Last night I decided not to attempt the crossing today to Moreton Island. The weather forecast suggests continuous rain showers and overcast conditions all the way until the end of Saturday, and the wind is persistent from the SSE. So I phoned the ferry company this morning and booked a day trip for tomorrow, getting the 7am ferry from Pinkenba and returning on the last ferry, which leaves Tangalooma after the dolphin feeding, about 7.45pm.

Fortunately the resort had a 4WD available for rent, so I booked that, and they will be ready to hand over the vehicle when I arrive in the morning. Moreton Island is almost completely made of sand, the 3rd largest sand island in the world. This makes for some fun driving, but it should be reasonably OK given all the recent rain – the sand will be wetter and harder than usual. The king high tide (2.61 m) will be about 9.40 or so on the ocean beach, so I might be delayed driving up to the Cape, but I’ll see what conditions look like. I can sea watch from any point on the beach and it’ll probably be pretty good, so long as I gain a bit of height by getting into the dunes.

I tried Mookin-Bah again early this morning for Black Bittern, but nothing was moving in the miserable drizzle. I was a bit surprised as I though a murky, drizzly morning would be ideal for herons and crakes – I saw literally none of either. I then checked out the foreshore off Manly just in case there was a raft of wrecked seabirds. I saw literally no seabirds. I gave up and went home.

Short update today – I’m off to pack for a very wet day’s seawatching tomorrow.

With no year ticks today, my year list at the end of the day remained on 212 species. I spent 49 minutes birding, walked 1.889 km and drove 29.0 km.

For Broad Vegetation Type descriptions see here.

Moreton Island, labelled with Broad Vegetation Groups. The island is 37km from north to south. In case you are wondering: 9f is “Woodlands dominated by Corymbia spp. e.g.: C. intermedia (pink bloodwood), C. tessellaris (Moreton Bay ash) and/or Eucalyptus spp. such as E. tereticornis (blue gum), frequently with Banksia spp., Acacia spp. and Callitris columellaris (Bribie Island pine) on coastal dunes and beach ridges” and 29a is “Open heaths and dwarf open heaths on coastal dunefields, sandplains and headlands”

The ferry route between Pinkenba and Tangalooma looks to be safely in Brisbane LGA all along its length. I still haven’t got around to doing the GIS analysis to determine the border of Brisbane LGA in the sea.