ear 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 bir
ders 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
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