Lady Elliot Island 10/20--BUFF-BANDED RAIL, WANDERING TATTLER, BROWN NODDY, BLACK NODDY, BRIDLED TERN, SOOTY TERN, BLACK-NAPED TERN, RED-TAILED TROPICBIRD

BLACK NODDY on nest

The Port Hervey (pronounced "Harvey") airport, at 7 AM, is the emptiest airport on the planet. No one was there--no agents, no car rental booth open, no vendors, no maintenance men, no custodians--no one in sight until we walked the length of the terminal and found the small departure gate for the Lady Elliot Island airplane service. Where a small, very small plane, awaited us. 13 passengers (one up front with the pilot) piled into the little plane, its seats inexplicably upholstered in beige plush. 3 seats across with an aisle that I measured as the length of my iPhone 6S (the small version).

35 minutes later we were on Lady Elliot Island, a a link in the chain of islands that pop up from the Great Barrier Reef. Before we were even out of the plane we had life birds, as BROWN NODDIES nest at the ends of the grass runway and hope for the best. Descending the rickety little ladder I saw my 2nd lifer pecking for food on the runway, a BUFF-BANDED RAIL, a bird I'd seen listed for the island, but so focused on noddies and other terns was I that I'd forgotten about it.

BUFF-BANDED RAIL

A young woman met our flight and began an orientation, but I was completely distracted by the birds, especially since everywhere I looked, in all the trees, bushes, and shrubbery, there were BLACK NODDIES nesting. Just walking from the runway to the cafeteria we passed literally hundreds of them.

BROWN NODDY

Then there were the terns (though noddies are also in the tern family)--in quick succession we added BRIDLED TERN, SOOTY TERN, and BLACK-NAPED TERN. Bridled Terns were the most numerous by far. Like most terns, their nests are rudimentary at best--a few scratches to to make a hollow in the shingle, and they nest wherever they won't get stepped on, including the space between two benches at the departure area:

BRIDLED TERN on nest

SOOTY TERN

We took a little walk toward the coral beach and soon found, nesting beneath some low trees, RED-TAILED TROPICBIRDS. So within about a half hour we 6 amazing life birds. 

RED-TAILED TROPICBIRD with chick

We all dispersed at this point--some to go snorkeling, others to ride in the glass bottom boat, and Mike & I to continue exploring. We got one more life bird--a WANDERING TATTLER on the beach. Fortunately, Mike took a photo so Kim could confirm the i.d. later because they look, from a distance, similar to Grey-tailed Tattler, which we already "had." Along the way we also found birds like Pacific Reef Heron (both color morphs), White-bellied Sea-Eagle, Sooty Oystercatcher (I made sure Shari saw that one), and even our first Ruddy Turnstones of the trip, foraging along the very busy airstrip. 

Pacific Reef Herons, white and dark morphs

We were on the island for about 8 hours. The quantity of birds seen was rather small for the time, but the quality of those seen was very high. 

17 species (+1 other taxa)
BUFF-BANDED RAIL 100 rough count
Sooty Oystercatcher 2
Pacific Golden-Plover 1 lawn near reception
Ruddy Turnstone 3
WANDERING TATTLER 2
Gray-tailed/Wandering Tattler 1
Silver Gull 100
BROWN NODDY 500 nesting
BLACK NODDY 5000 nesting
SOOTY TERN 3
BRIDLED TERN 200 nesting
BLACK-NAPED TERN 5
Great Crested Tern 350
RED-TAILED TROPICBIRD 6 nesting beneath trees
Pacific Reef-Heron 10
White-bellied Sea-Eagle 1
Silver-eye 5
House Sparrow 20