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