Lord Howe Island

Well, lets just cut right to the important bit here. Emily and I are engaged! A couple of weekends back I took her to Lord Howe Island and popped the question on a secluded palm-fringed beach and happily she said "yes".

Lord Howe Island

Secluded palm-fringed beach!

Lord Howe Island is out in the South Pacific about 700 km northeast of Sydney and is one of those old volcanoes which rose up from the sea-bed and is now a rather dramatic and rugged island in the middle of the ocean. It's a roughly crescent shape, only 12 km long by less than 2 km wide, and an outer reef stretching between the points of the crescent protects a large shallow lagoon which stretches right down the western side of the island. The shallow waters feature fantastic coral gardens which can be accessed from the beach and the fact that the number of visitors at any time is restricted means that it's quiet and almost untouched by the tourist thing. Making the most of that was Senator Bob Brown (leader of the Australian Green Party) who was in the hotel room next to us with his special man-friend!

Lagoon

The birds are one of the main attractions of the island but mainly in summer when it becomes a very important breeding location for a load of pretty uncommon pelagic species. In terms of land birds, there aren't that many. A handful of endemics do exist, however, but these are generally classed as sub-species of their mainland equivalents so no ticks. The exception is the Lord Howe Woodhen which is a forest rail that was almost wiped out by the rats that arrived with the whaling ships. A captive breeding programme saved them from extinction and the population is now booming. In fact we found a pair of them that were both un-banded and also mating so I think they're doing just fine now.

Too slow!

Woodhen

Despite the wrong season, I did pick up 5 ticks - the Lord Howe White-eye, Lord Howe Woodhen, Masked Booby, Grey Ternlet, and Red-tailed Tropicbird taking my total to 415. I also thought I'd really scored a rarity when I spotted a Black-winged Stilt (very common on the mainland) in a puddle at the end of the air-strip. For Lord Howe Island my book said 'Vagrant' and the lists in the visitor centre didn't mention them at all but when I tracked down the island's leading expert on birds to tell him, he said it had been there for a fortnight. It turns out that this was indeed only the fourth record ever on the island but my long wait for birding fame continues.

Walking in the palm forest

Hand-feeding the fish

Because it's so small, everyone travels around by bicycle and so we cycled between bush-walks and by the end of the long weekend, my legs were feeling it a bit. The bush-walking is pretty rugged with steep hills covered in palm forest and so despite the better birding, summer might be a bit tough. When you're not walking, you're snorkelling. The coral is home to some great creatures and we saw fantastic coloured fish, a huge sting-ray, and many sea cucumbers. I missed the resident Green Turtles but did get some cracking reef sharks. They're Galapagos Whalers on Lord Howe Island and my first proper grey shark-shaped sharks. Magic!

Wrasse

Not many people visit at any one time

It truly is one of the most idyllic spots that I've had the fortune to visit and, if I do say so myself, a top destination for a surprise holiday and proposal! Quite pleased with everything actually!

Sacred Kingfisher - got him in the end!