Lord Howe Birding

[Pete McClelland]

I have just arrived on Lord Howe Island (600km NE of Sydney) to take up a 3 year position running a rodent (ship rat and mouse) eradication. So while i'm here I'm going to try and do semi regular updates on the birds.
Having arrived on Friday I took the chance on Saturday to have a bit of a look around the settlement area. The layout of the island is 2 mountains (upto 875m) to the south, some hills to the North and the settlement (including the airstrip) in between - total area 1400ha.
Between biking around and walking up to Transit hill behind the settlement I saw LHI woodhen, Banded rail (both in the front yard of our house), LHI white-eye, LHI golden whistler (males are quite beautiful), LHI Carrowong (that pretty much tops off the endemics), Whiteface heron, emerald dove and blackbird. I then biked around the airfield and saw sacred kingfisher, welcome swallow, banded dotterll, EBT godwit, Golden Plover, Turnstones, Spur winged plovers, pukekos (Pukakas over here), as well as mallard and a single grey teal and a wood duck along with a Little Black shag at the only pond I've seen so far. Lots of magpie larks and a Nankeen kestral- apparently they breed here.

We had a whitebellied storm pretrel bought into the office - not doing very well, but I haven't been out seabirding yet- hopefully next weekend.

As an aside we also had a very emaciated NZ furseal washup on the beach- long way form home.

when i came over briefly in March for the interview there were plenty of white terns and black noddies in the Norfokl pines around the settlement but they seem to have all left now. Looking forward to their return.

[Neil Fitzgerald]

Sounds fantastic. I'm looking forward to the updates. Post some photos too, if you can please.

[Pete McClelland]

Thats the problem when you start off so well when birding, I haven't seen a single new bird this week. Checked the runway and the 7 EBT godwitts and about 12 Gloden Plover are still there but no sign off the turnstones or banded dotterels, although the timing of the plane may not have helped this as I imagine they are still around. The kingfishers line up on fence along the runway as do welcome swallows- nothing new there. The rails are everywhere and after a good rain on Saturday they were out making the most of it, there are at least 2 pairs in our front yard along with a pair of woodhen which include the yard in their territory. Interesting story with the rails as they apparently only re self reintroduced between 20 - 50 years ago depending on you you listen to. previously wiped out by the cats prior to that. How they survive in such numbers with the rats here I dont know but I haven't meet a local yet who likes them. After years of glimpses of them on the muttonbird islands to have one litterally walk in to my office is quite cool. A carrawong (think of a long tailed magpie with an overdeveloped beak and equally overdeveloped sense of inquisitveness, makes good use of a dead limb across the road from our house as a calling site - while some of the locals dont like these birds, they take the white tern chicks which are a local favourite, as well as just about anything else by the sound of it, I find they have great character - between them and the woodhens nothing is safe.

[David Riddell]

When banded rails aren't under pressure from predators they can get very common, and their close relationship with weka becomes apparent. I went to Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef many years ago, and banded rails were one of the commonest birds there. The island's restaurant had to put saucers over the butter dishes, otherwise the rails would hop up on the tables and help themselves. I thought they were great, but from memory the Aussies weren't that impressed with them.

[andrewcrossland]

What a great place to be based for a few years! You're bound to pick up some really interesting vagrants. Good luck!

[Pete McClelland]

Appologies for the delay in posting an update - a few problems with the internet here. Just had a pretty amazing day. This morning took the boat out to Ball's Pyramid - at 551m its the highest rock stack in the world- 22km off Lord Howe. It's one of the few breeding sites for Kermadec Petrel so saw plenty of those along with Providence Petrels, Grey Ternlets, Black and Brown Noddies, Masked Boobies along with a couple of familiars a Royal Albatross and a prion spp. Dolphins and a whale were a bonus.
This afternoon did some bird counts, more on that in a later post, then out around the coast to the base of the mountain to watch the Providence Petrels come in - I've been fortunate to get some some amazing seabirding sites including the subantarctic and the titi islands but watching these guys come in was a real highlight. War wooped a few down to the ground which was fun and then walked out in the dark with birds dropping in through the trees. Worth a winter trip to the island just for these guys.

[Pete McClelland]

A couple of weeks after arriving onthe island I found out that Birdlife Australia is running a bird monitoring programme here on Lord Howe. While it has only been set up recently it is a long term project which will provide some good pre and post information on the eradication. It's a very simple methodology - 24 sites, some transects and somearea counts and you simply count everything you see and hear at the site. The sites are designed to take in all the habitat types to pick up all species from bush birds to waders. They also range from easy to do, ie along roads and short wals to ones that take a full day to access, ie on top of the mountain. The monitoring forms are very simple- they list all the likely birds you may encounter (15 "water birds" 11 seabirds and 13 landbirds.) which means that just about anyone with a pair of binos and the local bird book can do it. They also have an aerial photos and wriotten description of the site which is very useful and important for consistency. I've now got to the point for most of the sites that i can just take a note book and binos. The biggest issue I find with some of the sites is walking slow enough to take the required time - very slow in some cases! You can either hand in completed forms or if approved can input your data directly in to the Birdlife monitoring site on line which is quite straight forward.
While the simple methodology means that there is a greater risk of counter error ie no record of tides, weather (or when the plane has arrived in the case of the airfield site) hopefully the number of samples they will get will compensate for that.
Doing the sites I've picked up a couple of new birds I hadn't seen ion the island - Whimbrel, Grey tailed Tattler and European Starling. The only "common" bird I have yet to see is the Masked /Barn owl but as the are introduced and unwanted (an eradication is planned) some of the locals apparently shoot them around the settlement. The owls take white tern chicks which are a favourite with the locals and tourists so that puts them, and the currawongs which also predate the chicks, in the bad books with some people.

[Neil Robertson]

Update from Pete McClelland

Things are starting to happen on the bird front here on Lord Howe. I did the walk along the Northern Cliffs on Sunday, which has alot of up and down but is well worth it for the views of the island (you can even see the top of Balls Pyramid behind the Southern Mountains) let alone for the birds. I was up there 2 weeks previously and saw a single red tailed tropic bird and this time there were at least 5, probably alot more but 5 was the max at one time. The Sooty terns or wideawakes as they are know here due to their habit of flying through the night and not being the quietest of birds, have started to gather off the coast in the least week. There are tens of thousands of them and you can hear them even when they are well out to sea. They should all land en mass to nest within a couple of weeks. Apparently there are 2 main breeding sites on the island with tens of thousands breeding at each. Having experienced large colonies of these birds on Palmyra I am looking forward to seeing them in action again. I'm also pleased that I dont live too close to either colony. From the cliffs I could also see the grey ternlets off the coast which should be coming in to nest on the cliffs shortly. While I haven't seen them apparently the white terns are also starting to turn up (non pun intended) with several seen during the week. These nest in the trees (mainly Norfolk pines) along the lagoon road so looking forward to them. It was interesting to watch a Nakeen Kestrel hovering over the sea - thinking back it was probably close enough to the cliffs to be looking for prey there but it was about 30 m out from the cliffs.
On the general bird front the number of waders has tapered off - although that may just be my not being in the right place at the right time - still a dozen or so EBT Godwitts, Turnstones and still plenty of Golden Plover. The Grey tailed Tattler that has been here since I arrived is still around and I saw 2 other tatlers on Sunday but couldn't confirm the species. Only vagant I've seen in the last couple of weeks was a quick glimpse at a finch - probably a juvenile green finch, although another birder has seen a Nankeen Night heron. I'd been at that site probably 2 hours before him and all I saw were White faced herons but thats birding for you!

Pete McClelland

[Neil Fitzgerald]

Latest update from Pete:

After being off island for over a month I arrved back to the island on the 5th of October and it was like a kid walking down the street at christmas time and seeing the decorations for the first time. The sooty terns (Wideawakes) which had started to congregate off the island before i left had started nesting in force - thousands of them at around a dozen sites around the island. They are an issue with the planes as they try to nest on the dunes at Blinky's beach which is at the end of the runway. This means the board have to put up a grid of flags on strings around the area to keep them away. This works well but they still nest literally just outside the grid. The White terns have arrived and are nesting in the Norfolk pines along the lagoon as are some Black noodys. The white terns are a favourite with the locals and visitors alike fliting around the trees and with some roosting and nesting quite low down giving a really good view. The noddys on the other hand are not so popular apparently due to the mess under their colonies.

The Providence petrels are still congregating off the coast around the southern mountains each evening but as the chicks are getting close to fledging the adults aren't coming inshore until its basically dark. On the other hand the Wedgetail and Flesh footed shearwaters have arrived and can be seen in the late evening cruising along the beaches and coming into their burrows in the dunes and forest. These 2 species have largely divided the island up with Wedge tails on the West coast and flesh footed on the East. Unfortuantely as anywhere where humans and vehicles interact ther have already been a few casulaties. We did another boat trip out to Balls Pyramid (if you haven't heard of this spectacular piece of rock - the tallest rock stack in the world, try googling it) last weekend with Jack Shick and Ian Hutton, 2 of the local naturalists - many of the award winning photos you see from Lord Howe are taken by Jack and Ian has literally written the books on LHI birds and other aspects natural history.
We stopped about 3/4 of the way across and soon had dozens of fleshfooted around us along with several white-bellied storm petrels , Out at the Pyramid we got Kermadec petrels, and Grey Ternlets - which are also nesting on the main island but you have to work to get to them. There were also flocks of Short tailed Shearwaters going through and alot of discussion has been had over short tailed v's sooty shearwaters. The masked boobies, which are one of my favourites, while always present have not been very common off shore but are easily seen breeding on the islets offshore. On my regular walk along the Northern Hills the number of red tailed tropic birds is rising exponentially with over 130 last weekend. These are quite spectacular as they do their courship flights along the cliffs and should soon be nesting.

I've continued with the bird counts with the usual arrany of species turning up, today on the runway it was, BT Godwits, Golden Plover, Turnstone, Whimbrel, SW Plover / Masked Lapwing, Banded rail, Pukeko, Welcome Swallow, Sacred kingfisher and Magpie lark. The sole exception was a Sharp Tailed sandpiper at North Bay. Other birders on the island have also seen a Curlew sandpiper and the Nankeen or as they call them over here Rufous night heron, which was seen before I went away is still around but never where I am.

A highlight has been the rails, woodhens and pukeko breeding- with small fluffy black chicks all over the place. A pair of rails has nearly fledged 2 chicks at home and they are frequent visitors to out back porch looking for any scraps. We were also visited by a Currawong which tried to raid our bananas. These birds are reasonably common away from the settlement but apparently get hassled by the locals so are uncommon visitors. They are very smart birds so, a bit like keas, can rapidly get into trouble.

The dawn chorus, which basically consists of very loud Golden Whistlers starts around 4.30am and goes for about an hour - hence the ear plugs next to the bed. One of my co workers who lives near a shearwater collony reckons the whistlers are nothing compared to the early morning cocophany at her place. Having had the privilege of staying on the mutton bird islands I can appreciate the noise which has always been some thing special for me but not sure if I'd want it every morning over the summer.

All in all a good time for birding on Lord Howe and should even get better over the next couple of months with more birds nesting and more waders arriving.

[Neil Fitzgerald]

Update from Pete:

Things are well into the breeding season now for most species, the most obvious sign being the large number of Sooty tern chicks which are growing rapidly at the breeding sites spread around the island. There are a few large white tern chicks while many other pairs are yet to lay, apparently in some cases at least because their first eggs were predated.
The wedge-tailed shearwaters which breed on the west side of the island all seem to disappear a week ago presumably away on their honeymoon? while the flesh -footeds which nest on the East side are still in courtship so its a great sight watching hundreds of them arrive in in the evening. Small numbers of Black winged petrels are also arriving in the same area. The last of the Little shearwaters seem to have fledged along with the Providence petrels with quite a few found as beach wrecks.

After a reasonably long dry period we had 130mm of rain in 24 hours a week ago which filled the small wetlands just in time for some interesting waders to turn up. In addition to the increased number of Golden plover and ruddy turnstones and the usual BT godwits and whimbrels there are 2 Marsh sandpipers and along with a Greater knots, pectoral sandpiper and sharp tailed sandpiper. 2 Japanese snipe were around for a few weeks as are a small group of little terns. The water has also seen the return of the black ducks (and the lone wood duck- assuming it is the same one) which go to the streams around the mountains which retain water when it is dry. This compares with the Mallards, most of which stayed around the dry swamp.

There are currently 3 species of shag on the island - Black, Little Black and Pied- apparently shags arrive in small groups and then the numbers slowly drop over time until there is a new influx. None of them breed on the island, despite some apparent attempts. They are most commonly seen roosting on a couple of rocks in the lagoon but are also encountered flying over other parts of the island.

3 little terns have been seen regularly at North Beach for about a week and a different unidentified tern was reported on Friday but i couldn't find sign of any of them on Sunday, just hundreds of sooty terns and a dozen black noddys.