CHRISTMAS ISLAND: MY TENTH VISIT

Qantas-Link somehow managed to transport us all with our luggage from Cocos to Christmas Island without losing anything. Unfortunately, from my point of view, Christmas Island proved to be most disappointing. We did all our usual things: we admired the Golden Bosunbirds, we tried to identify each and every frigatebird and we wondered at the prehistoric Abbott's Booby. Everyone easily saw the Christmas Boobook, but alas! I do not believe that there were any Northern Boobooks on the island. We all saw plenty of Island Thrushes, White-eyes and Swiftlets, and everyone saw Java Sparrows and Christmas Goshawks at least once. It was extremely dry and there were virtually no migrants at all. We did see a few Barn Swallows, but they were swooping quite high, and if it had been a lifer, I'd have liked a better look. A couple of Arctic Warblers were reported before we arrived, someone saw a von Schrenk's Bittern and there was talk of a Yellow Bittern, but that was it. At Margaret Knoll, we watched a Peregrine Falcon (race ernesti) being hassled by, and in turn hassling, a frigatebird. I thought it was good to see the frigatebird get some of its own medicine for once. Richard told us he'd only ever seen Peregrines take Christmas Imperial Pigeons. He'd no sooner finished his statement, than some of us witnessed the Peregrine doing just that: killing a pigeon in mid-air. One thing we did which I hadn't done before, was to go on a pelagic. Sadly, it was predictable tropical seabirding. We saw nothing noteworthy. In the rainforest, sharp-eyed Sue (who was responsible for finding most of last year's vagrants on Cocos) saw this:

There are cat traps all over the island, but this is the first time I've ever seen anything caught in one. The National Parks staff remain confident that they will eventually eliminate feral cats, but it is unfortunate that the Malay population thinks it is their right to own a pet. While it is illegal to own an unspayed cat on Christmas Island, there's no doubt that some still exist. In fact, the most interesting creatures on this leg of our trip were not birds. A couple of our group saw an exciting, as yet unidentified bat, and when we dined at Lucky Ho's, we enjoyed a fruit-piercing moth sucking up mango juice off the table cloth.

I can only hope that my eleventh trip to Christmas Island will be more productive. I must see that Northern Boobook one day!

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.