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Hi All
Was out and about again on Thursday with some
Austrian visitors. I picked them up at Mt Glorious west of Brisbane and we
picked up a few rainforest species. Wonga Pigeon was 262 for
the year for me. We came off the mountain to Lake Samsonvale for a few nice bush
birds and some waterfowl. Great-crested Grebes doing
their synchronised mating displays were a highlight. For me Cicadabird
was 263 after having heard it a number of times earlier. After a
koala fix near Dayboro and a small drama with a missing handbag, we journeyed on
over Mt Mee with great views of a pair of circling
Wedgies. Some mixed Macropods at Woodford (of Folk
Festival fame) and then on to Gatton area after lunch at Esk near a noisy flying
fox colony. Gatton Campus of UQ again provided great views of bulk
Pink-eared Ducks, Wandering Whistlers and Magpie Geese as well
as some Red-necked Avocets. Lake Apex in Gatton was good
with a good mix of waterfowl including my first Aust. Shoveller
(264) for the year and also a Latham's Snipe.
Forest Hill backroads yielded some good birds including a flock of over 35
Willie Wagtails. They were feeding with
Double-barred and Zebra Finch and Yellow-rumped
Thornbills. I have read of Willie Wagtails flocking in February/
March before but this is the first time I have actually seen it in this part of
the world. Some Brown Quail on the road gave me no.
265. To Lake Dyer and some good views of the Painted Snipe
followed up with a flock of about 200 Cockatiels
performing for us. As we made our way up to Mt Glorious we saw a couple
of Tawny Frogmouths giving us 120 species for the
day.
Yesterday I went to the Maleny area to take part in
a seminar on the Common Mynah expansion in the Sunshine Coast area.
Pouring rain limited the possibility of seeing some missing (for me) rainforest
species. On the way home I dropped into Tinchi Tamba Wetland on Brisbane's
north and added four 2002 ticks. Osprey, Crested Tern,
Collared Kingfisher and White-winged Trillers feeding young. This
took me to 269 but I could not crack 270 as the usually reliable
Mangrove Honeyeaters and Mangrove Gerygones in the area would
not co-operate.
Such is life in the wonderful world of
birding!!
Cheers
Roy
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