Report - Gabo Island (Thu 5 - Sun 8 October 2000)

This COG excursion began with a sea eagle's-eye view of the habitat we were about to explore. The view was from a Cessna 172 on approach to Gabo Island's undulating grass airstrip, a few minutes flight from Mallacoota over the wilderness shores of SE Victoria. Six COG members had come for four days to assist ornithologists Peter Fullagar and Petrus Heyligers to add to our ornithological knowledge of this isolated 146-hectare island. Our projects were to scour Gabo to identify songbird territories (Tawny-crowned Honeyeaters, Golden Whistler, Golden-headed Cisticolas and etc), and to estimate the numbers of Little Penguin coming ashore each night.

Jenny Bounds and Alistair Bestow's organisational and logistical skills were evident as we trucked our airborne stores to the delightful 1860 assistant lighthouse keeper's quarters on the island's only vehicle. Peter and Petrus provided a synopsis of Gabo's ornithological history. We learned that we were on an island with no wrens, thornbills, magpies, robins or wattlebirds, though all these species are readily found on the mainland, 500 metres away. However, it does have Australia's largest Little Penguin concentration with an estimated 18,000 pairs, as well as being a major shearwater nesting colony. Also, there are no eucalypts and no macropods, and, we were relieved to hear, no snakes or ticks. However, there were 38 wild cattle and a posse of cattlemen and dogs were rounding these up to select 50% for a one-way trip to the mainland. Peter explained that research indicated a limited population of cattle actually helped the avian populations by keeping introduced kikuyu grass down. We wondered whether kangaroos might be a better choice.

Over the following days we combed the island for songbird territories, so thoroughly that three separate parties found the sole Willie Wagtail on the remote east coast. We also claimed the first formal records of the Rufous Whistler and Australian Pelican for Gabo. Perhaps the highlight though was the penguin count. Peter and Petrus had identified 97 runways where penguins come ashore just on dark each evening to return to their burrows. Our task was sit silently next to our allocated runways and count penguins as they came ashore, clambered over rocks, and up steep paths (and often over our feet) to their burrows up to 800 metres away. Everyone was delighted to observe between 100 and 250 penguins in this way. On the basis of our sample observations it was estimated that 10,000 penguins came ashore on that night.

Many lazy hours (aided by Peter and Petrus' enthusiasm for and knowledge of web-footed avifauna) were spent observing passing seabirds. There were continuous streams of shearwaters that had migrated from Russia and were scanning the ocean for food. Occasionally, thousands of these birds made up black rafts on the sea having located a food source. Albatross, fur seals and Humpback Whales were also in evidence. Disappointed at the failure of the COG telescope to identify the beak colour of a passing Great Petrel (was it a Northern or Southern-we shall never know), the party resolved to lobby COG for better equipment for COG's inevitable return to this amazing place.

Many thanks to Peter and Petrus for organising the ornithological aspects of the trip and answering a four-day's stream of questions so enthusiastically, Parks Victoria for their welcome and interest in our work, and to Jenny and Alistair for dreaming up and bringing to a successful conclusion one of COG's most memorable outings. A record of observations is provided in full below.

Trevor Lipscombe