Against my own better judgement, I had another go for Black Bittern this morning. This time I went out earlier, arriving at Sandy Camp Road Wetlands at 0415, about 2 hours before dawn. I wanted to wander around the site well before sunrise and try to find a Black Bittern out feeding. No such luck – the best bird was a nice Tawny Frogmouth. Just before dawn I bumped into Michael Daley, and we arranged to cover different spots as the sun rose. I had a Lewin’s Rail calling briefly along the southern edge of bittern lagoon, but neither of us had sight nor sound of Black Bittern. Another crushing defeat – I think is my 12th dip on this species this year!

I had to be home early, so I left site around 0630. I was due to take the kids swimming, but a visitor was running late so I stayed behind. After the visitor had gone, I realised I had a spare 90 minutes, and decided to go and look for the Little Grassbirds that have been seen recently at Swan Lake, Port of Brisbane. 20 minutes later I was there, and skirting around the northern shore of the lake, I got into a position where I could view the small patch of juncus, and pished gently. Two birds appeared almost immediately at the edge of the juncus patch, and I even got a passable photo. This is a “birder’s bird” really – brown, skulking and quite rare in this part of its geographic range.

I was never really worried about missing this species, but it felt good to have it in the bag. There are only three active sites for the species at the moment, and it was good to have one less species to worry about. The little patch of trees at the east end of the lake looks really good, and there was a lot of bird activity in a small area. Worth keeping an eye on this spot I reckon – it has the feeling of a place where a rare honeyeater could show up. A quick check of the shorebird roost revealed nothing particularly noteworthy, and I headed home satisfied.

With one year tick today (Little Grassbird), my year list rose to 261 species. I spent 3 hours 2 minutes birding, walked 3.42 km and drove 78.9 km.

Little Grassbird at Swan Lake, Port of Brisbane this afternoon. Showing black streaks in a crown that shows no rufous colouration, and distinct breast streaking.

Little Grassbird records show peaks in May and Sep/Oct, but these could be spurious as the overall number of records is rather low. It is unclear to me whether Brisbane birds are involved in any migratory movements.