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Tuesday - sooty oystercatchers lay eggs
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date: 4/11/2008
Author:Shay Young
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CONDITIONS
Weather: Sunny | Air Temp: 26°C | Wind: N/NW 15/20 knots | Water Temp: 24°C | Water Visibility: 10m | Sea State: choppy
ISLAND LIFE
Critter Encounters:
The wind had swung around this morning allowing for keen divers and snorkelers to head out on the eastern side of the island for a leisurely drift.
The first tour of the day was a historical tour where guests took a step back in time to imagine the way the guano miners and lighthouse keepers lived; this was of great adventure to many of our guests headed for a nice walk over to the lighthouse to take a look at these historic remnants on the island. The removal of vegetation sparked many comments and thoughts about the way the island has recovered after such devastation in a small period.
The glass bottom boats then headed out on the eastern side towards the popular dive site Tubes. Mating turtles were everywhere to be seen with one particular couple having 3 other males harassing them in order to try and have their turn at mating with this particular green female. One lonely manta ray glided on past the boat for all to see with all other mantas in hiding disappearing from our shores. Tubes is always a place of many different fish species with sunset wrasse and blue tang being the two most common species encountered there; blue tang are amazingly coloured fish from the surgeonfish family with iridescent blue shining through the water column.
The island discovery tour circumnavigated the resort, with birds being the main focus along with the vegetation that they so frequently hide and nest in. The sooty oystercatchers that recently had laid eggs had disappeared today with the reason ever so obvious. Unfortunately the eggs had been broken, possibly from another bird species nesting in the area. The sooty oystercatchers are of great interest with only 2 of that particular species found on the island, until recently there was only 1 so this was an exciting time for the island, however it is early in the nesting season so hopefully a new, more secure nest will be established with eggs soon to be laid.
Fish feeding at the fish pool was on a mid-tide today, this typically means that more fish tend to show up with larger species able to make their way into the fish pool through the lagoon. So today was a huge turnout with triggerfish a plenty, sergeant majors circling around legs and moon wrasse darting in and out of the feeding frenzy ever so quickly.
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Sooty Oystercatchers - Photo by Neville Semmier (Guest)
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