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| Lord Howe Woodhen |
Glenn and I enjoyed a
pleasant visit to Lord Howe Island from May 23 to June 3, 2026. The
charismatic Lord Howe Woodhen was very much centre-stage. I was last
on the island at the same time of year - and for the same duration -
in 1983 with Glen Ingram and Bill Holdsworth. With zoologist Glenn
Fraser, we hiked to the Erskine Valley – the saddle ridge
connecting Mts Gower and Lidgbird, carrying a precious cargo of
captive bred woodhens in wooden crates for release.
The endemic woodhen had
been abundant on the island but was almost wiped out by black rats
and other introduced predators, surviving at the time in a tiny area
of cloud forest on the summits of the two mountains. The captive
breeding program kicked off in 1980 in an ultimately successful
endeavour to bring the species bank from the brink of extinction. Not
so fortunate were a suite of other endemic species and subspecies
which succumbed to predators.
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| Mts Lidgbird (left) and Gower (right) |
Now the rats, cats and
pigs are all gone, with the last rat caught in 2021. The woodhen
hasn't looked back. In the 1970s less than 20 remained; today the
population is about 1,800. It is one of the commonest birds on the
island, being at home in habitats including forest, grassy pasture
and settlement gardens. We had to keep the screens shut in our
holiday unit to keep them out. Woodhens are everywhere: their
stacatto, metallic calls echo gloriously (if annoyingly for some
locals) around the island.
A handful of endemic
subspecies continue to do well: the contempta race of the Golden
Whistler, the crissalis subspecies of the Pied Currawong, and the
tephropleurus race of the Silvereye.
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| Golden Whistler contempta subsp |
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| Pied Currawong crissalis subsp |
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| Silvereye tephropleurus subsp |
The vagans subspecies
of Sacred Kingfisher – shared with New Zealand and some other
islands – is present.
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| Sacred Kingfisher vagans subsp |
Other landbirds
included plentiful Pacific Emerald Doves and introduced Common
Blackbirds.
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| Common Blackbird |
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| Pacific Emerald Dove |
I was keen to
photograph Little Shearwater. A small colony nests on the headland at
Blinky Beach. I spotted one at the end of a burrow during the day and
found another excavating a burrow nearby after dark.
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| Little Shearwater (above and below) |
Providence Petrel
breeds abundantly on the mountain tops and upper slopes, where
several hundred can be seen in the late afternoon wheeling about.
Their calls punctuate the night air over the island, where breeding
areas are expanding to lower elevations.
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| Providence Petrel |
Masked Booby and
Red-tailed Tropicbird were quite common from various lookouts checked
out including Muttonbird Point, Malabar Ridge and Clear Place Point.
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| Masked Booby |
Double-banded Plover
was common on the airfield where it was joined by smaller numbers of
Pacific Golden Plover, Bar-tailed Godwit and Ruddy Turnstone.
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| Double-banded Plover |
Buff-banded Rail was
plentiful, often feeding close to woodhens.
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| Buff-banded Rail |
Among other waterbirds
were small numbers of Mallard x Pacific Black Duck hybrids.
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| Mallard x Pacific Black Duck hybrids |
Other birds seen on the
island were Masked Lapwing, White-faced Heron, Cattle Egret, Brown
Noddy, Little Black Cormorant, Nankeen Kestrel, Welcome Swallow,
Magpie-lark and Song Thrush. The only mammals seen were several
Large Forest Bats (Vespadelus darlingtoni).
Plans to take a boat
ride to Balls Pyramid were scuttled by wild weather; our landing in
seriously gusty conditions was memorable. I saw this superb volcanic
stack by boat in 1983; this time we made do with views 25km distant
away from the main island. The summits of the
majestic Mt Gower and Mt Lidgbird, so often buried in cloud, did not
reveal themselves until Day Eight of our visit.
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| East Coast from Muttonbird Point |
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| Main lagoon from near airport |
Lord Howe Island is one
of the most spectacular places I've seen in the world – these
pictures tell the story.
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| Mt Gower |
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| Muttonbird Island |
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