Layover in Fiji

*Due to technological issues, I do not have many photos to include, so I borrowed a few from the internet*

From my home on the West Coast, I often look out over the Pacific Ocean and wonder about what is on the other side. I have read a lot about South Pacific islands, and finally, their siren song drew me across to Fiji to explore it for myself.

We flew into Nadi airport at 5:00 am and had about 36 hours to spare before our next excursion…so really it was like a long layover. After securing a rental car, we drove the 10 minutes up the road to the Garden of the Sleeping Giant. Right off the bat, we had flyovers of White-rumped Swiftlets and Pacific Swallows, feeding Red Avadavat flocks, and a few Fiji Woodswallows on the phone line on the road into the site. The Garden opens at 9:00 am, and we were there much earlier, so we opted to bird the parking lot before moving on. This rewarded us with Polynesian Triller and Western Wattled-Honeyeater.

Our plan was to reach Suva that evening to stay at the famed Colo-I-Suva Rainforest Lodge. So off we headed along Queens Road, stopping at random stops that had potential lifers.

We picked up Pacific Black Duck, Pacific Kingfisher, and Swamp Harrier along the road. Arriving in Suva around 1:00 pm, we decided to stop for lunch at the historic My Kai Restaurant. The food was excellent, and the building itself is interesting as it was the colonial Fiji Governor’s home with lots of historic pictures and artifacts decorating the walls. A 20-minute, white-knuckled drive got us to the lodge, where we stayed in Bure 7, which has a fabulous back deck with calling Barking Imperial-Pigeons, Masked Shining-Parrots, and Duetting Giant-Honeyeaters.

Not far from the lodge is a utility road going up a hill that we decided to check out until sunset. It was not super clear where to stop off, so we slowly rolled until we heard birds calling. At the hotspot, we had a swiftlet fly past, Pacific Kingfishers on the lines, and the ubiquitous Sulfur-breasted Myzomela. Not too much new here, other than a few Collared Lories flying past. Just as we were headed down the hill, I spotted something yellow flying into a tree: Golden Dove!

That night it rained hard – or at least it sounded like it on the roof! We made some coffee and enjoyed the soundtrack of Barking Imperial-Pigeons, mynas, and bulbuls. Up in the tree were a few Fiji Shrikebills to add to the list. The remainder of the day was spent making the reverse trek and adding a few more species to the list. Our first stop for the day was Suva Point. I was hoping for a Lesser Frigatebird.

We stood along the boardwalk and stared out at the edge of the lagoon for something vaguely frigatebird-like – nope. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see a few Brown Boobies! A few shorebirds did come in to pick around the mudflats: Bar-tailed Godwit, Gray-tailed and Wandering Tattlers, and Ruddy Turnstones, I also enjoyed watched mudskippers. So back in the car to get to Queens Road, and just a couple of hundred meters later, a frigatebird passed over the car! My husband, Erik, did some quick driving maneuvers, which put us in a great spot to watch it soar over the road and houses.

There was another remote road that had a fairly good list, Namosi Road, so we tried that. Again, it is tough to know where exactly to stop and target, but we tried it. Just at the point of no birds and frustration, a Chestnut-throated Flycatcher being chased by a fledgling came into view with a Fiji Bush Warbler calling down the slope. Driving a couple of hundred more meters down the road, we decided to turn around and head back. An unknown call made us stop and look around (which turned out to be the bush warbler again), but that put us right in the pathway for a Slaty Monarch.

We hustled back to the airport, concerned about traffic and catching the flight, so we could not do much more birding. Our brief stop in Fiji got us about twenty-seven lifers, including eleven endemic species. There is much more to see, and we will have to make more time for the islands on the next visit! My one piece of advice: clean and wash your rental car before returning it to avoid bizarre charges!