This afternoon, for the final excursion of our trip, we visited the Lacepede Islands, 120 km north of Broome. We anchored in deeper waters just off the islands and waited until 2 pm before we left our cruise ship in the Xplorer. We usually undertake our main activities after breakfast, but there is a sandbar blocking the entrance to the lagoon when the tide is low, so we delayed our visit until later in the day when the tide was sufficiently high to allow us to pass through the narrow passage into the lagoon.
The Lacepede Islands are low lying sandy cays that have formed above a platform reef. The sand cays enclose a large, tranquil lagoon that is quite shallow in many places. No humans or introduced species live on the islands to threaten the native species and migratory birds that can be found there. The islands are globally renowned as a haven for many different species of birds and marine creatures, however, they are quite fragile, so visitors are not permitted to set foot on the islands and disturb the precious ecosystem.
The Lacepede Islands are considered to host the world’s largest breeding colony of brown boobies. There are apparently up to 18,000 breeding pairs here. Early this morning, the first boobies we encountered began circling our ship. We were sitting in a science lecture and we began to notice more and more large birds cruising past our windows. They’re relatively large birds and powerful flyers, and we watched them come out to the ship from the islands, with wings outstretched, and circle us again and again. It was almost like we had our own welcoming committee. Just beyond our ship, a raft of boobies rested on the ocean surface, until an unseen event caused them all to take flight and disperse. The boobies, although much smaller, reminded me of the large gannets Marg and I had seen at the Hermaness Nature Reserve on Unst in Shetland. They, too, had powerful wings, sharp eyesight and a pointed beak. Like gannets, they can also dive directly into the water and emerge seconds later with a fish. It was a real pleasure to watch these beautiful birds constantly flying over our heads at close range or huddling together on a sandy beach without any fear of us being in close proximity. Watching the boobies was one of the highlights of my entire Kimberley trip.
We even spotted some fluffy white booby chicks (Richard called them ‘baby boobies’) awkwardly stumbling around on the sand. They looked quite ungainly today, but once they lose their downy feathers and grow their powerful wings, they will become graceful masters of the air. It will be quite a transition.
The Lacepede Islands are also home to a large colony of lesser frigate birds. They were constantly circling high in the air and I found it almost impossible to get a good photo. Rod’s lent me one of his. Marg and I last saw frigate birds circling above us in their hundreds (maybe thousands) on Isla Contoy in the Caribbean Sea off the Mexican coast in 1979. Those ones had large red throat pouches and huge wingspans, and, with the camera gear I had back then, I couldn’t get a good photo of them either. Unlike the brown boobies which flew all around us, the frigate birds usually kept their distance.
Some beaches were populated with terns. I like them. One tern stayed very close to its chick. I was impressed with its maternal instinct, and, given that we saw a large crocodile not too far away just a few minutes later, I think it was deliberately making sure its chick stayed safe.
There was plenty of other birdlife out there today too. I was really pleased about that because I’d spent the past few days looking for birds and not seen any. I always enjoy watching pelicans. These ones were not at all frightened when we brought our zodiacs in for a closer look.
There were also a few reef egrets, which we had seen infrequently over the course of the trip. From what I’ve seen, they always seem to patrol beaches and waterways on their own, and I can’t recall a time when two or more of them were sighted together. This one remained stationary on the beach and watched us drift past at close range, almost as if we weren’t even there.
I wrote earlier that there were no introduced species on the Lacepede Islands, but I neglected to say that there are some predators out there. A young white bellied sea eagle perched on a fallen tree, watching and waiting for its next meal. I feel certain it won’t have too much trouble finding something to eat out here.
Although our tender was a perfectly suitable vessel for exploring the lagoon and the beaches, the zodiacs allowed us to get in very close to some of the birds. They rarely flew away when we quietly drifted within just a few metres of them.
The zodiacs also provided a great opportunity to view the marine life that was all around us in the shallow waters of the lagoon. We saw many turtles today. They’d often swim beneath us quite rapidly, then disappear out of sight, making it hard to focus and get a photo once we’d spotted them. At other times, they’d pop their heads up out of the water, then dive and not be seen again. I found them very difficult to photograph, so Rod has kindly provided the first photo here. His camera lens is much more powerful than mine. These are green sea turtles, so named because of the colour of their fat. We spotted turtle tracks leading up through the sand from the water, indicating that some turtles had recently dragged themselves up on to the beaches to lay their eggs.
While we were out in the zodiac, several large rays, like the one in the photo below, swam beneath us. We also had a shovel nosed ray and juvenile black tipped reef sharks for company as we explored the lagoon within the outer sand cays.
We got a radio message that a croc had been sighted, so our driver Mel brought us over for one last look at the Kimberley’s most feared predator before our trip ends tomorrow. It was quite a large one. We seen quite a few now. I’m feeling very fortunate. Many people will never get the chance to do what we’ve been doing over the past nine days. The Kimberley coastline has not disappointed. If you’re reading this and you get the opportunity, come up here and see it for yourself. I love this part of Australia.
On The Road With Garry 