2 September 2022 Friday – Christmas Island day 4

It is Goshawk day today & Mark, our guide, takes us through the technique of luring & catching a Goshawk. Mark is a leading researcher & has specialised in the study of Goshawks on Christmas Island. The technique involves using the arm or leg of a teddy bear tied to a long length of fishing line dragged behind his ute travelling at low speed. The fake rat lures the Goshawk out of the trees & it swoops on the lure then alights in a nearby tree. The spotters in the back of the ute alert Mark & he stops, finds the Goshawk in a tree then attempts to catch it. The catching technique uses a telescopic fishing rod with a simple clothes peg style clip to put around the leg of the Goshawk. He only catches Goshawks that he has not banded previously, the ones he has previously banded he records their number & puts the bird & its location into his database.

Mark drives around the back roads of the island & we end up at a private house & doing a turn around when a goshawk is attracted to the lure & alights low down in a nearby tree. Mark tries to catch it but it is very skittish & keeps moving away. The Goshawk is a juvenile that has not been banded & Mark decides to let it be & keep going. We change over people in the back of the ute & I am sitting in the back trying to lure the Goshawk with Doug & Pam. Driving along one of the roads Mark stops as he has spotted an unusual bird on the side of the road. We all take photos & I get a few good shots, it is a Malayan Night Heron, a very rare vagrant that is not listed as visiting bird to Christmas Island & Mark is very excited.

We lure another Goshawk down to the lure but it flies high up into a tree out of reach, we take photos & the Goshawk is one that Mark has captured & banded previously. One of our group manages to take a photo of the leg band & can read part of the number, that & the colour on the other leg helps Mark identify the individual Goshawk, it was an adult bird in 2010 so he reckons that it must be at least 14 years old.  Their research also entails trying to find out life longevity of these birds. There is a giant strangler fig where we stop with lots of red crabs under the roots. We keep on trolling the lure with no more luck.  We drive on & end up at the Blowholes.

The Blowholes are a mass of very rugged limestone pinnacles with a vertical cliff into the ocean with the swells pounding directly into the shore. In places the water has worn holes through the limestone & as the swells reach the rocks it forces air & water through the holes & the water rushes into the air with a loud roaring noise. It is spectacular. The boardwalk is a very easy walk along the ocean front with some seats in various locations. At one blowhole next to the path the noise from the blowhole sounds like a primal dragon roar, it is so loud. It is difficult to leave, the sight & sound is so captivating.

We drive back with more luring along the way with no luck. Lunch is at Tai Jin House overlooking Flying Fish Cove. Again the lunches are nice, fresh salads, bread roll, cold meat & cake.  We spend a bit of time enjoying the view & exploring nearby. There is a gun emplacement left over from WWII nearby with the 6 inch naval gun still in-situ. There is a small war memorial overlooking the cove & a little further along a memorial to the 353 asylum seekers that lost their lives in a boating accident in December 2010 out the front of our accommodation at Sunset Lodge.

The slow drive the rest of the afternoon chasing more Goshawks with the rat lure was unsuccessful all the way to South Point. We stopped & had a look at the Soon Tiang Kong Taoist Temple, larger & a little more elaborate than the first temple we looked at. Mark lit some incense sticks & a candle in the hope of having more luck finding Goshawks on the way back, no such luck.

Dinner tonight was under a picnic pavilion near the Police Station in a small park. It was a Malaysian curry fest, with Lisa, her mum Wendy & Uncle Graham again helping with the preparation, cooking & serving. The food was all delicious once again then afterwards Sue had a display of hermit crabs, both terrestrial & marine plus some other small crabs that she had caught near the boat ramp in Flying Fish Cove. Another great day.