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Time for turtles, Terns at Lady Elliot
LADY Elliott Island, a coral cay at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef off the coast from Gladstone, is presently playing host to thousands of mating sea birds and providing a safe haven for green turtles that are coming ashore to lay their eggs,
While restrictions, are placed on the number of human visitors to the island, no such barriers are put in the way of feathered and flippered arrivals. Nobby and crested terns have set up home in the vast grassed rookeries on the north eastern sections of the island, while the mutton birds seem
content to dig a hole wherever is convenient, be it in the tangled roots of the pisonia trees or under the accommodation units of the holiday resort on the eastern side of the island.
Since late November, green and loggerhead turtles have made their way wearily up the beach, most times after sunset, to dig an egg nest in the soft coral sand.
For visitors, especially with children, an enjoyable pastime in the evening is to' wander along the beach with a flashlight to seek out the tank like tracks made by turtles.
Some turtles are still arriving 'while the early batches of eggs are nearly ready for hatching. The incubation period is 10 weeks.
For the next two months, visitors will also witness the young terns and mutton birds taking their first flights. This two. month period is.. perhaps the' most exciting time of the year as far as the bird and turtle life on Lady Elliott Island is concerned.
With so many nesting pairs of birds on the island, space is at a premium and most of the terns seem content to scratch a few pieces of coral and some leaves together to form a nest
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publication: Townsville Bulletin
date: 11/1/1986
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