I was on the sunny Gold Coast earlier this month for a few days for a
workshop.
There was plenty of "liquid sunshine" (as they say in Scotland) - over 250mm
of rain while I was there, and I think I saw the sun for a total of about an
hour.
The tourists who had flown in from overseas for a week's vacation must have
been
none too happy.
The only free time I had was in the mornings before the workshop, but since
the sun
came up at 4:40am(!!) that allowed me an hour or two on the couple of
mornings
that it wasn't raining too heavily. I was staying at the Seaworld Nara
hotel, and the
guide to the resort mentioned a Federation Walk nearby. I asked a few hotel
staff
where it was, but none of them had even heard of it. Turned out it was just
across the
road, running along a narrow strip of land between the road and the beach.
A lot of it seemed to have been recently burned out, it was a bit windy and
raining
some of the time, but I still managed to see 36 species, all fairly common
for
the east coast but nice to see when you're from Adelaide.
Best birds were a close view of a Pheasant Coucal in a dead tree (a lifer
for me - very
impressive birds!), male Red-winged Fairy-wren (also saw Superb
Fairy-wrens), a few male
and one female Satin Flycatcher, many Common Terns, close view of a Brahminy
Kite
perched on a sign by the beach, Tawny Grassbird, Double-barred Finch,
Rainbow Bee-eater,
and a few Bar-tailed Godwits. Also saw some brown shearwaters, too far away
for me to ID.
Paul Coddington
Adelaide, South Australia
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