2011/02/03

The Sooty Tern (Onychoprion fuscatus) or Rußseeschwalbe

The Sooty Tern a seabird of the tropical oceans that breeds on islands like Penguin Island near Perth and got its Hawaiian name ‘ewa ‘ewa, which roughly means "cacophony", not without reason. Their call is described as a loud piercing “ker-wack-a-wack” or “kvaark” and I can confirm that they make some ear-battering noise after having visited the island mentioned above with Mrs Schmitz on our summer trip to Southwest Australia. As you may have guessed by its name this small piece of land waters surrounded by the waters of the Shoalwater Islands Marine Park is also home to a colony of Little Penguins, the largest population of Australia’s only resident penguin species in Western Australia. Tourists can visit Penguin Island mid-September to early June and most visitors come to see the cute penguins but you can actually spot only a few scattered and moulting individuals hidden under rocks in that period. Instead you’ll find everywhere thousands of Sooty Terns entertaining the guests with a free concert of cacophonic ‘ewa ‘ewa and an allegedly 500-strong colony of pelicans, though we couldn’t spot more than a dozen of these impressive water birds. Most visitors come via a short trip with one if the regular ferries that, though it is very tempting to try to walk across the tidal sandbar at low tide, but this is very hazardous as was tragically proved to be true when two men in their 30s drowned just a couple of days before our own visit. Totally ignorant of the tragic events that had happened there recently Mrs Schmitz and me enjoyed our time on the almost  penguin-free Penguin Island and especially our side trip to Seal Island a even smaller piece of land that to my surprise in fact inhabits a large number of sea lions.

Next week: The Red Wattlebird or a dry Australia Day in the wet season.