More birding around Brisbane

Since my visit to Sandy Camp Road Wetlands a week ago, I have continued to add to my Brisbane year total with several short trips to wild areas around the city.

On the 11th January, a brief visit to Mount Coot-tha Forest produced my first Sulphur-crested Cockatoos and Pale-headed Rosellas of the year, though sadly virtually no other birds at all, as my visit was in the evening,

Two days' later, I enjoyed a fantastic, if extremely brief, visit to Anstead Bushland Reserve in west Brisbane on the way back from a trip to Ipswich. The visit produced two fantastic lifers for me. The first was a very satisfying find, as I managed to track the source of a remarkably high-pitched bubbling call from a bird flying overhead. It was a Little Lorikeet, a bird that I have been keeping an eye out for for some time! At just 15cm-long, this really is a tiny creature, and due to its nomadic habits, it can be a difficult bird to track down. I was very pleased to see another two of the species later on in the walk.

My second lifer was a fantastic bird. I spotted a Channel-billed Cuckoo flying directly towards me and followed it as it landed in a large tree right next to me. While watching it hop clumsily about the tree, I spotted a considerably smaller bird seemingly following it. I was overjoyed to discover that it was a male Oriental Cuckoo, a rare North Asian breeder that migrates south for the northern winter, including in small numbers to south-east Queensland. This bird is virtually identical in appearance to Europe's Common Cuckoo, a bird that I once enjoyed watching in my garden in Dorset each summer, before it sadly stopped returning two years' ago. Finding such a scarce bird was an amazingly-pleasing moment! I was lucky enough to be able to watch it for some time, though my attempts at photography sadly complete-and-utterly failed.

Other birds seen during the walk included a further four Channel-billed Cuckoos, one of my favourite Australian birds, a White-throated Needletail overhead, eight Oriental Dollarbirds and, a 600 challenge tick that had surprisingly managed to evade me up until this point, a Common Bronzewing. I can't wait to come back here!

Finally, today I walked from Kedron Brook Wetlands Reserve up to Nudgee Beach. Sadly the wetlands were very quiet from a wildlife perspective, with a strong wind and overcast, humid conditions combining to push most birds deep into cover. The large lake now held only seven Australian Pelicans and a single Masked Lapwing, while White-headed Stilt numbers were down to just four! Three magnificent Black-shouldered, a year tick, went some way to improve things, while a Brahminy Kite headed overhead and an Australian Reed Warbler was a first for me at the reserve. As I started to walk away from the area, I had a brief of excellent birding, firstly as an Intermediate Egret appeared, shortly followed by a distant Tern species heading over the Brook and a Striated Heron, another new bird for me in 2016, flying low over the mangroves. I was very intrigued to find out what species of Tern this was, given that this is a family I had not previously seen there. When the Tern soon reappeared, I was very surprised to see its thin yellow bill and long, forked tail, revealing its identity as a Greater Crested Tern. This species is traditionally a coastal and seashore-dwelling creature, and presumably the heavy wind had forced it inland up the creek. I was immensely pleased to find a species that had not previously been reported from the reserve on ebird before!

I had further views of what was presumably the same individual, along with a Whimbrel, another year-tick, a little further along the creek, just beyond the reserve, along with at least five Great White Egrets. A small pond just next to the path proved to be fantastically-productive as well, with both a Great White and a Little Egret, an Australian White Ibis, two White-headed Stilts and this selection of Ducks associating on it:

Five Chestnut Teals and a Grey Teal (second from front, a Brisbane tick for me!) next to Kedron Brook bikeway. At least three Grey and eight Chestnut Teals were on the pond.

Little Egret

A little later, a magnificent Whistling Kite flew overhead, being mobbed a Torresian Crow. This was shortly followed a stunning Australian Hobby soaring through, another Brisbane tick for me! This really is a fantastic area for birdlife.

My next stop was Nudgee Waterhole Reserve, where I quickly found my first Eurasian Coots of the year, along with the usual selection of Australasian Grebes, Dusky Moorhens, Hardheads, Pacific Black and Wood Ducks, Little Pied and Little Black Cormorants and Australasian Darters. A small group of Variegated Fairywrens in the surrounding forest provided another year-tick.

Eurasian Coot at Nudgee Waterhole Reserve

My final stop of the day was Nudgee Beach, somewhere I really have not spent enough time. I was overjoyed to discover that this really is a fantastic location for wader-watching, and consequently new year birds came rapidly, with numerous Arctic migrant waders present, including huge numbers of Curlew Sandpipers, Red-necked Stints, Lesser Sandplovers and, very pleasingly, Pacific Golden Plovers.

Pacific Golden Plover at Nudgee Beach

Other birds seen included Whimbrels, Far Eastern Curlews, Greater Sandplovers, Bar-tailed Godwits, a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Pied Oystercatchers, Australian Pelicans, Little Egrets and Little and Greater Crested Tern. Not having my telescope with me almost certainly prevented me from finding several more species, so I shall return with it as soon as I can!

Brisbane year total: 119, additions: 24 (Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Pale-headed Rosella, Little Lorikeet, Oriental Cuckoo, Common Bronzewing, Black-shouldered Kite, Greater Crested Tern, Striated Heron, Whimbrel, Grey Teal, Whistling Kite, Australian Hobby, Eurasian Coot, Variegated Fairywren, Pied Oystercatcher, Pacific Golden Plover, Lesser Sandplover, Red-necked Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Greater Sandplover, Far Eastern Curlew, Little Tern, Bar-tailed Godwit, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper)