Great Barrier Reef: forget the fish, there are 20,000 birds on this island alone — theguardian.com

Sun, sea, sand and smell. Maybe that’s not the way they’d say it in the tourist brochures, but it’s the perfect description of Michaelmas Cay. No other wildlife spectacle is quite such an assault on the senses as a seabird colony. With up to 20,000 noisy, active, and pretty smelly birds on a small, sandy island, a visit to Michaelmas Cay is a must for any serious birder touring north Queensland. I leave on the first boat to land on the cay each morning to get uninterrupted views of the birds before the other tourist boats land there. Skipper Carl tells me the sea has been choppy for the past week or so, but this is a perfect morning: fine, clear and calm, as we set out from Cairns on the 90-minute crossing.

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