Papua New Guinea Cruise Part 1: All at Sea

Red-footed Booby

We’ve just returned from a 12-day cruise from Brisbane to Papua New Guinea aboard the Coral Princess from January 26 to February 6. I’ll post separately about productive birding experiences near Rabaul and in the Conflict Islands. This post is to give an idea of what to expect on a cruise of this nature and to outline what happened with seabirds along the way. It’s important to note that seabirding from large cruise ships is difficult; you’re a long way up from the water and birds are usually distant.

Wedge-tailed Shearwater

First birds of interest were a surprisingly good number (about 10) of Brown Booby perched with Pied Cormorants on pylons as we left Moreton Bay late-afternoon on Day One. At 6am the next day (January 27) we were at 23.79020S, 153.47622E, well north of Fraser Island, heading north at 17 knots an hour, a speed maintained for most of the cruise. Several hundred Wedge-tailed Shearwaters were seen as the morning progressed, most heading north. By 9am we had crossed the Tropic of Capricorn about 170km east of Rockhampton (23.48139S, 153.42456E) and it wasn’t until then that the first and last Tahiti Petrels for the trip were seen – 3 distant birds. 

Masked Booby

 An hour later we were skirting the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef (22.82514S, 153.31802E) about 300km east of Rockhampton and bird numbers picked up. I saw in quick succession Masked Booby, Red-footed Booby, Red-tailed Tropicbird (1 single and 1 pair), White-tailed Tropicbird (1 pair) and a female Lesser Frigatebird. Wedge-tailed Shearwaters remained abundant but mostly as singles and small groups flying north. By 2.30pm we were about 350km east of Mackay (21.40460S, 153.08650E) having notched up several more Masked Boobies, another White-tailed Tropicbird and a few Sooty Terns. 

White-tailed Tropicbird

By this time, the shearwaters began dropping off markedly in numbers. At 6am on 28 January, with the phone GPS no longer working, we were about 500km east of Cairns in the Coral Sea Islands Territory. Several Masked Boobies were regularly following the ship, attempting to catch flying fish disturbed in its wake. 

Flying Fish

Another White-tailed Tropicbird was seen. Wedge-tailed Shearwater by now was scarce. At 9.30am, 500km east of Cape Flattery, a couple of Red-footed Boobies joined the Masked Boobies following the ship, with both species maintaining a presence for the rest of the day. 

Red-footed Booby (above and below)

Small flocks of Sooty Tern were about. A distant bird that was very likely a Herald Petrel was seen briefly. We were in the PNG port of Alotai on 29 January for a land visit.

The Coral Princess berthed in Alatou

Unfortunately my attempts at organising a birding trip had failed so I was reduced to looking at Pacific Swallows and Singing Starlings along the foreshore of this somewhat bedraggled town.

Pacific Swallow

Singing Starling

 Boys charged $5 to be photographed with a captive Blyth’s Hornbill (this image was not paid for!). 

Captive Blyth's Hornbill

Other birds around town were Willie Wagtail, Torresian Crow, White-breasted Woodswallow, Chestnut-breasted Mannikin, Torresian Imperial-Pigeon and Varied Honeyeater. In the late afternoon we departed, enjoying the scenic Milne Bay as we headed east through PNG waters. 

Milne Bay

 January 30 was another day at sea, having now left the Coral Sea which had been with us for most of the trip and crossing the Solomon Sea. At 6am we were about 80km north-east of Fergusson Island (9.15418S, 151.40258E). Not much was seen other than a few Brown Boobies early morning. Around this time I saw another Red-tailed Tropicbird, a couple more Red-footed Boobies (although boobies had by now stopped following the ship) and some Sooty Terns.

Sooty Tern

In the afternoon I saw a pod of Long-flippered Pilot Whales (7.54995S, 151.72454E) and more Red-footed Boobies. At 6am on January 31 we were 10km east of Cape Gazelle at the eastern end of New Britain (4.46433S, 152.46290E) and 40km west of New Ireland. This was the kind of area we needed to be in for the rare and highly localised Beck’s Petrel, but no petrels of any kind showed. Even Wedge-tailed Shearwaters had not shown for a few days now. What we did find unexpectedly was a Uniform Swiftlet (of the New Britain endemic subsp pallens) alive on the deck.

Uniform Swiftlet

 A few Lesser Frigatebirds and Black-naped Terns were about and a nice pod of Gray’s Spinner Dolphins put on a show close to the ship. 

Gray's Spinner Dolphin (above and below)

We had a two-day stop in Rabaul. Day one was partly occupied with a cultural tour of World War II relics around town and the wastelands that emerged after the city was buried by volcanic ash in 1994. Birds included Singing Starling, Glossy Swiftlet, Golden-headed Cisticola, Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Willie Wagtail, King Quail, Hooded Mannikin and Willie Wagtail. Day two was a productive visit to forest away from town; the subject of the next blog post. 

Children at Rabaul

Rabaul's still active volcano

We left Rabaul late in the afternoon of February 1, seeing a mixed flock of Great and Lesser Frigatebirds, and a flock of Island Imperial-Pigeons flying to a small offshore island. February 2 was when we supposed to visit Kiriwina Island in the famed Trobriand group. I was looking forward to this, especially the chance for the coveted Curl-crested Manucode. A rain squall prevented us from landing with tenders and the captain turned the ship around and headed south at 10am, eight hours before we were scheduled to leave the island. We learned later that the weather cleared up with an hour and it remains a mystery why the captain did not elect to wait a little longer to see if the weather improved.

Lesser Frigatebird

 We continued south at a painfully slow speed (with much time to kill before our next destination) but saw nothing other than a few Brown Boobies and Crested Terns. Things thankfully improved on January 3 when we were able to land on the Conflict Islands, the subject of another post. At 6am on February 4 we were 650km east of Cape Melville. Boobies were all about the ship diving for flying fish, with 6 Masked, 4 Brown and 10 Red-footed making the line-up at one point. A Great Frigatebird and another Red-tailed tropicbird showed. 

Red-tailed Tropicbird

At 9am, about 500km east of Cape Flattery (14.90885S, 152.47574E), I saw an interesting petrel/shearwater but this poor image (below) is the only I managed; it looked markedly smaller than the many Wedge-taileds I’d seen earlier on the cruise and was flying erratically close to the water in the company of Sooty Terns. It may have been a Christmas Shearwater but the image does not rule out Wedge-tailed.

Mystery Shearwater

Around lunchtime I saw a Flesh-footed Shearwater, which is pretty much unknown in waters this tropical. At that point, Wedge-tailed Shearwaters had not been seen for several days.

Flesh-footed Shearwater

Around mid-afternoon, 450km east of Cairns (16.37149S, 152.64106E), Wedge-tailed Shearwaters again began to show in small numbers. The large number of boobies following the ship (24 at one point, more than half of them Red-footed) began to drop off, with Brown Booby becoming the more common species as we headed south. Sooty Tern continued to show occasionally. 

Masked Booby (above and below)

 January 5 was the last full day of the cruise: another day traversing the Coral Sea. At 6.30am we were 320km east of Mackay (21.20436S, 153.19432E). Common Bottle-nose Dolphin was a long way from shore here. 

Common Bottle-nosed Dolphin

The first Streaked Shearwaters (2) of the trip put in an appearance among mixed flocks feeding on bait fish of Wedge-tailed Shearwater, Brown Booby, the occasional Masked Booby and Sooty Tern. Wedge-tailed Shearwaters were common throughout the day. 

Streaked Shearwater with Wedge-tailed Shearwaters

At 3pm we were 100km north of Fraser Island when we were joined by 3 Red-footed Boobies, which remained with the ship until 5.30pm, by which time we were 40km north-east of Sandy Cape. We disembarked in Brisbane on the morning of January 6.