I have just returned from a trip to Cocos (7 days) and Christmas Island (3 days) with Mike Carter, Tony Palliser, Tom Smith, David James and Ian McAllan. An amazing trip with rarities almost anywhere we looked. I thought that one of the others might have posted a summary. There were a few messages posted to birding-aus, and there were a few crossed wired in the messages. A short summary is below, but one of the others will hopefully write a more complete summary.
Cocos Islands (December 28th to January 4th)
EURASIAN TEAL (1) at Bechat Besar (reported in December by Richard Baxter) White-throated Needletail (1 on 3 occasions) West Island YELLOW BITTERN (2) West Island reported in December by David James and Home Island CINNAMON BITTERN (1) Home Island Cattle Egret (2) (maybe Western?) West Island airport Striated Heron (3) West Island POND HERON sp. (1 immature) West Island Western Reef Egret (several birds) West Island and Horsburgh Island JAPANESE SPARROWHAWK (1) West Island (reported by Richard Baxter in December) CHINESE SPARROWHAWK (1) West Island (reported by Richard Baxter in December) Accipiter sp. (1) Oceanic House Home Island possible MONTAGU’s HARRIER (1) West Island EURASIAN HOBBY (1) West Island (reported by David James and Richard Baxter in December) Peregrine Falcon (1 briefly) Horsburgh Island WATERCOCK (5-8!!) West Island and Home Island (reported in December by David James and Richard Baxter) Pin-tailed Snipe (30+) West Island and (5) Home Island possible large snipe sp. (1) No details other than size, but not Common Snipe as was incorrectly reported. We were hoping there might be a Common Snipe. Oriental Pratincole (1) West Island airport Saunders’s Tern (2) South Island HODGSON’S HAWK-CUCKOO (1 dead, 1+ West Island, 1 Home Island) We believe this and not Northern. Seen by Richard Baxter’s group, but not ID’d until after we reported our sightings. I thought I saw on with a sooty back and hood, looking like Malaysian, but noone else saw it. LARGE HAWK-CUCKOO (1 twice) West Island (reported by Richard Baxter in December) INDIAN ROLLER (1) Horsburgh Island Barn Swallow (5)
Christmas Island (4th to 7th January)
RED COLLARED-DOVE (1) Rubbish tip (reported by David James and Richard Baxter in December) YELLOW BITTERN (6-7!!) resort and LB3 (reported by Lisa Preston) BLACK BITTERN (1+) golf course to resort Striated Heron (3+) NE Point to resort MALAYAN NIGHT-HERON (1) Greta Beach track (reported by Lisa Preston) WATERCOCK (1) golf course Peregrine Falcon (1) Asian Koel (4 including a juvenile) Is it breeding on Christmas? ORIENTAL REED-WARBLER (1) resort (reported by Lisa Preston) Grey Wagtail (6) rubbish tip and (1) Greta Beach track
It is an interesting thing to ponder why so many rarities have turned up. It is a La Nina year. Cocos has had a record annual rainfall. There was a large storm on Melbourne Cup Day that may have picked up birds on migration. And of course the major storm that led to the shipwreck on Christmas. The harrier and the roller presumably have come from Sri Lanka / India (and the pond heron could conceivably be Indian although we feel it is most likely to be Javan).
The Red Collared-Dove could be the same male seen at a number of sites around the island in the past 4 years.
And I remember there was a comment about the possible Short-toed Eagle in Victoria being better than the rarities reported on Cocos and Christmas in December. Sorry. Not even close!!! I saw 11 new birds for my Australian list, and I dipped on two. Even Mike Carter added 9 birds to his Australian list.
If you were to go now to Christmas Island and then Cocos, I feel that you would be unlucky not to find Malayan Night-Heron, Yellow Bittern, Oriental Reed-warbler, Red Collared-Dove, Waterock and Eurasian Teal from the mega rarities at the very least. The down side is that on Christmas Island it can be difficult to get a hire car, accommodation and even a flight with all the activity at the detention centre. 10 or more people (including Kim Hughes the former test captain) returning to Perth were bumped at the very last minute from the flight from Cocos to Christmas, ostensibly due to an aviation fuel shortage on Christmas, but the plane from Christmas to Perth was full.
And having a new Australian passport with the embedded chip is no advantage when returning to Perth. Apparently you are not checked out of Australia when you leave, so the new SmartGate won’t accept the passport when you return!
_________________________________________________________________ Frank O’Connor Birding WA http://birdingwa.iinet.net.au Phone : (08) 9386 5694 Email : foconnor@iinet.net.au
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au
http://birding-aus.org ===============================
