COCOS POCUS

Cocos (Keeling) Islands are 2,700 kilometres north-north-west of Perth in the Indian Ocean. There are two coral atolls comprising 27 islands, only two of which are inhabited. About 400 people of Malay extraction live on Home Island and about 200 people mainly of European extraction on West Island. There is a regular ferry service between the islands. Before my most recent trip, I had visited Cocos seven times and seen a total of 36 lifers there. Before I left Melbourne on my most recent trip, I knew that this year's trip could not possibly match last year's. For each birding hotspot, such as Cocos, there are perhaps 4 or 5 special years in a lifetime - years when vagrants excel all expectations. 2016 was one such year. I saw eleven lifers on Cocos in 2016. They were: Yellow Bittern, Rosy Starling, Von Schrenk's Bittern, Asian Brown Flycatcher, Drongo Cuckoo, Brown Shrike, Blue and White Flycatcher, Black-crowned Night Heron, Eyebrowed Thrush, Tree Pipit and Northern Pintail. I never expected to do that again. And indeed I have not. But, in 2024, on my seventh trip to Cocos, I saw a remarkable six lifers. They were: Dark-sided Flycatcher, Indian Cuckoo, Eurasian Wigeon, Black-naped Oriole, Cinnamon Bittern and Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler. I do not ever expect to replicate that. But I did hope that this year I might see just one lifer. Alas! It was not to be. Others on the tour glimpsed a yet to be identified crake as it flashed from one patch of undergrowth to another. I did not. Despite much effort, all attempts at photographing or videoing it failed, so the identification remains uncertain. Based on size (small) and colour (brown) the experts reckon that it might be a Ruddy-breasted Crake.

I visit Cocos as often as possible with Richard Baxter's Birding Tours Australia. This year our trip started inauspiciously. Qantas now has the contract for this route - previously it was Virgin. There are already many disconcertingly negative stories about the transfer from Virgin to Qantas. We were scheduled to fly to Cocos on Friday 28 November. The flight was cancelled and we were accommodated overnight in the Perth Parmelia Hilton. We made it to Cocos the next day, Saturday 29th, in time to see a Red-necked Phalarope at the Bottle Dump before tea. On Sunday, before breakfast, we walked through long grass at the Q Station and flushed two Pin-tailed Snipe.

Later, at the farm, Richard played the call of Asian Koel and one responded almost immediately, giving everyone a good look, and providing a third lifer for some people on the trip. Richard then had his first glimpse of the small crake, getting us all excited about this possible First for Australia. We were to chase it assiduously over the next few days, using every technique we could devise - all to no avail. No one ever had a really good look at it and some of us (including me) did not even achieve a fleeting glimpse. Monday saw our trip to South Island for Saunders's Tern. Most people were equally keen to see the Tibetan Sand Plover and race 'scythicus'of the Greater Sand Plover - a potential future armchair tick. I probably should not have gone. The tides and sand banks were such that it was a long hot walk, after our canoe ride from West Island to South Island. I took my walking stick as I do not like walking in water, but nevertheless I had a fall. Allan picked me up and, to the best of my knowledge, only John witnessed the spectacle. I saw Saunders's Terns briefly thought the scope, but, given that I've seen this species several times before, I'm not sure it was worth the effort. Part of Richard's Saunders's Tern adventure is a stopover on the return trip at Pulu Blan Mater to admire the Blue-tailed Skink. This lizard is extinct on Christmas Island, thanks to the joint efforts of introduced wolf snakes and yellow crazy ants. However, a captive breeding program at both Taronga Zoo and the Pink House on Christmas Island has resulted in skinks being released on two islands, with both released populations increasing impressively. It is a great success story. In fact it is said to be the world's most successful reptile captive breeding program. On Tuesday we took the ferry to Home Island, where there was a possible sighting of a thrush, which might have been an Eyebrowed Thrush. Not a very satisfactory sighting for those of us who had not seen an Eyebrowed Thrush before. What we all did see with no ambiguity was a Golden Bosunbird! I thought perhaps I saw two: one beautiful fully golden one, and one with a pale yellow wash. This morph of White-tailed Tropicbird was always regarded as endemic to Christmas Island. I don't believe it has ever been seen before on Cocos.

There is really nothing else worth reporting about my recent trip to Cocos. So now I have visited Cocos Islands eight times and seen a total of 36 lifers there. Let's hope I can do a little better in 2026.