Owlet Nightjar

Today I got two text messages about rare birds in SEQ, but I could only follow up on one of them. I decided to chase an Oriental Cuckoo that had been reported in the Samsonvale area in north Brisbane. Andrew and I ducked out there in the afternoon with visions of Oriental Cuckoos dripping from the branches. Sadly, after a few hours of being shown around by local and top birder Tom Tarrant, we now knew just about every place in the area that was good to look for them, but hadn't actually found any. We did get some great views of White-throated Needletails, a large swift that migrates to Australia for summer. We also dipped on a few common things that we really should have got. We totally missed Forest Kingfisher (again), and Andrew managed not to see the elusive Cicadabird despite Tom and I seeing one, and several calling from near the road but not showing themselves.

Our saving grace for the day came from another local and great birder Roger McNeill, who has a B&B up in the foothills of Mt Glorious. Roger has an Owlet Nightjar that lives in a hollow outside his house that spends its days sunning itself. If on the off-chance it has ducked into its spacious hollow for a kip, it responds politely to a knock on the tree by poking its head out to see what the fuss is about. That was the theory a few weekends ago when Andrew and I came out to try and see the little blighter. Sadly that day we walked away frustrated, but to our relief, today we dashed in on sunset and our little Owlet Nightjar friend duly poked his head out of the hollow like the cutest little mupped you've ever seen. A new bird for the year, and one that neither Andrew nor I had a reliable spot for at the beginning of the year.

Total birds to date: 274