January 31st part 1: Diamond Firetail (Girraween area)

So on the last day of January we decided to end the month with a bang and visit one of the few remaining areas that would net us a swag of new birds for the year. After some discussion we decided to visit the Stanthorpe/Girraween area. This area has a lot of sentimental value for me, as I learnt to birdwatch in the area with my grandmother. This was before the days of keeping lists and being serious about what to see and where, so my knowledge of the area as far as where to go to look for birds is fairly eclectic. Fortunately, Andrew knew a great spot on Old Wallangara Rd to start the day off, and this is where we headed first.

We did stop on the way just once, at the rest stop past the crest of Cunningham's Gap. I had in the past seen Bassian Thrush hopping around on the lawns here and was hoping for a repeat performance. We did get brief views of a Zoothera of some kind, but not enough to confirm an ID and definitely not hopping around on the lawn like a chook. Our compensation was a pair of Glossy Black Cockatoos gliding overhead calling and landing nearby. We only had very poor views but this is an iconic species and can often be very hard to find, so we are both happy to have it on our lists for the year.

Old Wallangara Rd is just south of Girraween National Park. I'm sure I drove down the road on a number of occasions as a child, but I have to admit, I've probably never gone birding there before. It turns out that this is an amazing place to go birding. The area is an unassuming strip of roadside vegetation that looks like it couldn't possibly support much in the way of birds, let alone rare ones, but we saw some amazing things in our time there. We started with White-plumed Honeyeater, a common enough bird but again at the very edge of its range near Brisbane. The new species flowed quickly; Dusky Woodswallow, White-bellied Cuckoo-Shrike (including an intermediate/dark phase), Restless Flycatcher, White-browed Babbler, Scarlet, Brown-headed, and Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters, Brown Treecreeper, Little Eagle, Red-winged Parrot, Eastern Rosella, Musk Lorikeet... All of these were great birds, and many difficult to get near Brisbane, but there were two we were specifically after at this location: Turquoise Parrot and Diamond Firetail. Sadly our first Neophema parrot for the year will have to wait, as we neither saw nor heard one of these gorgeous little bundles of colour. We did manage to get views, distant though they were, of Diamond Firetails. Interestingly, despite this being the main target of the day, another bird stole the show while we were watching a Firetail feed on the ground: a juvenile Hooded Robin flew into the tree above it.

Hooded Robins are one of Australia's most seriously declining woodland species. They are uncommon through most of their range, and downright rare this close to Brisbane. We ended up seeing two juveniles/immatures in the area, and while not absolute proof they are breeding in the area, it is wonderful to see that they are breeding successfully nearby. More wonderful is that we how have another very hard species ticked off the list.

After our roaring success with the Firetail and the Hooded Robin, we decided to have one more quick look back through the roadside vegetation to see if we had missed anything. Turns out we did, and on our way back through we lucked onto a male Crested Shrike-Tit foraging through the trees. These are an amazing bird known for their powerful bill that can tear bark from trees or fingernails from unfortunate bird banders with equal ease. These birds can be difficult to find in SEQ, so it was another in a series of great birds to get for the year.

We started heading into Girraween, finding Weebill on the way in. At the main picnic ground we added Red Wattlebird, and walking down the start of Junction Track we found White-eared Honeyeater, but bird-wise the area was extremely quiet. We did see some great butterflies though, and in the end had to decide between looking for more butterflies and heading off to find more birds. We of course opted for birds.

Our next stop was Storm King Dam to look for Musk Duck, a bird Andrew had never failed to see there. My experience had been less positive, but we easily found a single female bird on the main body of the dam. We searched the edges carefully for rare shorebirds, but could only turn up a couple of Latham's Snipe, nice birds for the area and for the day, but not new for the year.

We headed down Eukey Rd, where I was able to show Andrew the house and farm that my grandparents used to own. It's always sad driving past these for me, as I have such fond memories of the place and the area as a whole, and since then particularly the farm has fallen into ruin. All the hundred year old grape vines are dead, and most of the fruit trees are gone apart from a few apple trees that have run wild. Crossing the highway again we headed down back roads through the wineries area. We finally caught up with Red-rumped Parrot, and while doing so also found Plum-headed Finches, which while not new for the year, are always a great bird to see. It was at this point we made a decision - we had planned to spend the whole day in the Girraween area, but had now seen nearly everything we came for. Andrew noticed on the map that back roads would lead us all the way from Ballandean to Inglewood. Since this had been another option on our list of places to go on the day, we decided to spend the afternoon in the Inglewood/Durakai area and try our luck at a few different habitats.

To Be Continued....

Photo 1: White-bellied Cuckoo-Shrike pale morph at Old Wallangara Rd
Photo 2: Little Lorikeets feeding at Old Wallangara Rd
Photo 3: White-browed Babblers at Old Wallangara Rd
Photo 4: Crested Shrike-Tit male at Old Wallangara Rd

Tawny Frogmouth

Yesterday evening we had a visitor in our back yard while we were entertaining guests. A Tawny Frogmouth came and landed in the nearest tree, making it bird #215 for the year.

Total birds to date: 215

January 23rd: Sooty Oystercatcher

Today Andrew and I went looking for a Satin Flycatcher that had been reported at Kippa-Ring a week earlier. I had low expectations - a week is a long time for any bird to hang around, particularly Satin Flycatcher. They are only known in SEQ in a very narrow window during their northward and southward migrations, and even then are very rare. To be honest, to have one reported in SEQ from a credible source is extremely rare. Because our hopes were so low, we combined the trip with a small jaunt to the foreshore at nearby Redcliffe seeking some waterbirds from the shoreline, and ducked by Ogg Rd as well, hoping to see Pygmy Geese. As expected, the site at Kippa-Ring was a bust. In fact, despite the site appearing to have a lot of potential, we saw almost no birds at all. We did startle a small mob of Eastern Grey Kangaroos in the mangroves and casuarinas, which was a tad surprising.

After a poor start to the day we headed to the shoreline. Sadly, Eastern Reef Egret failed to put on an appearance, possibly a factor of the quite large tides at the moment we were there. We did, however, manage to find a Sooty Oystercatcher (#213), a fairly uncommon bird in the bay area. Similarly, Ogg Rd failed to turn up the hoped-for Pygmy Geese, but we did find an Australian Hobby (#214), one of Australia's two small falcon species. So in all I had two new birds for the year (Andrew had three with the inclusion of Grey Butcherbird, which I already had).

Total birds to date: 214

January 22nd: Nankeen Night Heron

I don't often get out in my local patch for birding these days, but I used to keep an almost daily record of what I saw in the area. Given the great birds I've seen in the area in the past, and this challenge, I figured I should start going on regular walks again. This morning my resolve was rewarded with two new year birds, though neither particularly difficult to get. The first was Common Starling (#211), and the second was Nankeen Night Heron (#212). The Night Heron has been semi-resident here for several years - I don't often see it as it roosts deep in the trees next to the water and the only way to get it seems to be to flush it from the trees, which I don't like doing. Today I headed in to check if it was there partly because I didn't have it for the year yet, partly because I wanted to see if it was still here, and partly because I had watched a Latham's Snipe fly into the grass by the water right under the trees a few minutes before and wanted to try and get a better look. Other good birds for the area were Collared Sparrowhawk and Mangrove Gerygone, both quite regular but always nice to get. I also had some fun photographing dragonflies, as I am trying to learn how to identify them at the moment.

Total birds to date: 212

January 19th: White-eared Monarch; Spotted Quail-Thrush

I couldn't choose just one bird for this blog entry, because both of the birds listed in the title were fantastic, and I was very happy to find them. A friend of mine from Broome was in town and wanted to go out birding, so Andrew and I planned a day out in the Samsonvale/Mt Glorious area. We started the day at Lacey's Creek, about 20km north of Dayboro. It's a great little area, with a creekline at the bottom of the hills and a dirt road leading up to a great little rainforest area. On the way up the hill is woodland, and as we drove up through it, we flushed a Spotted Quail-Thrush from the road. The bird was a male and seemed to be by itself. With a bit of patience we managed to get fantastic views of the bird at the top of the ridge by the track before losing it when it came back down and crossed the road again. Spotted Quail-Thrush probably aren't that rare in the right habitat near Brisbane, however they are extremely shy and any day you see one is a good day.


We got to the rainforest at the top quite early, and were fairly disappointed with the amount of activity going on. I think it was quiet because the spot we were in was on the west side of the mountain, so hadn't received any sunlight yet. Nonetheless, we managed Brush Cuckoo and Striated Thornbill for the year in the eucalypt woodland past the rainforest area. Coming back to the car from the woodland, we heard a call none of us could place immediately, in the undergrowth on the side of the track. Some careful looks and an epiphany from Andrew led to us seeing a family of Noisy Pitta moving through the forest on the downhill slope from the road. Andrew's epiphany was that the call sounded a lot like Black-and-Crimson Pitta from Borneo; a bird we had seen and heard just a few months ago. A flurry of butterfly species made the rest of the walk interesting, and just as we were about to reach the car we flushed a White-eared Monarch from the side of the track. This is a fantastic bird for SEQ, though easy to see if you put in enough effort. The first bird we saw gave great views at the top of a Hoop Pine by the track before flying off. Closer to the car still, another pair of the monarchs flew overhead. Between the White-eared Monarch and the Spotted Quail-Thrush it had already been a great day - two more semi-difficult birds off the list early in the year.

Our birding was far from over though. Our next stop paid a visit to the Azure Kingfisher spot I photographed two juveniles fighting at a few weeks back. Sure enough, an adult-plumaged Azure Kingfisher was sitting right near the bridge over the creek, in the near-exact same spot. A quick and unsuccessful poke around the Dayboro area for Oriental Cuckoo and we moved on to Gold Scrubb Rd. Bird-wise, the site was fairly disappointing, though we did add Great Cormorant to the year list, and a few woodland species to the day list. Notable sightings here were a Purple Crow butterfly and a juvenile Eastern Brown Snake.

Our morning of birding over, we headed into Samford for lunch at the Buzz Stop Cafe, across the road from the pub. It's run by a friend of Andrew's and the food was excellent. Next time I'll try the coffee too. Once lunch was over, we made our way up the hill to Mt Glorious for some more rainforest birding. New Holland Honeyeater was predictably hanging around near the cafe at the top, an easy spot for a bird that is at the far north of its range. It was also bird #200 for the year. Maiala, just past Mt Glorious, is an old stomping ground of mine, being the first place I saw many of the rainforest birds that are common around Brisbane. It is them most reliable site for Russet-tailed Thrush in the region, and it didn't disappoint on this occasion either. Early on we missed it at the easy parts of the track, however about halfway around the circuit I spied a bird in the canopy of the rainforest, ducking into an enormous Crow's Nest Fern. Putting my bins on the bird the last thing I expected was a ground-dwelling rainforest floor specialist, but sure enough the stripey face of a Russet-tailed Thrush was poking out from behind a frond. I suspect that it has a nest in the fern, as I can think of no other reason it would be 30m off the ground. We also saw a Regent Bowerbird male flying along the trail, and a male Satin Bowerbird, dancing and singing to court a female. Logrunner was the last of the year ticks we saw at Maiala, and we moved on to our next stop, Boombana.

On the way we stopped and finally saw Bell Miners, a species we had heard a number of times already but not bothered to track down until now. At Boombana itself, we got extremely lucky and saw a flock of Barred Cuckoo-Shrikes moving through the canopy near the picnic ground. This is another uncommon species in the region and I've very glad we caught up with them early. Bellbird Grove was a short hop down the road, and we stopped briefly to look for Buff-rumped Thornbill, a bird we found quite easily off to the side of the road. While we were looking for them, we also disturbed a female Spotted Quail-Thrush, making it our second sighting of the species that day.

Our final stop for the day was JC Slaughter Falls at Mt Coot-tha. We got there on dusk to look for White-throated Nightjar, and we weren't disappointed. Not only did we get some nice low passes over the clearing we were standing in, but the bird actually landed in a dead tree by the nearby water, affording the best views I've ever had of this species. It was a great way to finish off a great day's birding, with some amazing birds and good company.

Total birds to date: 210

Photo 1: Spotted Quail-Thrush at Lacey's Creek
Photo 2: Channel-billed Cuckoo at Lacey's Creek
Photo 3: White-throated Nightjar flying at JC Slaughter Falls
Photo 4: White-throated Nightjar perching at JC Slaughter Falls

January 17th: Broad-billed Sandpiper

Thanks to Laurie Knight I managed to get in on a Queensland Wader Study Group (QWSG) wader count at the Port of Brisbane. Brisbane generally has a pretty poor reputation among twitchers for rare shorebirds - it barely rates a mention for the most part. And in publicly accessible areas around Moreton Bay this is probably a fair assessment these days. In days gone by Brisbane had many rarities dropping in - Asian Dowitcher, Long-toed Stint, Ruff, Oriental Plover, Oriental Pratincole, the list goes on. But through development and massive overpopulation the shores of Moreton Bay have become a hub of human activity, and the major shorebird roosts have been lost. Enter Port of Brisbane. In creating extra facilities the Port Authority destroyed Lytton Roost, one of the major wader spots in the bay. Because this occurred, the Port Authority created an offset area by constructing a series of ponds at the north end of Fisherman's Island as part of a "reclamation" project. Until Sunday I had no idea how successful they had been. The site is a mecca for shorebirds and terns; I saw thousands of waders at the small fraction of the site I visited. Grey Plover - a species I had been happy to see one of the other day, were there in number (at least 30, probably more). There were nearly a thousand Bar-tailed Godwit, hundreds of Knot, Sand Plovers, thousands of Stints etc. Little Tern, an endangered species, were there in massive numbers - about a thousand, including a couple of breeding-plumaged birds. And five Broad-billed Sandpipers, a major rarity in this part of the country.

When I worked at the Broome Bird Observatory, Broad-bills were a fairly common sight. By the end of my year at Broome I was fairly comfortable picking a single Broad-bill out of a flock of thousands of stint and sandpipers. But I hadn't seen one since I left Broome in 2005, and I had been concerned that I might have lost my edge when it came to picking them up. Fortunately I needn't have worried, and within five minutes of arriving at the first counting spot I had picked out my first Broad-bill and managed to show the rest of the counters. In all I counted five birds at the site, a good haul for a Brisbane count.

The downside to this is that the Port of Brisbane wader roost is off limits to the public behind a locked gate and heavy security, so even having made this sighting public, twitchers can't just go and find the bird. The only way of getting in (other than working for the Port), is to go in with the QWSG on an official count, which they do once a month on a weekend high tide. It is not arduous work, so it is something I'd encourage all local wader watchers to sign up for. QWSG are mainly looking for regular counters so if they have enough people and you're not a regular you may be turned away. Having visited this site now, I have no problem saying its the best wader spot in southern Queensland by a long margin.

We finished the day with a quick swing by Wynnum to look for Black-tailed Godwit and Collared Kingfisher. The Godwit were present in very small number, and were quite difficult to confirm ID on in the heat haze (the day was a scorcher, clocking in around 35c). The Kingfishers, normally easy at the site, were nowhere to be found! However, with a Broad-billed Sandpiper on the year list, another major rarity for the region joined my list and made 350 species look just that bit more possible.

Total birds to date: 188

Photo 1: Port of Brisbane wader roosts
Photos 2&3: Broad-billed Sandpiper

January 14th: Superb Fruit-Dove

So today Andrew and I ducked up to Yandina, on the Sunshine Coast, to find a Superb Fruit-Dove that had been reported a few weeks back. We fortunately had some local gen (that's short for general intelligence - a military term subverted for birding use), which led us straight to the spot. Being unable to find any "good" habitat for Fruit-Doves from the car, we drove to the end of the road we were on, which was at the top of a hill. There was a huge amount of activity up there, as well as a dog that wouldn't stop barking (at 7am it serves the owners right, we weren't on their property!). Anyway, despite this we saw a good number of rainforest and woodland species, including a Dusky Honeyeater, a bird that is right at the southern edge of its range in the area, and a good get for the day, and Pale Yellow Robin, an inquisitive rainforest specialist (see photo on right). Frustratingly we had Wompoo Fruit-Doves calling from very nearby but couldn't see where they were. Not hearing any Superb Fruit-Doves calling, we headed down the hill to the creekline we had seen earlier. About halfway down the hill Andrew asked me to stop. I don't know if he just thought it looked like a good spot, or if he heard something, but when I killed the car engine, the Superb Fruit-Dove was calling loudly from nearby the car. We cautiously made our way down to the creek edge and snuck up to the tree the bird was calling from. Sadly, it was at the top of an emergent tree, so the canopy of the rainforest along the creekline blocked any views we might have had while the bird was perched. After a frustrating hour of waiting to get a view, the bird finally had enough and flew off down the creekline. Fortunately for me, I got a good(ish) view of the bird as it flew. Sadly for Andrew, he was on the other side of the tree and saw nothing. That's birding for you.

By 9:30 we decided we needed to move on, and headed over to Fairhill Nursery and Botanic Gardens. This is one of my favourite spots on the Sunshine Coast - there a great little rainforest walk (with regular sightings of Emerald Dove), lots of flowering native plants that attract honeyeaters, and possibly the best natural history book shop in Queensland, not to mention locally sourced native plants for sale in the nursery. We went to the cafe for a laid back breakfast, and were fortunate enough to have a male Koel showing well in a nearby tree, and a family of Eastern Yellow Robins playing at our feet in the garden. So cute! The photo to the right is a young bird moulting into adult plumage that took a liking to us and caught ants a metre or so from us the whole time we were there. A quick walk through the rainforest afterwards provided us with out Emerald Dove sighting for the year. After, we headed back to look for the Superb Fruit-Dove again, but with no luck. We did find a Black-faced Monarch, again new for the year.

From here we headed back to Brisbane, but made two more stops. The first was at Point Cartwright, a well-known spot for Wandering Tattler locally. Despite having found the birds there before, and it being a good place for them, I was surprised at just how easily we found a pair of Wandering Tattlers (photo on the right). They were at the rocks underneath the hill the lighthouse was on, and we basically tripped over one as we stepped off the grass and onto the rocks! We had great views and they even called for us just to make extra certain of the ID. Our second stop was a quick jaunt to Tinchi Tamba wetlands near Boondal. This is a spot that Brolga can turn up at, but sadly on this occasion we had no luck. We will no doubt check here a few more times during the year, as neither of us know a good spot for Brolga (or indeed any other spots).

So that was it for our day trip, several new year birds including a big one for me (Superb Fruit-Dove), as well as some great views of some rare birds.

Total birds to date: 184

Photo 1: Pale Yellow Robin, Yandina
Photo 2: Eastern Yellow Robin, Fairhill Botanic Gardens
Photo 3: Wandering Tattler, Pt. Cartwright

January 10th: Grass Owl

The goal of heading out today was twofold: find as many migratory shorebird species as possible during the day, and see the Grass Owls near the Brisbane Airport that have become suddenly reliable at sunset.

We started in mid-afternoon with an overly hopeful trip to the Metroplex Wetlands to try and see Little Bittern. While this didn't pan out (unsurprising), it was a pleasant stop on the way, and we did manage to add Australian Reed Warbler to our year lists. Our next stop of the day was at Thornside, formerly one of the best wader roosts in the state, though now sadly severely depleted due to human activity. Indeed, there were people on the roost with toddlers and dogs while we were there, though we did manage to get a few species of waders. Of more interest (to me) were the Mangrove Honeyeaters, an easy species if you know where to look, but still a satisfying one to get on the list early on. I also added Mangrove Gerygone, and a juvenile Brahminy Kite.

Our next stop was at Manly. The fishermen were out in force (well, it was a Sunday), but fortunately there were no dogs around to scare off the shorebirds. And that was a good thing too, as there were several thousand around. We managed to find 19 species of shorebird at Manly, including 16 migratory shorebirds. A single Grey Plover in the main flock was definitely the highlight - an uncommon species in SEQ. We searched the waders very carefully for something really unusual, but sadly no Dowitchers or Broad-billed Sandpipers could be found. We spent a lot of time here and sadly had to skip Wynnum and head straight to the airport.

It was a good thing we did, as we got there with only half an hour to spare before "go-time" when the Grass Owls would hopefully lift off from the grass and fly around. We ran into a number of other people there with the same idea that we had, including a group from UQ at least one of which had been there the night before. As we waited the mosquitoes became gradually worse, until we all agreed they were as bad as we had seen anywhere at any time. The sun went down, and it got darker. The time the owls had come up and flown around the previous few days went past and it got so dark we could barely see anything. And then, someone called out -they had seen one take off! That bird went down into the grass again, but then someone shone their spotlight onto something overhead and there it was, a Grass Owl metres from our heads, cruising over silently. It circled us once only, and then headed off over the treeline at the far edge of the field. We beat a hasty retreat, but everyone was satisfied and we had all had great views of this elusive bird.

Total birds to date: 171

Photo 1: Mangrove Gerygone, Thornside
Photo 2: Manly Wader Roost
Photo 3: Striated Heron, Manly Wader Roost
Photo 4: Black-winged Stilt pair, Kedron Brook Wetlands

January 6th: Pectoral Sandpiper

Today Andrew Stafford and I visited the Lockyer Valley, ostensibly to see the Pectoral Sandpiper that was seen there last week, but also to get a headstart on the year of birding with some of the local specialties in that area. Our plan was to visit most of the local waterbodies, as this year has seen many places fill with water that have been dry for several years.

We began at Lake Dyer near Laidley, and were off to a cracking start with Plum-headed Finches and Red-backed Button-Quail along the edge of the dam, two very good species for the region. From Laidley we headed around the back of Gatton straight to the UQ campus, and Lake Galletly. This proved to be a great move, because we found not only the Blue-billed Ducks reported earlier in the week, but also a Little Grassbird that has been resident since last year, and a Lewin's Rail, a first for the site we are told. All three of these birds are very hard in SEQ, with Lewin's Rail being particularly difficult. Lake Galletly was also great for more common birds, such as Pink-eared Duck, Plumed Whistling-Duck and Magpie Goose, none of which are easy in Brisbane but all specialties of the Lockyer Valley.

Our next stop was Lake Apex, which was by and large quite disappointing. We added only Cattle and Intermediate Egrets to our day list, and were quite disappointed by the condition of the lakes. Similarly with Lake Clarendon, our next stop, which was surprisingly empty. With these two normally productive bodies of water being so disappointing, we moved on to Jahnke's Lagoon, the site of our Pectoral Sandpiper target. Fortunately, despite a shaky beginning we managed to pick our rare US vagrant out from the more regular Sharp-tailed Sandpipers that were in good numbers at the lagoon. We also had Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoos chasing each other through the air in front of us, and I heard a Rufous Songlark, though I didn't manage to find it despite the call coming from fairly close to us. From here we went to Seven Mile Lagoon, a wetland that has only had water since about February 2009, after being dry for about seven years. This used to be a famous local birding spot, with some great vagrant species having turned up in the area. This trip all we were able to add was a pair of Black-necked Storks, Australia's only stork and a fantastic bird to see on any day. We are investigating the land tenure situation, as Andrew assures me birders used to have access to the lagoon to walk around its edges, however an electric fence at the perimeter indicates that may no longer be the case.

On the way to our next stop, Atkinson Dam, we managed to very fortuitous sightings. The first was at a random farm dam by the road. We stopped because it looked good, and we're lucky we did, because there were a number of Hoary-headed Grebes on the water, a very rare species for the area. Then, just around the corner, we came across a family of Ground Cuckoo-Shrikes, one of the highly sought-after local specialties. Not only did we see these birds, we were able to photograph them from the car without disturbing them, and so got very close to them. Atkinson Dam itself was pretty slow, though it did have a Yellow-billed Spoonbill, a nice bird to find so early on, though not particularly unusual for the area.

Moving on from the Lockyer Valley area, we decided to head home via Mount Glorious and Lake Samsonvale. Mount Glorious is a beautiful sub-tropical rainforest habitat in the mountains north of Brisbane, and we managed to add a few rainforest specialists in a brief walk, including Green Catbird and Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove. Lake Samsonvale was also productive, with a quick walk in the grass flushing King Quail and Brown Quail (and a very large Red-bellied Black Snake!).

All up, we had a number of rare and difficult to find birds, and by the end of the day had heard and seen a whopping 149 species. My highlights for the day (and of course new for the year) were Plum-headed Finch, Red-backed Button-Quail, King Quail, Lewin's Rail and Pectoral Sandpiper.

Total birds to date: 144

Photo 1: Intermediate Egret, Lake Apex
Photo 2: Plum-headed Finch, Lake Dyer
Photo 3: Ground Cuckoo-Shrike, Lockyer Valley

January 5th: Cicadabird

Today I did a quick cycle around my old stomping ground in Mandalay near my house. This is an area I've been birding and keeping lists in for 7 years. Wow, that makes me feel a little older just saying it. I say this because, among the regular birds (including great little common birds like Red-backed and Variegated Fairy-Wrens, and Rainbow Bee-eaters), I had a bird that I've only seen in Mandalay once before. Cicadabird! This is a bird you hear nearly every day in summer here, but are nearly impossible to track down. In fact, I've still only SEEN one a handful of times (most recently prior to this in VICTORIA, a long way out of their normal range). And what a view, I had never seen one this well before, a male perched out in the open making its familiar buzzing call, like a cicada (which gives the species its name). Wow, a great piece of luck, and one that gives me my first difficult species of the year.

Total birds to date: 65

The Rules

Oh, so I probably need to lay down the rules I'm following for this challenge at some point. They're pretty simple, and basically mimic the rules I use for everyday birding. They are:

1. No using taped calls to bring birds in.
2. Only include birds actually seen (no heard only records).
3. Don't do anything deliberately that harms or causes distress to birds.

Those three get me by in day-to-day birding. The additional rule defines the area I can look for birds in. That simple is:

4. Birds can be found anywhere within 250km of my house.

With a caveat that it needs to be on this side of the QLD/NSW border on the southern boundary.

So there you have it, the rules of engagement as it were.

January 4th

So today was the day that I decided to go ahead with this challenge. I wanted to break in the real birding for the year at one of the several great local sites near me. Originally that was going to be Oxley Creek Common, one of the best birding spots in Brisbane (possibly THE best in my opinion). However incoming weather made a long, exposed walk a risky move. Instead I headed out to Gold Creek Reservoir, a rainforest and sclerophyll woodland walk in Brookfield. My main target here was White-eared Monarch, a bird I thoroughly failed to find. Didn't even hear! Despite this disappointment, I did have an enjoyable walk, with a couple of nice species, though nothing particularly hard to find. Highlights of the morning were a White-bellied Sea Eagle circling high over the dam, and a Spectacled Monarch and Little Shrike-Thrush skulking by the roadside. Wonga Pigeon by the side of the road and White-headed Pigeon flying overhead were also nice gets. I nearly saw an Azure Kingfisher (I heard it call as it streaked past behind me), but I'm comfortable I'll get that species easily and soon. I also spent some time looking for Bush Hen and a calling Cicadabird, but missed both.

Total birds to date: 49

January 1st

After a fun New Years Eve (and before the conception of this project), I managed to stumble up Mt Coot-tha to take in the first sunrise of the year... along with about a hundred other people. The sunrise was nice, but nothing special, and that basically summed up my day. Actually, apart from driving around at dawn and a brief 20 minute walk afterwards, I basically slept the whole day. My first bird for the year was: Australian Magpie! I know, total letdown right? BUT. Even though they are common as, and not particularly pretty, and often villified for their nasty habit of swooping and pecking people in nesting season, I actually really love the humble Aussie Magpie. They have one of the most beautiful, iconic songs in the Australian Bush. Some of my happiest memories as a child are waking up at my grandparents' house in Ballandean (which I'll visit this year as part of the challenge - looking for Chestnut-rumped Heathwrens) and hearing the caroling, warbling song of the magpie ringing out at dawn. So even though they aren't terribly exciting, and I could see them every day of the year if I wanted, there was actually something almost poetic about this being my first bird for the year - a true symbol of the bush, right in our own backyard.

Total birds to date: 24

A Big Year

So I'm not big on New Years resolutions. Sometimes, a month or two into a year, I realise I've started doing something good, and try and claim it as a resolution, but really, I'm normally pretty content without our concept of when the year starts making me feel like I should improve myself. This year, however, I've decided to do something a little different. Back in 2007 I had a big year of birdwatching around Australia. Without trying too hard, I managed to get to over 500 birds for the country (ok, so I did go to Cape York and a few other places to pad out that total). It was fun. Then I got a little distracted with other things, and birding kind of fell by the wayside for 2008. This year past, 2009 was a bit better. I got out to corner country (twice), up to Darwin, and even ventured to do some overseas birdwatching in the USA and Borneo (amazing!!!). This year, I can't really afford the time or cost of travel internationally, or even interstate, but I do want to do something that will reignite the passion that I have for birding, and for the great place that is Austraila. I also came to realise that for all my traveling around, I haven't spent a lot of time exploring the many amazing spots to go birdwatching in my own backyard. I mean, there's even a major migratory shorebird roost at Toorbul that I've never been to! So this year, I'm having a year at home. A big year. I've been through the list, done my sums, and thought long and hard about what I think I can see, and where. The short of it is I am aiming to see 350 species of birds within 250km of home. I think it can be done.

This blog is (hopefully) going to be made up of posts of the many wonderful birds I see on this adventure, as well as (likely) a few missed opportunities and frustrations along the way. I'll hopefully drag a few birding mates kicking and screaming along with me for the ride, and hopefully I can convince them to weigh in here with their stories too.

In the words of the late Big Kev "I'm excited!".