On my visit to North Queensland, I couldn’t be near one of the seven wonders of the natural world without having a look-see.

From the coastal town of Cairns, boats depart on day trips to the Great Barrier Reef.

The reef system runs mostly parallel along the northeastern coast of Australia for 1,400 miles, making it the largest reef system in the world.

The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is what a tropical rainforest is to biodiversity. Here are a few facts that highlights the mega diversity on hand.

The GNR supports 1,500 species of fish, 4,000 species of mollusks, 400 species of coral, 6 of the 7 world’s species of sea turtles, 14 species of sea snakes, 133 species of sharks and rays, and 242 species of birds. The GBR also contains 25% of all known marine species!

I am planning to dip into a bit of this biodiversity with a snorkeling trip to Michaelmas Cay. While I’m a certified SCUBA diver, I want to spend some time topside, to see some of the breeding seabirds of this cay.

The cay supports 23 species of seabirds and at the height of the breeding season (our summer) there can be up to 20,000 birds on Michaelmas Cay.

Some of the lifers I hope to see on the cay are: brown (common) noddy, sooty, little, great crested, black-naped terns, and masked booby. I also hoped to get great looks at some birds I’ve seen before such as great frigatebird and brown booby but in breeding plumage.