Lacepedes Islands - birds and & turtles.

It is easy to forget how many very remote places there are in our large brown land. The Lacepedes Islands stretch in total just 12 km, are 30 km off the Dampier coast and 120 km north of Broome. The group consists of four small islands and we are here because it is a nature reserve, a major breeding ground for birds with over 50 species of birds on the islands and an important breeding habitat for green turtles.

The ship's clock was set on Darwin time last night 1.5 hours less sleep and if that's not enough we are awakened by the captain, he has stopped for whales. This is an important place for whales to calve. There are many whales and several close to our balcony. The change in time we are told is usually closer to Darwin, changing now gives us more daylight for excursions.

Unlike the previous trip, it is a calm, still, warm day. There are so many birds here. This is a major nesting place for Brown boobies and Noddies. They fly in large numbers in and around the ship totally disregarding our presence. The Brown boobies are an unusual looking bird, they are quite large and stand probably half a meter tall. They have dark brown wings and back, and a white front. Their large white beak makes it look like they have their head covered. One unusual thing about these birds we are told is that their eyes look directly at you. They stand very still quite high on the shoreline and are easy to photograph. The noddies are smaller and a little bit darker. There are so many Brown boobies here, hard not to get good photos.

Our zodiac tour of the islands takes us right around. There are visible lines in the sand which are turtle tracks. Female green turtles make a nest and lay their eggs above the tide line for obvious reasons. We see many small turtles around our zodiac. Impossible to photograph as our expedition leader said we can play snap a photo of a turtle head game, when they do come up for air it seems like it is for less than a second.

Around the other side of the island is a reasonable sized crocodile. We see other smaller ones. Lots of food for them here. I am more interested in birds. We see so many different birds, the smaller birds are at the edge of the water (Turn stones, Roseate terns, Egrets and Oystercatchers ). The little Turn stones are a brown and white bird, they dart quickly across the rocks close to the water. The Terns are also near the edge of the water. The oyster catches and egrets are a little further back. They stand out because the oyster catchers are a dark black and the egrets white. Much easier to see than the smaller birds at the edge of the water. Our guide knows his birds and has sharp eyes, sharper than mine.

Further up the bank we see more Boobies, Gulls, Cormorants, Herons grey and white. Above are Frigatebirds are harassing the Boobies hoping they will drop their catch. Unfortunately using the phone zoom was not a great idea the birds are not clearly visible except when we were closer. Hopefully Bob has better shots than mine.

These islands are such a surprise, rocks and limited vegetation and no trees yet here are all these birds. It was a great afternoon and to cap it off we see two Masked boobies, a rare sight. One however, was being harassed by a large number of Brown boobies.Okumaya devam et