I was interested to read Roy's comments about Brisbane posted on 9 March. I
was in Brisbane from Sunday-Tuesday for a conference. I was never likely to
have time to do more than a quick pre-breakfast walk somewhere from my hotel
in the CBD and was disappointed when doing brief research in Bransbury on
Saturday to read that the City Botanic Gardens were (in his circa 1990 view)
not particularly good for birds - still I thought, I'll take my bins and
give it a go.
When I checked in I picked up a brochure for the Roma St Parklands - so I
changed plans and went there on Monday morning - although only a few years
post-creation, they seem an attractive habitat - in roughly an hour on
Monday morning between 5:30 and 6:30 am I saw over 30 species including:
3 Bush Stone Curlew (2Ad, 1 Juv) (actually in the grounds of the dental
hospital just outside the eastern entrance to the gardens but close enough!)
1 Sacred Kingfisher - it was very spotty so perhaps a juv?
6+ Buff Banded Rails - they have recently "moved in" apparently
Little Grassbird - 1 in the reeds at the western end of the pond - and was
much greyer underneath with a rusty brown back and skulking, allowing me to
distinguish it from lots of Clamorous Reed Warblers in the same reeds
Koel
Kookaburra being dive bombed by 3 Blue Faced HEs (taking up another recent
thread!)
Pied Butcherbird singing his heart out from his perch on the gantry of one
of the construction site cranes to the south of the lake
plus the usual city centre park suspects (Black Duck, Wood Duck, Torresian
Crow, Willie Wagtail, Crested Pigeon etc)
I bumped into a bloke there (introduced himself as Greg) who has a list for
the site of over 60, so for a city centre location less than 1km from
Brisbane Town Hall, it's pretty good. I would place the Bush Stone Curlew
at less than 500m from Town Hall
Cheers
Tom Wilson
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