Lady Elliot Island - 3

Coral and shells

Lady Elliot Island is entirely built of coral and shell (with a bit of guano and plant matter added later). It rose from below the surface about 3500 years ago and the foundation platform can be clearly seen to be formed from the coral and shells, and the current coral platform which surrounds the island can be seen forming the next extension to the island if it is uplifted again in another few thousand years.

Although most of the colour in the coral is seen when it is alive and underwater, bits and pieces are washed up on to the beaches along with sponges.

And there are thousands of seashells on the beaches. The island is a green zone, where removal of anything natural from the island is prohibited, and as a result every visitor has the joy of walking the shore and discovering a variety of shells. It is the best beach I have ever seen for shells, with several species of cowrie and cone shells - the builders of some of which are deadly poisonous if picked up when alive. Then there are clams, spiders and others I cannot remember, there were so many.

My prize find was a nautilus shell with barnacles growing on it.

I also found a splendid growth of barnacles on an old washed up log. The whole shore is a beachcomber's delight. 

Lady Elliot island - 2

Noddies

Two species of Noddy nest on Lady Elliot Island, the White-capped (Black) and the Common (Brown), and despite their clearly different names they are rather similar when first seen.

The most common species on the island is the White-capped and they build flimsy nests of rotting leaves in the lower forks of the trees, many right next to the paths in the centre of the resort complex. The adults are a bit darker than the Common Noddies, but it is their smaller size and habits which distinguish them better from the Commons. 

I find it interesting how their chicks, even when downy, also have white-caps and their body down is sooty black.

The larger Common Noddies (on the right below) are more brown in general, but this can be difficult to discern in poor light, and the difference between the amount of white on each species' crown is also similar.

When nesting, the two species are easily identified because the Common Noddies nest on the ground, on the storm beaches,   

or in the shorter grasses at either end of the runway. The birds fly up whenever an aeroplane passes overhead, but they return immediately to their nests every time.

Lady Elliot Island - 1

I am just back from a family holiday on Lady Elliot Island on the Great Barrier Reef. A great venue for snorkeling, with wonderful coral, fish, turtles and the star attraction - manta rays.  

As we flew in we had a good overview of the island and its reefs. In 1805 an industry started up collecting and exporting sea-cucumbers to Asia, then a guano industry began and almost the whole island was stripped bare of vegetation as that was collected. Three feet or more of guano covered the island then. Now the island is largely regenerated, since a programme was began in the 1960s. The light house is the obvious man-made landmark on the island and there have been numerous shipwrecks in the past.

Now there are thousands of white-capped noddies nesting in the trees, and they roost on clear sunny perches like old tree branches over the beach as below. There are also large colonies of common noddies which nest on the storm beaches, especially at either end of the runway. Other sea birds which nest there include Red-tailed Tropic Birds, Bridled, Black-naped, Crested and Roseate terns.

And there are nesting Green and Loggerhead Turtles. The green turtle below was marooned on the reef platform at low tide so I lifted her into the water and she swam off gratefully. It was a tremendous experience to swim with these animals. They are used to humans and allow close contact and some individuals actually swam towards us to be scratched, probably using us as cleaning stations, but I didn't mind helping them at all. 

I will cover other wildlife of the island in subsequent blog-pages, but for now here is a shot of a white Eastern Reef Egret, there is also a dark grey morph. They forage along the reef and roost and nest in the trees.  

Bird Banding at the Weddin Mountains

Last weekend I was out catching birds at the Weddin mtns on a trip run by Harvey Perkins and Richard Allen. The bush was looking very green and lush, greatly changed from the dry and shrinking habitat I last saw there a year ago.

We caught 173 birds of a good variety of species, even though most of the summer migrants had left. We saw a flock of about sixty bee-eaters fly overhead, going north so that might have been them gone too. The birds we caught were of the resident or locally migratory species and there were many juvenile and first year birds indicating that there had been a good breeding season.

 An adult female Crested Shrike-tit, she has a green bib and collar, while the male has a black one - we caught her mate (but he was released before I could photograph him) and he was banded seven years ago at the same site.

A Varied Sittella, wonderful little birds which forage up and down tree bark in extended family cooperative groups. This bird is a full-grown male, the female has a white chin and lower face.

 

Two Spotted Pardalotes: an adult female on the left a male on the right. he is moulting the first four white spots on his crown, from the yellow spots he had while in juvenile plumage, similar to that of the female. His full adult plumage will have all-white spots on the crown and a brighter white stripe above the eye.          

A juvenile Painted Button-quail, fully feathered but only half adult size. These birds have been abundant throughout the grassy woodlands in our area this year and seem to have bred well.

Toilet wildlife

I was camping out at the Weddin Mountains at the weekend, catching birds - more later. We arrived after dark and set up the tents then explored around, including in and around the long-drop toilet. There were some wonderful creatures there.

Several Perons Tree Frogs were sitting on the wall and one was in the overflow pipe of the water tank. I even had a frog on the inside canopy of my tent. They have splendid yellow and black stripes on the inside of their thighs which show up bright when they jump.

And there was a beautiful Barking Gecko, which seemed to live a in crack at the edge of the concrete base. This species reserves fat in its tail, and this specimen had a very fine supply.

 Then of course there were lots of spiders, red-backs in below dark corners and a huge orb-weaver round the back with a several metres-wide web.