Lord Howe Island - Part 2: Search for the Woodhen

Following the boat trip to Balls Pyramid and photographing the birds around our accommodation, the one bird I was determined to see and photograph while on the island was the Lord Howe Woodhen, an endangered species brought back from the brink of extinction in the last 30 years. It is most commonly seen at the southern end of the island so one morning I took a walk along the main road past the airport and golf course.

Sacred Kingfisher were everywhere as they seem to have taken on the Kookaburra role on the island - frequently seen perched on almost anything.

Sacred Kingfisher, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO400, 1/640 @ f/5.6

Sacred Kingfisher, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO800, 1/8000 @ f/4 

Sacred Kingfisher, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO800, 1/4000 @ f/4

The only bird more common was the Magpie-lark, seen and heard anywhere there was open pasture or mown grass.

Magpie-lark, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO800, 1/4000 @ f/5.6

White-faced Herons were commonly seen on the beaches and in the pasture.

White-faced Heron, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO800, 1/1600 @ f/8

A small flock of Pacific Golden Plover was foraging in the pasture on the grassy hillside next to the airport. They were a long way away (this shot is heavily cropped) but it was good to see them.

Pacific Golden Plover, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO800, 1/4000 @ f/5.6

The only ducks I saw while on the island was this pair of what look like Northern Mallard-Pacific Black Duck hybrids.

Northern Mallard-Pacific Black Duck hybrid, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO800, 1/4000 @ f/5.6

I spotted Buff-banded Rail foraging in the mown grass along the road into the airport so took a detour to see if they were more photo-friendly than their Milky Way relatives. They were!

Buff-banded Rail, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO800, 1/4000 @ f/5.6

Roadside signs past the airport confirmed what the locals had told me about the most likely place to find woodhens

but, after an hour of unsuccessful searching, I gave up and headed back (a 6 km walk) to civilisation. My son and son-in-law passed me (riding bikes) on the road on their way back from a hike up to Goat House Cave on Mt Lidgbird and we agreed to meet up at Thomson's Store (self proclaimed best burgers for 600km) for lunch during which they told me (and showed me video evidence) that they had seen woodhens on a side road about 500m from where I had stopped searching. So, I borrowed my son's bike and rode back to the Goat House track. I walked the first few hundred meters along the track listening and looking for woodhens - to no avail - and gave up and decided to check out further along the main road, where I managed to find two birds right by the side of the road, one of which stood still long enough for me to get off one shot. Fortunately, I had already changed to a 24-70mm zoom lens while in the rainforest - a long lens would have been useless here.

Lord Howe Woodhen, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Pentax 24-70mm f/2.8 lens @ 70mm, ISO1600, 1/800 @ f/5.6

So, after a 13km walk and 13 km bike ride I managed to see and photograph my target species - tired but happy :-)

Lord Howe Island - Part 1

It's been a long time since I was out photographing birds but a family holiday on Lord Howe Island in May this year provided the chance for some opportunistic birding and photography.

There are only about 30 species of birds resident (breeding) on Lord Howe Island with another 15 or so common visitors at different times of the year so the birding is not diverse but what it lacks in diversity it makes up for in ease of access with most species being easy to find and photograph, though some of the seabirds require boat trips or hikes to wild clifftops. My wild clifftop hiking days are over but a boat trip (around the island and to Ball's Pyramid) did prove fruitful in finding several lifers.

Red-tailed Tropicbird breed along the northern cliffs of the island. The breeding season was just finishing but there were still many birds flying around the cliffs.

Red-tailed Tropicbird, North Head, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO400, 1/800 @ f/5.6

Masked Booby breed on the Admiralty Islets off the north-east coast of Lord Howe Island

Masked Booby, Roach Island, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO400, 1/1250 @ f/5.6

and we saw many adults and immatures flying around both Lord Howe Island and Ball's Pyramid.

Masked Booby, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO400, 1/1250 @ f/11

Masked Booby (immature), Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO400, 1/2000 @ f/8

Masked Booby (immature), Ball's Pyramid
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO400, 1/1000 @ f/14

Masked Booby (immature), Ball's Pyramid
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO400, 1/640 @ f/14

Providence Petrel roost and breed on the cliffs on the western side of Mt Gower (on the southern tip of Lord Howe Island) and, during late afternoon, can be seen flying around the cliffs.

Providence Petrel, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO400, 1/5000 @ f/7.1

Several came close enough to the boat for me to capture a close-up.

Providence Petrel, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO400, 1/2000 @ f/8

We stayed at Milky Way Apartments, at the northern end of the island, nestled between Old Settlement Beach and a patchwork of rainforest and cattle pasture.

Several small passerines: Common Blackbird, Lord Howe Golden Whistler, Lord Howe White-eye, were seen almost everywhere around the accommodation gardens. I managed to get the white-eye within an hour of arriving

Lord Howe White-eye, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO400, 1/100 @ f/5.6

but the Golden Whistler remained elusive for the whole week. I could hear at least three pairs in the trees around our accommodation but none made themselves visible enough to photograph. I didn't bother trying for the blackbirds...

Lord Howe Currawong (an endangered subspecies of Pied Currawong) could be heard each morning flying from the hills north of our apartment directly overhead into the forest behind us but remained elusive until the final morning when several landed in trees just near our apartment.

Lord Howe Currawong, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO1600, 1/800 @ f/5.6

A pair of Sacred Kingfishers was seen every morning and evening flying among the palms around the apartment.

Sacred Kingfisher, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO1600, 1/1000 @ f/4.5

Emerald Dove and Buff-banded Rail were seen foraging on the ground among the palms and out in the open on the cut grass around the apartment, frequently only a few metres away from us. I made several attempts to photograph the rails, setting myself up lying on the grass near where they were usually seen coming out from the palms but all without success - they seemed to refuse to come anywhere near me when I had a camera. The doves, on the other hand, were much more co-operative; so much so that I had to remove the 1.4x adapter because they approached too close to me to get them in frame. Even then I had to frequently scramble backwards when they approached closer than the closest focussing distance of the 300mm lens I was using.

Emerald Dove, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens, ISO3200, 1/3200 @ f/2.8

Emerald Dove, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens, ISO3200, 1/8000 @ f/4

The cattle in the nearby pasture attracted several Cattle Egrets

Cattle Egret, Lord Howe Island
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens +1.4x adapter, ISO800, 1/640 @ f/5.6

... Part 2: Search for the Woodhen