Australian Fauna Collective

Visited: all year round

Recommendation: When ever you visit the cay, you are guaranteed a thrilling time. There are often thousands of birds here and you can get very close to them. It is very exposed, so go in cooler months.

Michaelmas Cay is a small sand bar in the ocean east of Cairns. A short 45 minute boat ride will get you there and normally I am the only birder on board. Situated on the Great Barrier Reef, most people go snorkelling to see the reef and marine animals. The boat operators are always really helpful and take me onto the Cay in a small boat. There is only a small patch of sand that you can stand on to look at the birds. I have been at different times of the year but the best I found was in the spring when the birds have returned to nest and it is not yet too hot.

There are some birds that visit to roost as well as those that actually nest on the Cay and at its peak of activity, it is frantic. I had a hard time deciding where to look and what to take photos of. So, I'll start with those birds obviously nesting and regular visitors to the sand. The Brown Booby were there in numbers and there were lots of juveniles in various stages of development and plumage. Even the larger, older ones were fairly sedentary, just sitting waiting for a parent to return to them. I loved looking at them in their different states of dress. I had never been as close to these kind of seabirds before.

Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster)

Common Noddy were also nesting on the beach and this time I found some with eggs. I always thing noddies look very serious with those eyebrows.

Common Noddy (Anous stolidus)

There were hundreds of terns on and around the sandbar. The Great Crested Terns congregated on one side and were largely all adults while the Lesser Crested Tern were on another and interestingly seemed to have a nursery for their chicks.

Great Crested Tern (Thalasseus bergii)

Lesser Crested Tern (Thalasseus bengalensis)

There were several other terns around but nothing like the numbers of the crested. I saw the Bridled, Little and Sooty either on the beach or circling it.

Bridled Tern (Onychoprion anathetus)

Little Tern (Sternula albifrons)

Sooty Tern (Onychoprion fuscatus)

In amidst all this noise and choas I was quite amazed to spot a Red-footed Booby. It was sitting and then flew around but however brief it was, I was thrilled to see it.

Red-footed Booby (Sula sula)

There were also several Great Frigatebirds here as well. I always think they look like prehistoric creatures. Surely they are descendants of the Tetradactyl!

Great Frigatebird (Fregata minor)