Solomon Islands 2025 Part 3: Coast & seas of Santa Isabel – kingfishers & megapodes to Grey-backed Tern and Beck's Petrel

 

Beach Kingfisher

Following our visit to the hills of Santa Isabel Island in search of Solomons Frogmouth and other north Solomon Islands bird targets, we admired the fine view over fringing reefs and the Solomons Sea as we made our way back down a steep track to Buala to be transferred to Ghasiali Resort.

Fringing reefs & Solomons Sea

Solomons Cockatoo and Cardinal Lory were common about the hotel. We were to fly out to Honiara the next morning but the flight was cancelled, with Solomon Airlines citing wet weather rendering the runway on nearby Fera Island hazardous. We took a boat ride to the island anyway.

Cardinal Lory

Solomons Cockatoo

On the runway were 60+ Pacific Golden Plovers and an assortment of other shorebirds. Beach Kingfisher showed nicely along the beach and in the mangroves, as it did around our hotel.

Beach Kingfisher, on the beach

We were pleased to catch up with a trio of Island Monarchs. We heard and glimpsed a Long-tailed Cuckoo lurking in the mangroves, not long before it would have headed off to its New Zealand breeding grounds.

Island Monarch

Fera Island (below) is an aesethetically pleasing spot to visit.

The following day the flight was again cancelled, although the weather was much improved, and the runway had looked okay to us. We checked out forest patches up the road from the hotel. Island Imperial-Pigeon was reasonably common.

Island Imperial-Pigeon

Melanesian Kingfisher was also not uncommon, as elsewhere during our trip.

Melanesian Kingfisher

A Solomons Sea-Eagle flew overhead (following our earlier sightings of the species on Guadalcanal). A pair of Channel-billed Cuckoos was a surprise, as was another that we saw earlier outside Honiara; this species is supposely a rare vagrant in Solomon Islands.

Channel-billed Cuckoo

We had pleasant interactions with friendly locals, like the small boy who climbed a coconut tree to drop a coconut for us (below). A visit to the Buala clinic to treat wounds referred to in the above-mentioned post brought home how sparse the services are in these far-flung villages.

The following day, the flight was cancelled again. No excuse this time; we returned to Fera Island, confirming that the runway was perfectly okay. At least we had a couple of birds to chase. On our earlier visit, one of the locals dug up an egg from a volcanic ash mound attended by a Melanesian Megapode, but we didn't see the birds. Better luck this time as a megapode fed behind the airport terminal (if you could call it that) while another worked a mound nearby. Ebird indicates several records of the rare Solomons Nightjar from small islands offshore from Santa Isabel, and locals claimed they were on Fera. We tried for them at sunset without success.

Megapode egg (above) and larval ash mound (below)

Melanesian Megapode

The next morning we boarded a ferry, the grandly named MV Una Princess 2, for our return to Honiara, not being prepared to risk yet another flight cancellation. We were told the trip would take 6-7 hours; it took 15 hours. What we didn't know was that the primary task of the ferry was to exchange passengers and goods at a string of isolated villages along 80 kilometres of Santa Isabel coast extending south from Buala to the settlement of Tataba at the island's southern end.

Loading up the ferry at Buala

This was quite a task. Sometimes villagers sent out small boats to negotiate potentially treacherous breaks through the abundant coral reefs. Deeper water allowed the ferry's small motorboat to do the work.

Offloading supplies for the coastal villages

One of many isolated villages serviced by the ferry

A couple of bigger settlements had a wharf where the ferry could tie up, allowing passengers and villagers to socialise. Small markets sold local snacks like smoked mussels and baked yams. Then came a nice surprise in the form of two scarce seabird species that are a challenge to find anywhere.

Market lunch fare 

Tataba Village

Seabirds were initially sparse - mainly the occasional Crested Tern and Lesser Frigatebird.

Lesser Frigatebird

\As we moved further south, we saw large numbers of seabirds on the horizon attracted to schools of tuna. The most common species was Black Noddy, with several thousand in a procession of flocks; much smaller numbers of Brown Noddy were among them.

Black Noddy

We spotted at least 4 Grey-backed Terns; there may have been more but some were too distant to be certain they were not Bridled Terns. This species is high on the wishlists of seabird enthusiasts.

Grey-backed Tern

Common Tern was present in small numbers.

Common Tern

Common Tern (L) and Grey-backed Tern (R)

When finally we left the coastal waters of Santa Isabel and headed towards Guadalcanal, the number of birds picked up. We had small numbers of Black-naped Tern and Brown Booby along with decent flocks of Sooty Tern and thousands more noddies.

Sooty Tern

We spotted an interesting petrel feeding close to the water in a mixed flock of Sooty Tern and Black Noddy. We saw clearly its dark brown upperparts, head and well-defined throat with a white belly, indicating either a Tahiti Petrel or Beck's Petrel. One of us (GR) is very familiar with Tahiti Petrel. This bird was conspicuously smaller with obviously shorter and more rounded wings. The stand-out difference was flight - the bird stayed close to the water with a distinctive, zig-zagging “flappy” flight; there was no indication of the stiff-winged, soaring flight so typical of Tahiti Petrel, despite a brisk northerly wind blowing. Although we did not see the bill, another key identification feature, we are confident this was a Beck's Petrel. With the boat not stopping and the bird in view for a relatively short time, unfortunately I couldn't manage a photograph.

Tahiti Petrel (file pic)

Beck's Petrel is believed to nest on New Ireland in the Bismarcks to the north but has been recorded a couple of times in the Solomons. Little is known about its nesting behaviour or its post-nesting dispersal. We saw large numbers of seabirds in every direction in the fading light as our slow ferry continued its journey to Honiara, and regretted that we didn't have a couple more hours of decent viewing conditions on the open seas. Future seabirding forays in this area could be productive. We returned late to the King Solomon Hotel for our last night in Solomon Islands.

Black Noddy flock