Golden Bosuns

We scheduled a rest day from diving today, so this morning Audrey finally got to lounge and drink coffee while I roamed around on the rocky shore trying to photograph birds without getting burnt to a crisp in the sun. All of the birds here are photogenic, but the one I’m most hoping to get a good photograph of is what the locals call the “golden bosun”; it’s a golden colored tropic bird that is only found on Christmas Island. It also happens to have an uncanny ability to fly past when I don’t have a camera at the ready, but we’ve got several days remaining and I’m a patient man.

We started the day with a visit to Nadine at the visitor center, who we had previously met at the airport after arriving, and whose helpful directions are probably the only reason we’re not still searching for our rental house. She gave us more advice for our remaining days, including tips on a few trails (her description for one of them: “there won’t be signs and it will look like you’re just climbing on rocks in a river, but trust me that will be the correct way to go”). When we asked where the best place to see the golden bosun was, she told us we were welcome to use the visitor center balcony – “in fact, there’s one now” she said, as one flew by as I stood there with my camera in the car.

After lunch we did a quick snorkel in Flying Fish Cove, and it was surprisingly good with loads of fish, a lionfish, and a moray, and then we headed out to check out some of Nadine’s recommended spots for birding. Enroute we stopped at the old Chinese Cemetery to see boobies and frigate birds, and much as we experienced elsewhere on this island, the minute the car stopped every chicken in the world came running out of the jungle like a scene from a bizarro Night of the Living Dead to see if we had snacks (we did not). We continued our bird search around the northeast tip of the island, eventually running into a detour sign that pointed to a smaller dirt road. Having learned nothing during my time on this island thus far, I followed the sign, and we spent the next fifteen minutes re-enacting scenes from Lost as we traversed a dirt “road” through jungle, past the occasional rusting construction equipment, and next to a radio tower or two.

Tomorrow we’re diving again, and it’s the weekend so all of the locals will be out partying in the evening, including at the outdoor cinema where the chalk board at the roundabout has been advertising Kung Fu Panda 4 as this week’s feature film.