• lab28
Dec 17: Sitting on the dock o’ the Bay, wasting time
 

With ex tropical cyclone Owen still causing showers and strong easterly winds, I felt duty-bound to get out and about again this morning. I needed to be back at 0700, so awoke early at 0345 and headed up to Shorncliffe Pier, from which I watched out into the Bay. The winds had eased a little, and I wasn’t super hopeful. Unfortunately my pessimism was well-founded and nothing especially rare showed up, even with a fishing boat offshore that was attracting fair numbers of Silver Gulls (eBird list here).

The most galling thing about this is that Steve Murray and Ged Tranter came along in the afternoon and had a Short-tailed Shearwater just off the end of the pier! Still, at least that wasn’t a year tick for me. Following my baywatch, I thought I’d pop in to the Brisbane Entertainment Centre Lagoons (eBird hotspot here)- a wander round produced Brush Cuckoo, Common Cicadabird and a few other bits and pieces (eBird checklist here). This is a spot worth checking every now and then, and seems be easily accessible in the early morning even though the signs say it opens at 0800. The lily-covered ponds look good for crakes, and Geoff Dennis had a couple of Cotton Pygmy-goose here on 19 Aug this year.

After working until early afternoon, I popped out again to GJ Fuller Oval Lagoon to see if yesterday’s Long-toed Stint was still around. No sign of it, but rain and / or the tides had raised the water level dramatically – there were no Sharpies or stints there at all (eBird list here). I moved onto Kianawah Rd Wetlands just to see if any of the stints were there, but no luck (eBird list here). I gave up for the day.

With no year ticks today, my year list remained on 305 species. I spent 2 hours 10 minutes birding, walked 1.474 km and drove 83.4 km. My chronological year list is here.