With family commitments I only had a couple of hours in the early morning, so I had to decide whether to go for the Asian Dowitcher, which has been roosting over high tide with Bar-tailed Godwits at the Port of Brisbane Shorebird Roost, or the Musk Duck, which has been at Dowse Lagoon since it was found by Chris Attewell on 13 July 2017. I decided on the latter because the dowitcher seems very well settled with the godwit flock and this is usually a time of year when shorebirds don’t move around much in Moreton Bay. The dowitcher would have to wait until tomorrow, when I will be able to visit over high tide.

I started the morning at Luggage Point, but was dismayed to see that about half of the site has now been destroyed by the building works for the new cruise ship terminal. I looked out over the river and carefully checked through the Whiskered Terns and assorted shorebirds, but could turn up nothing out of the ordinary. After about an hour I moved on to Dowse Lagoon and after much searching eventually connected with the Musk Duck after it was located by another birder at the site. It put on a good show feeding actively in the south-west corner of the lagoon. A Latham’s Snipe there was nice too – they’ve been a little scarce around Brisbane in the last few years.

My year list at the end of the day was 116 species. I spent 2 hours 39 minutes birding, walked 1.869 km and drove 77.6 km.

Luggage Point – great birding site being replaced with a ferry terminal