a few glum faces emerged. But suddenly, a flash of electric blue darted out from the vegetation, hovered briefly, then plunged into the water. Holy shit! This was a bird I’d always dreamed of seeing in Australia but just never thought it would be possible. I had absolutely incredible views of the miniscule monster down the scope… I couldn’t stop looking at it. Everyone else was halfway across the channel before I left the Kingfisher happily preening. A dream come true! Wading back across I had brief views of a PINEAPPLE PUFFERFISH (another monster). Once back on terra firma there were some hoots and hollers and high 5’s etc before we went back for a well-earned brekky. Glen still hadn’t shown up about half an hour later – he had gone mega hunting instead of coming to look at the COKI (direct GLPA quote: “there is a reason common is in the name of that bird”). I tried him on the radio – he was up at Government House where he’d seen “a pale starling and a flycatcher”.
Shit! It was action stations again as we all dashed up there. We refound the flycatcher before too long (it ended up being ‘just’ an ABFL) but never saw the starling again… despite searching and zen birding all through the town for the rest of the day. Most trips to the IOTs have a ‘bird that got away’ and I saw ours in the afternoon while staking out the runway fig. It was a Kestrel! The photos I managed seem to show some fairly heavy streaking but the thing was about 2km away and we never managed to find it again… great pain.
That night we had the traditional milestone speeches. Sue Beatty from Canberra (a lovely soul) had made it to 600 species on the trip, I had made it to 700 species, and Ted Wronowski had made it to 750. I kept my speech short and sweet, first thanking Glen and Richard for everything they’d done for me during my birding career, then thanking the EIC, the EHN crew, the Southport crew, my family, Jess, my dogs… etc etc etc. We had a final toast to the group – it had been a great trip, and everyone had got on really well. I was already thinking about coming back with a crack team of pals!
3/1/23
Our final morning on the IOT… we all split up to stake out: 1. Bechat Besar (the bloody Pintail still hadn’t showed up); 2. The farm and its pawpaws in hope of the pale starling; and 3. The ‘town figs’ for flycatchers. With nothing happening, most were back at the house about two hours later for breakfast; the stragglers came in ahead of a decent squall that dumped a few dozen mil of rain. Glen, Bill, Sue T and I had a final look around the Q station and the farm, with no luck. We headed home after an hour or so to pack and to have some lunch. Once those chores were complete, I wanted to zip back to the farm and try to get a good look at Watercock. I took Sue T with me and we had VERY satisfying, prolonged views.
And then, sadly, it was back to the airport for a teary farewell to Richard. It had been an amazing two weeks for me on the IOT after a long, long wait to get over there. On Christmas and Cocos I had added 26 new birds to my life list – incredible. I really enjoyed birding with Glen and Richard in their element and learning how to Zen bird. It had been an awesome holiday and I had made a bunch of new bird friends I was looking forward to getting home to see J and the dogs – thanks as always to my little family for letting me go on trips like this. Until next time!