• lab9
    • lab28
26 Jan 2020 – branching out
 

With the reservoir filling up (64.7% today), and all the muddy edges having disappeared, the potential for shorebirds appearing is declining markedly. It’s going to be a bit boring when the level is rising, and better birding when the level is dropping I guess. I thus decided today to explore some of the woodlands along the western edge of the reservoir, where I could focus on exploring new areas without fear of missing out on shorebird action. But first, back to the big news of yesterday. Rick Franks called late morning to say that Felicia Chan had found a trio of GLOSSY BLACK-COCKATOOS on the patch!!! I raced down there, and within half an hour from the call was watching the birds calmly feeding on Casuarina fruits with a few metres of me, Felicia, Rick and Ged Tranter. It was a family party – a juvenile with an adult male and adult female.

Not only is this a brilliant species for the patch list, but it’s also a Brisbane lifer for me – the first time I have seen this species within the Brisbane Local Government Authority boundary. Nerdy I know, but there’s a few of us who watch this list, and the friendly competition is a bit of fun and keeps up our enthusiasm for local birding and bird-finding. There is only a sprinkling of Glossy Black-Cockatoo records in Brisbane, with most in the Mount Nebo / Mount Glorious area. The subcoastal woodlands around Redland have more regular records, and presumably these birds originate from this local population. Maybe they are regularly at Tingalpa, but haven’t been found before because of relatively poor birding coverage.

Fast forward to this morning, which began fairly quietly, although I did manage to flush a small buttonquail species, either Red-backed or Red-chested, which unfortunately flew quite distance and I couldn’t re-find it. Best birds were a Spotted Pardalote, a Forest Kingfisher and a singing White-winged Triller. Good birds to get under the belt. After finishing along the west side, I headed back to the Glossy Black-Cockatoos for another look, which was worth it as I got better sound recordings and photos.

With the addition of Glossy Black-Cockatoo (yesterday), Spotted Pardalote, Forest Kingfisher, White-winged Triller, Lewin’s Honeyeater and Australasian Figbird, my patch year list rose to 129 species.

eBird lists:

PlaceDistanceTimeSpp
Mt Gravatt-Capalaba Rd5.58 km232 min66
JC Trotter1.27 km33 min8
TOTAL6.85 km4 h 25 min68
One of the three Glossy Black-Cockatoos. I think this is an adult male on the basis of well developed crest, strongly red tail panels, no yellow spotting on head or breast. But the tail panels are barred, which is a little confusing – perhaps this is a young-ish male bird?
Several groups of termites were doing renovations to their mounds. I’ve never seen this happening before – very cool!
Close up of the hard-working little chappies. I think these are Nasutitermes sp, but not sure yet.
Several of these were landing on the sand by the water’s edge, then nervously taking off again before landing back at the same spot. Not really sure what they are (perhaps a ground beetle?), but certainly cracking little things! UPDATE: This is certainly a ground beetle, in fact Myriochila semicincta – it seems to be endemic to Australia, and perhaps Papua New Guinea. See record on iNaturalist here.
The 580 records of Myriochila semicincta on GBIF are scattered across Australia, and there is one stray record from the far SE of Papua New Guinea.