22 October 2010

The northwest shelf of Australia is one of the best places in the world to go and see seabirds, sea snakes, turtles, whales and dolphins. On top of that, the world class Ashmore Reef National Nature Reserve is a huge rare migrant trap for birds that overshoot the Asian continent. In all these respects, this years trip with Peregrine Bird Tours was one of the best ever.

This adult Grey-streaked Flycatcher is one of three birds seen, including two juveniles.

It takes almost three days to reach Ashmore but our excitement began not far out of Darwin where we crossed one of the richest, but surprisingly, least known areas of ocean in the world. Where else could we find a wintering seabird never before recorded in Australia. It’s a type of ‘Audubon’s’ shearwater, now considered several distinct species. Our bird is most likely Arabian Shearwater Puffinus persicus all the way from the Gulf of Oman (READ MORE).

These were joined by Wilson’s Storm Petrels from the Antarctic and Long-tailed Jaegers and Common Terns, from Siberia. Matsudaira’s and Swinhoe’s Storm Petrels, Bulwer’s Petrels and Streaked Shearwaters were also seen and had all traveled to these rich waters from Japan and the western Pacific.

There was a wealth of whales, dolphins and marine reptiles. We saw Flatback Turtle (Australia’s only endemic turtle), as well as Loggerhead Turtle and masses of Green Turtles mating in the shallows of Ashmore Reef. Sea snakes were abundant over the shallow Sahul Banks, especially the Ocellated Sea Snake. These are true marine reptiles, never seeing land, even to breed. By the time we reached Ashmore, we’d encountered six types of whale and dolphin. En-route back to Darwin we found both Indo-pacific Humpback Dolphins and Australian Snubfin Dolphins, bringing the total to eight. Five of these, including False Killer Whale, were seen just off Ashmore reef. The day before we’d stumbled upon a feeding and breeding ground of what we believe to be Omura’s Whale, a recently described ‘great whale’ that we know almost nothing about. Four groups of 15 whales with newborn calves were seen.

Middendorff's Grasshopper Warbler is a rarity that has only been seen on Ashmore Reef. It's a very skulking bird but this one gave prolonged views at the base of an Argusia.

We were permitted to land on Ashmore in return for collecting bird count data for the islands, which are famous for their seabirds and as a staging post for shorebirds migrating from Siberia. It was also a chance for our passengers to search for accidental vagrant birds, adding these to their ‘list’ and the list of rare birds recorded for Australia. And how amazing this turned out to be.

Strong northerly winds, lightning, thunder and heavy rain skirted the island as we birded the island for up to 10 hours each day. Our hope was that this would force many birds to make land fall. Day one, we were greeted immediately on landing by a Grey Wagtail (that was joined by a second the day after). Then, an adult Grey-streaked Flycatcher hopped up in front of us – a second only record for Australia (there were two in total, as we found another adult). Inspection of photos of a suspected juvenile revealed this to actually be a Dark-sided Flycatcher (thanks Mike Carter) – a second for Australia. After that came the Arafura Fantails, three in all, feeding with two Australian Yellow White-eyes. The island was awash with shorebirds when we arrived. In the grassland at high tide was one Long-toed Stint, and three each of Little Curlew and Oriental Plovers. There must have been fifteen to twenty Oriental Cuckoos and about 15 Eastern Yellow Wagtails, as well as the usual trickle of migrating Barn Swallows and Fork-tailed Swifts.

A juvenile Tiger Shrike was found as a last minute surprise by the group, just before leaving the island. Photo by Simon Mustoe.

On the second day, another Arctic Warbler appeared (there was one on the first day aswell) and finally, an Island Monarch. This is the fifth record of this beautiful bird, all from Ashmore since 2004. It was much to our surprise on the first day that we’d found a single Spectacled Monarch – a bird that breeds on Timor, which is presumably where this bird came from.

On the final day we returned one last time, hoping for better views of the Island Monarch and expecting to find little else new. But Ashmore came up trumps again. Within a few minutes, we were getting cracking views of a Middendorff’s Grasshopper Warbler then just as we were about to leave, a juvenile Tiger Shrike (third for Australia) appeared, ending up perched in the open, metres from excited observers.

A first, and probably new wintering seabird for Australia, a second for Australia, three birds recorded less than five times, an aggregation of rarely-seen large baleen whales and twenty shorebird varieties in just a few short days. What an amazing trip!

Want to come next year?

Read the full trip report here.

Find out about past Ashmore Reef trips

For bookings in 2011, contact Chris Doughty, Peregrine Bird Tours.