In Cairns we woke up early, as at 7:45 am we would have to leave for a cruise to Green Island. The cruise left at 9:00 am and arrived on the island at 10:30 am. The cruise was fairly uneventful, with the birds mostly the same as previously noted: common terns, silvergulls and greater crested terns. However I did see a single brown booby fishing in the water. When we arrived on the island I immediately noticed a nest on a pole sticking up out of the water, being attended by two ospreys! A great start.
A pair of ospreys nesting, you can see one bird feeding the chick
As I walked along the jetty towards the island, I saw several eastern reef egrets of both the pale and dark morphs perched high in a tree. The island itself was covered in rainforest, and there were abundant buff-banded rails everywhere. On one particular walk from the change rooms to the showers I counted 31 different rails! We walked the boardwalk through rainforest but saw nothing but more rails, a few silvereyes, about 3 bar-shouldered doves and a single olive-backed sunbird.
The unmistakable dark morph eastern reef egret
In a short while it was time for our semi-submersible ride, a boat with the bottom half submerged, kind of like the ultimate glass bottom boat, with a great guide. It was extremely enjoyable. I saw a lot of fish, and at the end there was a fish-feeding session where teira batfish, spangled emperors, threadfin trevally, chevron fusilier and a single great trevally were all providing great views.
Two threadfin trevally next to the much larger great trevally
A school of chevron fusillers
These spangled emperors are apparently sought after as a food fish
A lone teira batfish swims over some seagrass
A view of some of the reef's corals: note the spaghetti coral in the bottom left corner
As I was walking back along the jetty I spotted two green turtles swimming and feeding on seagrass. After this we snorkelled around the beach, but saw little, only another batfish and a few fusiliers.
Green sea turtles are apparently fairly common around the island's beaches
As we were about to leave we saw a fish-feeding demonstration, again with many teira batfish, but they were jumping out of the water a little so I took some photos.
Many teira batfish were eating right in front of the boat
The cruise back was again rather uneventful, however there were many brown boobies perched on a pole, and I saw a single unidentified tern, otherwise birds were similar to those on the way to the island.
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