North East Herald Cay - Bird Life

The bird life at North East Herald Cay did not disappoint with a wide range of seabirds nesting in different ecological zones across the island.

Our favorites remain the Frigate Birds and Boobies, but the Red Tailed Tropic Birds were also amazing with their bright red beaks and long tail feathers.

The birds would often follow us as we walked around the cay, gliding slowly behind us or hovering quietly just overhead. 

At North East Herald Cay it was clear that neither side would get bored of looking at the other. What a magical place...

North East Herald Cay - Wow!

We arrived at North East Herald Cay at around 09:00 on Fathers Day after a gentle overnight sail from the Diamond Ises.

North East Herald Cay forms part of the Coringa-Herald Nature Reserve - effectively the equivalent of a Green Zone on the Great Barrier Reef. The place is spectacular, stunning colours, incredible underwater visibility, amazing birdlife, giant hermit crabs and friendly fish of all shapes and sizes that are still curious about humans!

On our first snorkel we found good coral patches and a field of Helmet Shells in the shallow water behind the cay.

In all my time on the reef - even as a kid 35 years ago - I have never seen so many Helmet Shells! There were smiles a plenty as we return to Lucey Blue with tales of underwater life. This reef system remains a time capsule of biodiversity and a place worthy of further exploration...

Central Diamond Islet

We departed East Diamond Islet on 5 September to explore Central Diamond Islet with an idea of staying overnight if the anchorage was good or moving on to the Herald Cays about 110 nautical miles further NW if it was not.

As it turned out the anchorage at Central Diamond was fairly average - exposed to the sea and deep (18 to 20m) with lots of coral and only small patches of sand. We eventually found a spot to anchor in about 19m and hit a nice sand patch so we went ashore for a few hours.

Central Diamond Islet felt rather isolated with less birdlife than East Diamond Islet and fewer shells, but we still had plenty of fun on the walk around the sand cay.

The kids enjoyed the cay and the unusually friendly Moray Eel…

After lunch we carefully pulled up the anchor and departed for the Herald Cays via West Diamond Islet. The conditions were nice (10-15 knot SE winds) and Lucey Blue sailed happily along at 6.5 to 7.5 knots without the code zero or spinnaker...

East Diamond Islet - Bird life...

The bird life on East Diamond Islet is amazing and the red Hermit Crabs are cool too...

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