ASHMORE REEF

When I visited Broome in August to twitch the Tibetan Sand Plover, I learned that a Nazca Booby had been seen on the Lacepedes. I confess that I'd never heard of a Nazca Booby. I quickly discovered that it was a recent split from the Masked Booby, with an orange (not yellow) bill and olive (not yellow) feet. It normally lives in the vicinity of the Galapagos. Now that's a fair way from the Lacepedes. Why wasn't the birding world agog at this extraordinary news? It seemed to be a well kept secret. Louis showed me a photo. It certainly seemed legit. The only way I know to get to the Lacepedes is to do George Swann's 10 day boat trip to Ashmore Reef. I decided I had no option but to try for it, so I put my name down for the November Ashmore Reef trip. I'd done this boat trip before. It leaves from Broome, travels to Ashmore Reef, visits West, East and Middle Islands and Splittgerber Cay, then calls at Browse Island and the Lacepedes on the way back to Broome. Of course I knew the chances of seeing the bird were slim, but I figured I had to at least try and I certainly wasn't going to see it sitting at home in my lounge room.

I studied the birdlists. There were 14 species which had been seen on Ashmore Reef which I'd never seen, but, being realistic, I wasn't going to see a Lesser Coucal, which had been happened across just once in over 30 trips. I reckoned my best chance of seeing something new was the Collared Kingfisher. This had been seen on 49% of previous trips - that's as good as a fifty/fifty chance. I remembered looking for it on earlier trips: it is slightly larger than a Sacred Kingfisher with a white breast (not buff), blue upperparts and cap (not greenish/blue) and a white loral spot. I remembered Sacred Kingfishers being very common on West Island, and peering at each one trying desperately to turn its breast white and to create a white loral spot. With no success of course. George soon disabused me of any hope I had: Collared Kingfishers had not been seen for some time. The chances of seeing one were minimal. News of the Nazca Booby was even worse. The bird on the Lacepedes had been seen just once, over a year ago. No one had been there since. A Nazca Booby had also been seen on Middle Island. Once. In the company of Brown Boobies. And another bird had been seen somewhere near Papua! Perhaps it was all the same bird. Perhaps there were three. Who knows? My heart sank as it dawned on me that I was not going to see a Nazca Booby. Or a Collared Kingfisher.

We left Broome on Friday, 1 November and arrived at West Island on Sunday afternoon. There were some good seabirds along the way. Apart from boobies, terns, noddies and frigatebirds, we saw Streaked Shearwaters and Tahiti Petrels and I was pleased to see Bulwer's and Joanin's Petrels, and Swinhoe's and Matsudaira's Storm Petrels. Unusual sightings at sea were one Eastern Yellow Wagtail and one Edible Nest Swiftlet. On West Island, as expected, there were waders, frigatebirds and boobies, Buff-banded Rails, Nankeen Night and Pacific Reef Herons. We also saw lots of Oriental and Horsfield Bronze Cuckoos, I think just one Brush Cuckoo, more than one Barn Swallow, several Island Monarchs, I think more than one Supertramp Fantail and an Asian Brown Flycatcher. At least three pairs of Red-tailed Tropicbirds were nesting on the island. Both CSIRO and Monash are working on the island. CSIRO is attempting to remove the buffle grass (the photo shows plants bagged for removal and destruction) and installing boards for Asian gheckos to inhabit so they can be removed.

While we were there, Monash installed 30 nest shelters for Red-tailed Tropicbirds.

We visited West Island several times, East and Middle just once. At Splittgerber Cay, I needed help navigating what was really very shallow water.

Browse Island was very hot. Access is difficult because of the surrounding reef, so we spent more time waiting for the tenders to come and pick us up than we'd intended. For me, the highlight of the trip was two very cooperative Kamchatka Leaf Warblers on Browse. We initially thought they were Arctic Warblers, but a sonogram of the call confirmed they were Kamchatkas. Either species would have been a lifer for me, so I was delighted. I was, of course, disappointed at the absence of Nazca Boobies, but I'd always known it was a long shot. And a lifer is a lifer after all. One I would not have seen had I sat at home in my lounge room.