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| Me and the Booby sculpture at Margaret Knoll Lookout |
As I wrote in “More Australian Birding Tales” I love Christmas Island and I truly do. This visit (my third) was a bit lower key than I would have preferred. The island was experiencing a heavy drought and the birding was quiet. It is still a place that touches my soul. “It is the vibe, not the number” to quote Richard Baxter. I consider Richard the king of Christmas and Cocos birding. Because well... he is.
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| David Adam, Richard Baxter and Glen Pacey excellent birders all and my friends. |
If I had another life, I would live on a tropical island. Possibly on Christmas Island even though as far as Indian Ocean islands go, I prefer Cocos. Christmas has more facilities and an older person needs facilities. While I was there, I visited the lovely hospital regarding the recurrence of my pilonidal sinus infection and I was on antibiotics. Eventually it healed. End of that part of the story.
On a side note, I met and quite liked the doctor there. His name was Frank Reed and for over 30 years he has been the doctor on Lord Howe Island. He was only on Christmas filling-in so to speak. It turns out that he is good mates with Ian Hutton who literally wrote the book on birding Lord Howe, “Birds of Lord Howe Island: Past and Present”. Frank told me that when I do go to Lord Howe I should get in touch with Ian and mention his name. I will certainly do that and I will eventually get to Lord Howe.
The week had many high points which mostly revolved around just being there and seeing stuff. We hiked the dales area, ending at the ocean and that was stunning.
We had one ‘mega’ rarity but alas, it was I bird I had twitched in South Australia a few years back, Citrine Wagtail. A good bird indeed, but not a new one for me.
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| Citrine Wagtail on the sports oval behind the school a tick for Robert Shore! |
We visited the Margaret Knoll Lookout. It is so incredibly beautiful there. The lookout is amazing and I had fun posing with the sculpture of a booby. Here come some touristy photos.
Of course we were birding and saw birds. Here are a few of my favourite pics from the week. These are not all of the cool birds that we saw, but I like some of these photos. I do still enjoy taking some pics of birds, but I remain a birder and a writer first. I take pictures, but do not consider myself a photographer, especially nowadays. There are some magnificent photographers out there taking state-of-the-art photos of birds. I am proud to know quite a few of them.
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| This Brown Goshawk (CI subspecies) landed in the car door a metre from me |
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| Christmas Imperial Pigeon and rubber ducky |
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| Christmas White-eye |
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| Red-footed Booby |
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| Christmas Island Boobook |
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| The critically endangered Christmas Flying Fox is the island's only remaining native mammal. |
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| Java Sparrow |
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| Red Junglefowl |
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| Common Emerald Dove |
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| We always eat dinner at least once at Lucky Ho's |
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| Christmas decorations on Christmas Island in the roundabout. |
On the next to last day, I had a lovely encounter with a slightly injured young Red-footed Booby. Some of the group that had gone on the second snorkelling trip had found the bird. Something was wrong with one of its wings. We took it to the Park Service where it would be cared for. It was a bit after hours and a very nice young lady came and took the bird.
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| "Do not leave birds in toilets" is a good general rule. |
The day we flew out the airport was chockers with all the people leaving the island for the holidays. I ran into Dr Frank Reed there as well as being given a Merry Christmas Island hat by the sweet girl from the Visitors Centre. I had met her on one of my several visits there. I bought a few grandchild Christmas presents and a cap for myself. I have been wearing that cap regularly since I’ve been back in Lara. Here I am wearing it at the Post Office.
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| Red Crabs just because they are so cool |
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| At the Christmas Island Airport |
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| Bye bye Christmas Island until next time |
So I have included a bunch of photos to accompany my words. In the coming days, I will write in depth about birding in general as well as writing about the passing of my friend, Mike Carter. He was a dear friend. That will be the next blog post. I will share my thoughts about the birding community’s deep loss and some thoughts about my birding in general.
Sending love as I do ❤️
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