Photo Gallery
Steve Howell
Our route to birding adventure takes us…
…from glassy tropical seas…
…and “textbook” desert islands…
…to mist-shrounded volcanic Torishima (really, it IS there!)…
…home to Steller’s (Short-tailed) Albatross.
Looking up at sea any time could produce an ethereal White Tern…
…or a striking Lesser Frigatebird…
…and on land perhaps a Solomon Sea-Eagle…
…or one of the spectacularly large fruit bats known as flying foxes.
Looking over the ocean could produce Pantropical Spotted Dolphins…
…and amazing flyingfish, here an Ornate Goldwing.
Starting in New Zealand’s Hauraki Gulf, a recent tour chummed in this Campbell (Black-browed) Albatross, here with Flesh-footed Shearwaters…
…and the recently rediscovered New Zealand Storm-Petrel.
Then at sea…
…with White-necked Petrels…
…and on to Norfolk Island and its world-famous pines…
…where hundreds of Black Noddies nest…
…and home to the Norfolk Island Parakeet…
…lots of nesting White Terns…
…and eye-level Red-tailed Tropicbirds!
Back to sea…
…with Black-winged Petrels…
…Collared Petrels…
…and Polynesian Storm-Petrels…
…and north to New Caledonia, home of the enigmatic Kagu…
…which can be very confiding!
Other birds here include the endemic Horned Parakeet…
…and Yellow-bellied Robin.
Next stop the Solomon Islands, with some very tranquil island scenes…
…and some spectacular forest, home to…
…friendly people…
…DuCorps’ Cockatoo…
…the supremely elegant Moustached Treeswift…
…the recently discovered Roviana Rail (here taking its chances)…
…and the very local Rennell Shrikebill.
Resting in the shade before we head back to sea…
…and more calm tropical waters…
…with Tahiti Petrels…
…the recently rediscovered Beck’s Petrel…
…and increasing numbers of boobies, here a Red-footed in hot pursuit of a flyingfish.
Off Bougainville we stopped for a refreshing swim.
Photo: Elaine Cook
Just another amazing sunset before…
…our arrival on Truk, where we were greeted by Pacific Golden-Plovers (garden plovers?).
Other birds include Micronesian Myzomela…
Caroline Islands Reed Warbler…
…and elegant Black-naped Terns, here with a Black Noddy.
Back to sea for the last leg…
and some different flyingfish, here a Floyd Pinkwing.
A migrant Little Curlew circled the boat on a recent tour…
…and then we were into a different avifauna, with Bonin Petrels…
…the little-known Bannerman’s Shearwater…
…lots of Matsudaira’s Storm-Petrels…
…and also some Tristram’s Storm-Petrels…
We should see good numbers of Steller’s Albatrosses at Torishima, in a variety of plumages.
Our last stop, at Myiake Jima, holds landbirds such as this Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker.
And with luck, the grand finale may be the little-known Japanese (or Crested) Murrelet.