Lord Howe Birding

Birds of the islands and waters of the South Pacific.
Jan
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Location: Christchurch

Re: Lord Howe Birding

Postby Jan » Fri Nov 29, 2013 8:13 am

Bev's there now, so expect some mega rarities!!!!
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Neil Fitzgerald
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Location: Hamilton, New Zealand
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Re: Lord Howe Birding

Postby Neil Fitzgerald » Fri Nov 29, 2013 5:57 pm

Pete mentioned she got 31 species in a quick 4 hour once over around the island. Sounds pretty good to me.
Pete McClelland
Posts: 69
Joined: Sun May 01, 2011 5:19 pm

Re: Lord Howe Birding

Postby Pete McClelland » Tue Dec 03, 2013 11:55 pm

I've just had Bev Alexander staying here on Lord Howe for a week, which for those who know Bev means birding at every opportunity. In her 7 days here Bev got 42 species and she got 31 of those on her first day here. It's not too hard to get most of them, but as usual a bit of local knowledge helps as does some good luck with arriving here after a decent rain (5in) following a dry period so the main swamp filled which timed with the arrival of some migrant waders.

The list for the week was
Providence petrel - lucky to catch the last chicks leaving
Wedge tailed shearwater - just arriving back from the honeymoon
Flesh footed shearwater- all arriving for courtship, great sight
Black winged petrel - easily seen on courtship flights
Red tailed tropic bird - building up in numbers - hundreds now
Black Noddy
Brown Noddy
Sooty tern
White tern
Common tern - one vagrant
Little tern - 3 vagrants
Masked Booby
White Faced Heron
B.T. Godwit
Pacific Golden Plover
Turnstone
Whimbrel
Banded dotterel - just one hanging around
Sharp- tailed sand piper - one recently arrived and departed
Pectoral sand piper - 1 recently arrived
Red necked stint - 2 recently arrived
March sand piper - 2 recently arrived and now moved on
Spur winged plover
Little black shag-
Black shag
Pied shag
Black duck
Mallard
Aust wood duck (1)
Feral domestic duck - khaki campbell
Feral pigeon
Emerald ground dove
Sacred kingfisher
Golden whistler
Magpie Lark
Pied Currawong
Welcome swallow
LHI silver eye
Black bird
European staring

the ones she missed were
thrush - yes they are that uncommon here while the blackbirds are very common
Nankeen kestrel
Masked Owl

Bev didn't manage to do the pelagic trip due to the sea conditions but would almost certainly have added a few more species if she had including
Grey ternlet
White bellied storm petrel
Kermadec petrel
and likely to have seen an albatross or mollymawk or two.
Pete McClelland
Posts: 69
Joined: Sun May 01, 2011 5:19 pm

Re: Lord Howe Birding

Postby Pete McClelland » Tue Dec 17, 2013 10:56 pm

The breeding season continues on Lord Howe with some of the sooty tern chicks rapidly approaching fledging while there are still some relatively small individuals around. Many of the white terns have been relaying after losing their first eggs, apparently a high percentage are to Currawong based on a camera study being carried out at present by Environment and Heritage researchers. The Currawong will take eggs through to quite large chicks at this time of year while they are after protein to feed their own chicks. Despite the predation the white terns are still increasing in number - around 25 % increase over the last 8 years. The Red tailed tropic birds should start nesting shortly with large numbers flying around the cliffs and the first birds being seen on land.

Most of the rarer vagrants have moved on with only the 2 Red necked stints along with 2 little terns and the common tern still around last weekend. We have had 2 Needle tailed swifts around although given their migratory nature they are unlikely to hang around for long.
There are plenty of Golden Plover and turnstones with smaller numbers of BT Godwits and Whimbrel.

The Flesh-footed shearwaters make a great display as large numbers of them crash on to the island each evening. While they nest along much of the North Eastern portion of the island they are easiest seen at Ned's beach one of the picnic spots on the island.

Having been keeping an eye out for Thrushes after Bev missed this species I have only seen one in the last week although I have seen a couple of kestrels albeit quite brief glimpses.

Pete
Pete McClelland
Posts: 69
Joined: Sun May 01, 2011 5:19 pm

Re: Lord Howe Birding

Postby Pete McClelland » Tue Dec 31, 2013 11:03 pm

The end of the calendar year has arrived and things continue to change in the bird world here on Lord Howe. The first of the sooty tern chicks have fledged and are showing off their aerial skills. They will be joined by several thousand more shortly.
Numbers of Godwits and especially Golden plover, turnstones have increased (a flock of around a hundred of the later arrived at the swamp about a week ago, taking a day or so to settle in). At present the vagrants include 3 RN stints, 2 tattlers (species yet to be confirmed, and a Pectoral sandpiper. The best place for these is still the swamp although 2 of the stints are in residence at North Beach along with one remaining little tern. Along the northern cliffs today there were 300+ Red tailed tropic birds - an impressive site wheeling around the cliffs and making a lot of noise. The first pairs appear to be nesting but due to the location I cant confirm whether they have actually started laying. Black winged petrels are also frequently seen in their courtship flight around the coast.
We have a white tern pair that have nested about 1.5 m off the ground across the road from the house. The adults weren't there yesterday and revealed a fluffy chick clinging to the branch . For anyone who's not familiar with this species they don't make a nest but lay a single egg balanced on a branch. I'm not sure why but kestrel sighting have increased recently.
I finally got around to going up Mt Gower - the high point on the island - an interesting and somewhat challenging walk (one of the top 20 day walks in Australia) - quiet bird wise , a few currawong, so looking forward to going back up in a couple of months when the Providence Petrels are back.
more to come in 2014!
Pete McClelland
Posts: 69
Joined: Sun May 01, 2011 5:19 pm

Re: Lord Howe Birding

Postby Pete McClelland » Wed Jan 15, 2014 10:55 pm

Interesting phenomena taking place on the island at present. There are a huge number of cicada around with the forest literally buzzing. There are the birds you would usually expect focusing on this abundant food supply, e.g. currawong (one local who usually has up to 50 different birds visiting his feeding station for sultanas currently has no birds around). More surprising is that large numbers of sooty terns, which are usually totally marine focused, can now be seen swooping over the forest hawking these insects. While there are a lot of juvenile birds around at present I have only seen adults partaking in this activity. I know its common for species like Black fronted terns to hawk in NZ but they spend a lot of time over land while Sooty terns are supposed to be totally marine. It appears that the birds are flying low over the forest and squarking to scare the insects in to flight and then they are catching them although they could just be flying around catching insects already in flight and the squarking is unrelated.
The island is very dry at present with the swamp having dried out. The ducks have all evacuated, presumably to the streams which are still flowing. A few turnstones are still working over the dry mudflats but the other waders have moved on. The king fishers which normally frequent the short grass between the road and the runway (I've recorded up to 8 at a time) and the end of the reef (with similar numbers) have dispersed for nesting.
Pete McClelland
Posts: 69
Joined: Sun May 01, 2011 5:19 pm

Re: Lord Howe Birding

Postby Pete McClelland » Tue Mar 04, 2014 8:19 pm

While the weather is still good here on Lord Howe highs, of 24/25 and lows of 21/22 summer is rapidly passing. The Sooty terns are nearly done nesting with only a few dozen fledglings left at the main colonies while the white terns and noddy's (black and brown) are still nesting. The godwits and golden plovers are colouring up. Still at least one little tern and the common tern around along with one stint and 2 banded dotterels. The banded rails are still pumping out the chicks with a nest in our vege garden just hatched (4 chicks). We have at least 5 different rails (3 adults and 2 juvs) visiting our back porch for mealworms along with 3 woodhens and a couple of blackbirds. Other regular visitors to the section are a couple of golden whistlers, waxeyes (starting to flock up) and the occasional emerald dove. With a large area of grass out the front we get magpie larks the odd feral pigeon and more rails (I've counted up to nine at a time there.

A trip to Balls Pyramid 2 weeks ago saw a lot of grey ternlets along with several white bellied storm petrels and some Kermadec petrels but no sign of the Providence petrels which should be arriving soon. Going up the mountain when they are nesting is at the top of the to do list.
Pete McClelland
Posts: 69
Joined: Sun May 01, 2011 5:19 pm

Re: Lord Howe Birding

Postby Pete McClelland » Fri Mar 07, 2014 11:38 pm

A new species for the island - a White necked heron turned up about a week ago but I just heard about it today and got to see it. Interestingly it seemed to have a small (12in) eel but the eel appeared to have latched onto its neck so despite many attempts to swallow it the bird had to keep bringing it back up- we left it after about 20min still trying to swallow its dinner. Some what ironical to have it here given the sightings of this species in NZ last year.
Trip to North Beach last evening found 1 stint and the common tern along with 3 banded dotterel, a wandering tattler and the usual golden plover, turnstone, godwits and whimbrel. Black noddys in the Norfolk pines and brown noddys on the bushes on the north side of the island. Kingfishers are back out on the coast after their breeding season.
Pete McClelland
Posts: 69
Joined: Sun May 01, 2011 5:19 pm

Re: Lord Howe Birding

Postby Pete McClelland » Thu Mar 13, 2014 8:20 pm

After saying there was no sign of the Providence Petrels 10 days ago I went out on a boat in the weekend and there were heaps of them, talking to one of the guides on the mountain some re starting to clean out their burrows so they should be in on mass very shortly. The shearwaters are still coming in each night although the number of wedge tails is right down. This backs up some work a student is doing which is showing a high abandonment rate with chicks starving. It's harder to see any difference in the number of Flesh footeds as there are a lot more of them so a drop is not so obvious. A strange wader turned up at the swamp (still dry as) which has been confirmed as an oriental plover. Even though it is dry it is still one of the best birding spots. A group of mainland birders (The Illawarra Birders) were over for a week and clocked up 50 birds - they were lucky since as well as all the land birds they managed to get in a pelagic and as well as the usuals one group got a Wanderer and the other a Buller's mollymawk (still cant get used to calling them albatross). It's worth having a look at their website at http://www.illawarrabirders.org/index.html
Benmaree
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Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2014 8:55 pm

Re: Lord Howe Birding

Postby Benmaree » Mon Mar 17, 2014 9:10 pm

had a great week July 2013 on Lord Howe, great little place to get around, good walking, bit of climbing and a bit of boating, numerous woodhen (like small NZ weka) and much the same as Peter saw but all in good numbers , look forward to seeing the sea birds at breeding time -saw plenty of hooded plover lovely clean place, plenty of seeding palms of several sorts,

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