MY SIXTH TRIP TO THE COCOS/KEELING ISLANDS

After a successful week on Christmas Island, we flew to the Cocos/Keeling Islands feeling positive and optimistic. There was reportedly a Dark-sided Flycatcher somewhere on West Island and I was hoping to see the recently split Tibetan Sand Plover on South Island. This photo shows where we spent some time at Trannies Beach looking for an Asian Brown Flycatcher. I had good views, but others weren't so lucky.

The Northern Pintail (which I first saw on the remarkably successful December 2016 tour) has stayed around and bred with a Pacific Black Duck resulting in four hybrids, enough to confuse any birder. Thanks to one of our sharp-eyed birders we saw one hybrid on our first day on Cocos, as well as the Common Kingfisher I was so pleased to tick last January. I was surprised to see that this was a different bird sporting juvenile plumage. Of course there were Green Junglefowl everywhere on Cocos and several of the recently split Intermediate Egrets. We'd dipped on Asian Koels on Christmas and promptly rectified this deficit on Cocos. There are lots of Pacific Reef Herons (both white and grey morphs) and just a sprinkling of Western Reef Herons. Both Striated and Nankeen Night Herons are common. Lesser Frigatebirds are common too. I thought they outnumbered Great Frigatebirds significantly. There was just one Oriental Pratincole on the airport runway and I saw just one Cattle Egret too. I cannot confirm rumours of a Tree Pipit (a bird I'd seen here in December 2016). On the day we visited South Island for Saunders's Tern, I saw two Eurasian Curlews, lots of Whimbrels and Ruddy Turnstones and White Terns of course (these are abundant on Cocos) as well as two races of Greater Sand Plover: the nominate race which we see on mainland Australia, and race 'columbinus' with a much thinner bill, making it look like a Lesser Sand Plover. Sadly, I could not turn any of the sand plovers into Lesser of any sort. At the Transfer Station we saw a Common Redshank, a Black-tailed Godwit and a Grey-tailed Tattler, and lots of sticky slippery mud. Despite almost 11 hours of patient, hot, waiting and watching (2 hours on Wednesday, 3 on Thursday, over 2 on Saturday, 2 on Sunday and almost another 2 on Monday) I did not even glimpse the Dark-sided Flycatcher. This photo shows where I looked.

The contraption on the left is a cat trap, and I did see cat footprints on the sand here. Once, I saw something brown moving high in a bush and was momentarily excited, but it turned out to be a rat. So I came home with my record spoiled - I have no longer scored a lifer every time I've visited Cocos. I have a total of 28 lifers for 6 visits. Let's hope that next year is not quite so dry.