Twenty or so lucky COGites and friends spent a very pleasant three days on this most southerly coral island on the Great Barrier Reef. We flew in two small planes from Hervey Bay, circling the island and its fringing reefs before putting down on the grassy airstrip that bisects the island and parallels the resort.
Lady Elliot is approx 42 hectares in size, easily walked around in a couple of hours, but endlessly interesting as we watched the antics of nesting Common and Black Noddies, Great and Lesser Frigatebirds, Red-tailed Tropic Birds, and Roseate, Crested, Bridled and Black-naped Terns. Brown Boobies and terns dove for fish off the inner reef edge and the frigatebirds hung in the sky like Pterodactyls.
At night Wedge-tailed Shearwaters came in to burrows under the Pisonia trees; and the noddies squawked endlessly in the trees behind the huts.
Waders were seen on both the grassy airstrip and the sand and rocky shores – Pacific Golden Plover, Lesser Sand Plover, Bar-tailed Godwit, Ruddy Turnstone, Wandering and Grey-tailed Tattler and Little Curlew. Buff-banded Rails crept around under our feet and, along with Capricornia Silvereyes, stole food from unattended plates. Tawny Grassbirds flew between tall shrubs calling melodiously.
The weather was rainy at times, but mostly warm and fine. The accommodation was simple and adequate; the food plentiful and varied.
Along with the prolific birdlife, a highlight was the snorkelling off the beach with Green Sea Turtles and a myriad of colourful reef fish amongst the hard corals.
Many thanks to John and Barbara Cummings for organizing such a pleasant, relaxing and interesting trip. Hopefully they will do it again sometime. If you want to find out more about LEI see the island website at www.ladyelliot.com.au/.
Julie McGuiness