Living and Birding Gratitude: Cocos and Christmas Islands Part Three ~ Cocos Part Two

Tuesday morning Joy Tansey and I caught the first ferry to Home Island. We were on a mission. Joy had been with Jenny Spry on the first day when Jenny flushed, and saw, the Chestnut-winged Cuckoo. She had been only a few steps behind, but had not been able to see it. They did not refind it. So Joy and I were going to give that part of Home Island a good searching over and that we did. We diligently crisscrossed that area for at least four hours without a single glimpse of the cuckoo. It was beautiful of course, but no cuckoo joy. At this writing, Jenny remains the last person to see that bird. We returned to West Island on the noon ferry.

An old tyre swing with deeper meanings... time marches on.

Stopping for a rest, I think Joy might have fallen asleep for a moment or two

I love the views from the ferry...

A Yellow Bittern had been spotted the day before, so Tuesday arvo a large part of our birding revolved around the areas where we thought it might be. It seemed that it was no longer around despite many hopeful eyes scanning the edges of the mudflats. We certainly gave it a good go and a bit of walking.

Later that arvo, the group had spread out as we do, and a couple of us were back at the motel when Biggles drove up honking his horn and soon we were in the car headed for a tree just up the road where a bird had been heard. This tree, standing by itself behind a chain link fence, was now surrounded by our group. I think by then, we were all there. We scanned the branches. I reckon counting the time before I arrived; that tree was under close surveillance for about an hour. Every now and then, the “bird” would make its squeak (of course I could not hear it). So we quietly continued to scan the tree with our bins. Finally, Biggles climbed the low fence to get the last possible angle looking into the tree and soon he saw it… two branches occasionally rubbing together making a very bird-like sound. We had watched an empty tree for an hour. Such can be birding.

Biggles

The next morning, Wednesday, a portion of us caught a ride with Geof Christie in his boat across to Horsbugh Island.

Geof and his delightful wife, Pam, live on West Island part of the year. They have a bed and breakfast called the Bird’s Nest. Soon we were making the trek across the island to the pond where a rare vagrant Northern Pintail (duck) took up residence a couple of years ago. It’s not a long walk, maybe a kilometre, but at one point you are required to duck (no pun intended what-so-ever) under some branches. I nailed the stump of one front-on with the top of my head. I was sure there would be blood, but my wonderful old hat had protected my scalp. It hurt like hell, but in a very few minutes we were at the little lake. At first, the duck was not. Richard walked around further to our right through the bush and soon the Pintail and a Pacific Black Duck were floating in the middle of the pond. There was also a Red-necked Phalarope. It was not a lifer for me, but certainly a very good bird.

And the Cocos Islands subspecies of the Buff-banded Rail (could be split one day).

We headed back across the island. I was chatting with Geof as White Terns (he calls them the “Cocos Air Police”) came chasing a small raptor that zoomed by above us. Soon calls of, “Japanese Sparrowhawk!” came from behind me. The bird and its escorts circled back and bins were up, and Cameras were clicking. As we were digging the Japanese Sparrowhawk what appeared to be an Asian House Martin came zooming through us. But after carefully examining the photos of it it turned out to be the Cocos Islands first Tree Martin! Very cool, but sadly certainly not a life bird. So, exciting and disappointing all at the same time.

That was the afternoon before I had sorted that the eyepiece needed to be changed on my camera. I was having no luck getting flight shots. Richard had not brought his camera and I just handed him mine. He managed to get some good shots of the Sparrowhawk regardless of the eyepiece and my dodgy camera settings. Here are a few of those.

We headed back in Geof’s boat to West Island for a short regroup and then prepared to catch the ferry to Home Island for a bit of birding and a wonderful Malay dinner at a local restaurant. The dinner was at 6pm which is a reasonable time for my ‘stomach.’ It was truly delicious. The shellfish, called, “gong-gong” is wonderful, the fish was fresh and as good as it gets. And I enjoyed my first 0% Bintang, a non-alcoholic malt beverage. I would not call it an NA Beer, but it was beer-like, refreshing and I enjoyed it. Unfortunately it is not available in Victoria. Here are some photos from that evening.

Probably my favourite photo of me at this point in my life. That's me on the Home Island ferry that day. That is as me as I get and I am working hard to continue to be that me. Not anyone else's me, my me.

Thursday was the Mugimaki Day. There was an area on the north end where an Eyebrowed Thrush had been seen on several occasions. But I had not yet seen it. I had gone up there and looked and looked a few times. Tania had taken me on a stakeout there earlier in the week, but the bird had not deemed to reveal itself to me. Others in the group had gotten great looks at it Thursday morning. I am not sure where I was, but it was not with the group who saw that damn Thrush posing on a stick out in the open in the same area where I had looked for it repeatedly.

So I was down that track again looking (in vain) for the Thrush when word came in of a Mugimaki Flycatcher. It was in the bushes along the main road only about a hundred metres from where I was. Bill (a friend of Geof’s who was staying and birding with him) had found it and was making sure we knew about it. He had even gone by and left a note in our lounge room at the motel. Soon we were all gather along the edge of the road watching the bushes. My friend, Bill Betts called out that it was in front of him and I saw it well as it flitted about (and boy can they flit) in a tall bush just across the road. Most of us got decent looks and joy reigned. I still had not seen the Thrush and went back to unsuccessfully looking for it down the track just around the corner from the Mugimaki spot.

I love this photo of Glen. It shows his passion for birding. This was while the Mugimaki was being spotted and he was excited.

That last evening we met for a beach cookout at the spot where we had hired the canoes. It was like being in a tropical dream (or on Survivor after the merge haha). It was not the first, nor by any means the last time I “let my hair down.” It is how I wear it now sometimes. It is me. It was a lovely evening.

And then somehow it was the last morning on Cocos. But our flight wasn’t until 1pm, so we had plenty of birding time. The group headed straight for the Mugimaki Flycatcher spot. Having seen the flycatcher well the day before, I went just around the corner to look for the Eyebrowed Thrush. I was with Tania and her amazing ears had picked up on the Thrush close to the road where the Mugimaki had been being seen. She heard it again, but we looked and looked without success. Then we joined the others to have another look at the flycatcher. But in the meantime, a third flycatcher, a Narcissus Flycatcher that had been seen earlier in the week was putting on a “show” flying repeatedly back and forth across an opening in the bushes. I saw it two or three times in that opening.

A shot from the back of Richard's camera. My "recording" shot is the one above it. I was too busy looking for the Eyebrowed Thrush to take time to get a good shot of the Mugimaki. I did think I had gotten a better one than that blurry spot in the bushes.

And the Mugimaki was still being glimpsed working its way along the bush line. Someone called out that it was in front of them, and as I moved to their viewpoint, I saw the Mugimaki Flycatcher flitting its way up in the bush and at the same moment a much larger bird landed on a palm frond out in the open just a couple of metres behind it. Eyebrowed Thrush! Two “megas” (the shortened twitcher’s word for “mega rarity”) in a single view! I could see them both! On an island where you rarely ever see a single bird in a tree or bush, there were two rare vagrants in one view. The thrush only perched out for a couple of beautiful, heart stopping seconds before dropping down, but that was enough. What a wonderful last morning on my favourite island in the world.

That is where I saw both the Mugimaki Flycatcher and the Eyebrowed Thrush at the same time. The Flycatcher was in the bush and the Thrush was on a palm frond pointing down toward the bush

We gathered our things and were all at the airport and checked in by noon to make the hour flight over to Christmas Island. I was physically leaving Cocos, but Cocos will never leave me.

This is a photo of me at the Cocos Airport. I noticed the background and thought that this photo needed to be taken. So I did.

Addendum: These have been two of my longer blog entries and yet I still left out quite a lot. As I let the memories of Cocos play in my head like a sweet mellifluous melody, I realise I did not even mention the snipe Jenny found (and we all saw) on our first visit to Home Island. It appeared to be a Common Snipe, but the final confirmation of that is to be determined. She is making a BARC submission, so stay tuned. Nor did I mention Tony and the wonderful, handmade ice cream at his little café (he is also renowned for his breads) or the complete lack of crime on these islands (we locked nothing). There is a lot more I could have written about Cocos, but I must stop at some point and this is it. There is also so much to tell about the next week on Christmas Island. Stay tuned.