Tragically I slept through my alarm this morning – probably a cry for help from my ageing body. Shame turned to pain when I saw Matteo Grilli’s excellent list from Sandy Camp, where I was planning to go. Photos of Fork-tailed Swift, Black Bittern and Little Bronze-cuckoo!!! He also heard Lewin’s Rail, so that was four year ticks I could have got. Could’a, should’a, didn’t.

Still, after my musings on blue sky thinking, I had my bins round my neck and my eyes to the sky when we pulled into Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens car park heading to Jeannie Baker’s exhibition of art from her amazing children’s book Circle, about the migration of Bar-tailed Godwits. I saw a small group of swifts – the first one I looked at was a Fork-tailed – BINGO!!!!!!!! There turned out to be about 4 Fork-tailed with 2 White-throated Needletails. I was elated, as this can be a very tricky species. After we came out of the exhibition we grabbed morning tea at the cafe, and then amazingly I had another good flyover species, a White-necked Heron! Not a year tick, but a great bird to see nevertheless. Several other Brisbane birders had Fork-tailed Swifts today, clearly an influx. Very strong winds picked up in the afternoon. This convinced me to try Nudgee Beach in the morning, to see if any terns or other seabirds have taken shelter in northern Moreton Bay. Black Bittern etc at Sandy Camp could wait for later in the week.

My year list at the end of the day was 194 species. I spent 0 minutes birding (my botanic gardens list was incidental because I wasn’t focused on birding), walked 0 km and drove 0 km (all birding was incidental).