Lord Howe Birding

[Pete McClelland]

Went to the East side of the island at dusk to watch the Flesh-footed shearwaters come in, numbers are way down on what they were (10%?) don't know if they are coming in well after dark which would surprise me or failed nesters having gone. Same story with the Wedge til son the West side. Sooty terns all gone but still plenty of white terns, have a few roosting in a tree over our house which is cool. Last week I saw an egret flying over the lagoon, presuming it was a cattle egret as they are a regular vagrant but couldn't get and id. Numbers of this species calling in here have dropped off as numbers flying across the Tasman have declined. Oriental Plover is still around but not much else unusual. The drought finally broke last weekend and the island has greened up again.

[Pete McClelland]

A changing of the guard has taken place here on Lord Howe. Nearly all of the golden plover, along with most of the turnstones, have departed the island, leaving about half a dozen golden plover, and a couple of dozen turnstones along with 17 godwitts and 1 stint. In contrast 6 Banded dotterels have tken up residence along with 4 cattle egrets. The kingfishers have moved back out in to the open ie now frequently seen around the coast and along the roadside, compared to the last few months when they were rarely seen in those areas and were largely restricted to the forest.
I went up Mt Gower again 2 weeks ago – a great experience to do a short war whoop, for those that aren’t familiar it is what it sounds like - an old western movie with the Indian’s wooping as they surround the wagon train, and have Providence petrels literally dropping through the trees to your feet. This technique works with most/ all Pterodroma petrels and I’ve used it before but never with such success during daylight. A colleague recently took a baby part way up the mountain and apparently the crying of the kid had the same effect. A few days later we went to Little island at the base of the mountain, which is a good site for those not after the physical challenge of climbing the mountains, to see the birds come in and war wooping worked there as well albeit not as well as up the mountain. Shearwater numbers, both Flesh-footed and especially wedge tails, continue to drop, its apparently been a bad year for seabirds all around the coast here with one researcher reporting nearly 100% failure on short tailed shearwaters in an island colony southwest of here. There are still plenty of Tropic birds around and we were fortunate enough on a recent walk up to Goathouse Cave- the highest readily accessible point on Mt Lidgebird (the other Mountain) to have 2 on the ground – one nesting, a truly beautiful bird.
The currawong are very vocal at present and seem to be spending more time in the vicinity of the Settlement – while not up to kokako standard they are still pretty cool to listen to while having breakfast. Likewise for the golden whistlers with at least 5 birds frequenting our back porch in hope of a mealworm.
The recent rain, after 2 months of near drought, has transformed the island from brown back to its normal bright green and has allowed the ducks; mallard, black ducks and 1 wood duck that has been here for 12 months, to move back out to the swamp (large puddle in a paddock) which is about half full.

All in all things are quietening down here on the bird front as winter approaches although as usual with birds you never know what is around the corner.

[Mig]

Enjoying the blogs...and looking at the most direct flights....Sydney- Lord Howe....could August be an ok time to visit and is it possible to camp here...?

[Pete McClelland]

While august isn't the best birding wise it is certainly a lot cheaper than over the summer (just avoid Aussie school holidays and look at package deals). Not camping is not permitted anywhere on the island. A pity given the temperatire here. You'll be met at the airport and asked where you are staying!

[Pete McClelland]

I checked the 2 main wader sites today:
Mosely swamp at high tide - 16 godwits, 26 turnstones, 2 golden Plover, 6 Banded Dotterel, 1 Whimbrel and 1 Stint. No waders on the runway for the last couple of weeks.
North Beach- 2 godwits, 36 turnstones and 2 Wandering tattlers (one in breeding plumage).
There is a curlew on the island which is frequenting the Sandy coasts and paddocks, I haven't seen it yet. The White necked heron is still around and at least 3 cattle egrets. I saw a harrier out on the Admiralty Islands wast weekend - last ones I'm aware of were about 8 months ago.
The last of the white terns have departed while the Black Noddys nesting in the Norfolk pines at North Beach are in full swing.
The last of the Masked booby chicks are getting ready to fledge while adults are pairing up again.

[Pete McClelland]

Things are still very quiet bird wise here on Lord Howe, definitely not the best time of year for birders to visit unless your focus is the Providence petrels. Basically the same number of waders present at the main sites as 3 weeks ago, I caught up with the / a curlew in the weekend on the wave platform on the east side of the island. Not a single Noddy at North Beach which was surprising after all the activity there 3 weeks ago. The tropic birds are well into nesting, one of the locals is hand raising a chick that fell from its cliff ledge nest. The number of adults around the cliffs is well down - presumably between brooding chicks and amount of time at sea feeding. Jack Shick, who does the pelagic tours (look up his great photos at jackshick.com) along with local naturalist Ian Hutton has told me that there's not many birds off shore at present - possibly having to go further to forage, although he has seen a couple of wandering albatross recently.

[Pete McClelland]

No real change in the birding here on Lord Howe over the last few weeks. Basically still the same waders , still 16 godwits along with a scattering of Golden Plover, Turnstones and Banded Dotterel along with at least 1 curlew. 5 Cattle egrets still frequenting the paddocks around the island but no sign off the white necked heron for a few weeks. Along with the mix of Black duck and Mallards there is still one wood duck that has been here for year. The Providence petrels are coming into the island early each evening- a sign off good feeding conditions? but aren't as responsive to being called in as they were earlier in the season- still a great sight though with thousands of them around the mountains. The bush birds are still around the settlement with the Currawong making some new calls - not quite in the league of kokako but still pretty cool.

[les]

thanks for your informative and interesting posts we recieve on here.on a recent trip over to sydney found myself looking down at the expanse of endless water beneath us and couldn`t help thinking of the vagrant birds of various species and size that have travelled over this expanse of water?Do you think that places like Lord Howe or norfolk island have any bearing on such birds using these places as a stop off point thereby halving the journey?I saw you mentioned the presecne of barn owls in a post and this would be one of the species that would like rest moreso than the pelicans that could rest on the water enroute?interested in your thoughts on this,thanks.

[Pete McClelland]

The owls are apparently all masked owls although a barn owl was collected as recently as 1971. Both species were introduced in the 1920's in a failed attempt at biological control for the rats which arrived in 1918. The owls predate the seabirds including the white terns (local favourites) and aren't protected here despite being threatened in Tasmania where they originate from so there has apparently been an ongoing control programme (both official and unofficial). Whether LHI and Norfolk are stopping off points for birds, other than the migrants, is debatable but I would be surprised since unless they were actually aiming for the mainland, either NZ or Oz I would think they would be more likely to try and head back to where they had come from after a break rather than heading off in the same direction in to the unknown especially since the weather conditions that go them to the island had probably changed. It would be interesting to know where many of the species here both vagrants and established have come from as many of them are found in both countries. For LHI I think most species would originate from Oz as it is significantly closer and while there have been a number of species that have arrived while I've been here that are only found on Oz eg night heron, white necked heron, fruit dove, fork tailed swifts there haven't been any that are only found in NZ. There is a reasonable chance that the Mallards here have come from NZ as they are more common there and have found their way to the Kermadecs from the mainland as well. All that said birds do some strange things so short of picking up some banded birds its all theory, suffice to say the island is a small target in the middle of a whole lot of water.

[andrewcrossland]

The other factor counting against the idea that Lord Howe and Norfolk are stepping stones for vagrant birds crossing the Tasman is the fact that in Norfolk's case in particular, there are resident species (Long-billed White-eye, Emerald Dove, Scarlet Robin, Golden Whistler, Grey Fantail) that have not made the relatively short hop to NZ, so what are the chances of vagrants doing it (unless ofcourse, they are determined dispersers like Cattle Egrets and swifts?)