Theme Day - Water's Edge

To dip your toes at the water's edge around the world visit the City Daily Photo November Theme Day.

Theme Day - Tranquility

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

For more Sky Watch from around the world, drop in to the home of Sky Watch Friday.

Monochrome Weekend

For more monochrome madness, visit Dragonstar's Weekend in Black and White.

Taphophile Tragics

Lord Howe Island cemetery.

 It has some unusual grave decorations.

For more taphophilia please visit Julie's Taphophile Tragics.



Monochrome Weekend

For more monochrome madness, visit Dragonstar's Weekend in Black and White.

Weekend Reflections

For more reflections visit James' Weekend Reflections.

Sky Watch Friday - Lord Howe Island - The Clear Place

The walk to the clear place is a pleasant and fairly easy (grade 2) one through the forest and past some amazing banyan trees.

For more Sky Watch from around the world, drop in to the home of Sky Watch Friday.

Lord Howe Island - More chickies

 

Here's a test for you. How many chicks can you see in this photo? Answer at the end.

  

This is what it will look like when it grows up.

I count 7 including the half one at the top right. You can see why the adults keep the chicks amongst the rocks for safety.

Lord Howe Island - Chicky Babes

White Tern chicks.

Taphophile Tragics

This is the grave of Pixie Rourke, who died last year. It lies in the small Pinetrees family cemetery.  Kerry McFadyen and Pixie Rourke together with their husbands, Bruce and Ed, took over Pinetrees in 1976. Kerry and Bruce, Pixie and Ed (always known to their staff as "the big 4") worked hard to modernise Pinetrees. They built new units, including five free-standing Garden Cottages, extended the main house and re-built the Pinetrees boatshed, which had been destroyed in a fire. All of the new buildings were designed by Bruce, an architect. Under their leadership, Pinetrees employed professional chefs and established a reputation for fine food and genuine hospitality. Pixie Rourke served as the Chair of the Lord Howe Island Tourism Association for 11 years. She resigned from her position only a month before her death in 2010. In September 2010 after Pixie's death, Qantas named one of its Dash-8 aircraft "Pixie Rourke". Pixie also received a posthumous award from Tourism New South Wales for Outstanding Contribution to Regional Tourism.

Below are some other views of the Pinetrees cemetery.

For more taphophilia please visit Julie's Taphophile Tragics.

Lord Howe Island Wood Hen

Lord Howe Island woodhens are flightless brown birds about the size of a bantam. Females of the species are slightly smaller than the males, and their chicks are covered with sooty black down. These birds are found only on Lord Howe Island, a World Heritage Area which lies in the south-western Pacific Ocean around 700 km east of Port Macquarie.

The ancestors of the Lord Howe Island woodhen arrived on Lord Howe Island many thousands of years ago, flying across the Pacific Ocean. They thrived in the subtropical rainforests of the island, where there was plenty of food and no fear of predators. Their wings gradually receded and became useless, because there was no longer any need for them to fly.
This situation changed in 1788, when HMS Supply anchored at Settlement Beach and members of her crew came ashore in search of food and water. Lord Howe Island's bird life had never been hunted, and was not afraid of humans. The Lord Howe Island woodhen, together with the now-extinct Lord Howe pigeon and white gallinule, provided easy game for the sailors.
Lord Howe Island was settled in 1833-34, and Lord Howe Island woodhen numbers quickly declined to near-extinction, because:

• they were hunted for food by the island's increasing human population
• introduced owls, feral cats and pigs preyed on the woodhens
• feral pigs and goats competed with the birds for food and damaged their habitats.

By the mid-19th century, small numbers of Lord Howe Island woodhens could only be found in relatively inaccessible mountainous areas. By the late 1970s, there were fewer than 30 Lord Howe Island woodhens on the island. The birds were confined to the summit regions of its two mountains (Mount Gower and Mount Lidgbird).

In 1966, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classed the woodhens as endangered. They were later put on the IUCN's highest priority list. The bird is listed as an endangered species under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act and the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

In 1978, the NPWS, with help from the Lord Howe Island Board and the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife, began a detailed study of the Lord Howe Island woodhen. After two years of research, a captive breeding facility was built in the centre of the island. Standing in an area of natural forest with plenty of leaf-litter animals like spiders and insects, the facility provided the birds with a good supply of food.

In 1980, three healthy pairs of Lord Howe Island woodhens were brought down from Mount Gower by helicopter. Settling in well at the breeding facility, they began laying eggs a few weeks after arriving. The eggs were cared for by both parents, and then were put in an incubator for the last week before hatching. By late 1980, 15 healthy chicks had been hatched.

The second stage of the project began in 1981, when two pairs of the captive-bred birds were released in an area under the cliffs of Mount Gower. Surveys had shown that this was the best site for a new woodhen colony. The birds survived and by 1984, 82 woodhens had been released. The breeding facility was closed.

Meanwhile, feral pigs and cats had been removed from the island, the feral goat population had been significantly reduced, and domestic cats were being phased out.

Since then, the NPWS and the Lord Howe Island Board have been counting the number of Lord Howe Island woodhens once or twice each year. They are breeding well, and the population reached over 200 in 1997. The birds are now living in many parts of the island, including residents' back yards.
The numbers of Lord Howe Island woodhens declined in April 2001 to 117 individuals. Further monitoring is being carried out to see if numbers have stabilised.

A Lord Howe Island threatened species recovery team has been set up to help manage threatened species on the island, including the Lord Howe Island woodhen. With the support of the people of Lord Howe Island, the woodhen's future is hopefully secure.

Sky Watch Friday

Another Lord Howe sunset.

For more Sky Watch from around the world, drop in to the home of Sky Watch Friday.

Lord Howe Island - Out of town

The services and a couple of other shops are scattered around the island.

The island is managed by a Board constituted under the Lord Howe Island Act, which is administered by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage. The Chief Executive Officer, a NSW public sector appointment, gets to live here.

Hospital

Police station.

Lord Howe Island - Downtown

Thompson's Store

The "town centre" consists of a community hall, post office/bank, bar/restaurant, general store and a couple of other small shops.

Looking from Thompson's towards the Hall and the sea.

Post office.

Community Hall and the bar.

Lord Howe Island - Sunset

Tuesday

There was really only one spectacular sunset while I was there, and that was due to dark, threatening clouds. The rest were okay or a total non event.

Sunday

Monday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

For more Sky Watch from around the world, drop in to the home of Sky Watch Friday.

Lord Howe Island - Middle Beach

This is Middle Beach, another pretty beach with rockpools and good beachcombing at low tide. Very steep access and I didn't feel up to the climb this time round. There are some amazing banyan trees nearby which I will show you later. One thing I did notice this time was the amount of erosion, some of the beaches are much narrower than I remember, particularly Lagoon Beach which now has steep drop offs down to the sand where the bank has washed away. The drop is right at the edge of Pinetrees Boathouse which itself will eventually be washed away. There used to be a swathe of grass between the boathouse area and the sand.

Lord Howe Island - Ned's Beach

This is Ned's, my favourite of all the island beaches - stunning location, rock shelves and pools, great snorkelling with coral and bright fish and fish in the shallows that can be hand fed. Something for everyone. Shame its at the top of a great big hill. It was also the only really sunny day of the whole week.