Lots going on at the moment, with up to 6 Barred Cuckooshrikes present at Gold Creek Reservoir on 22nd March, and two there the following day – this was all following Chris Burwell’s discovery and cracking photo of one on 3rd March. But Mat Gilfedder and Ben Hoffmann went yesterday and couldn’t locate any birds. I couldn’t go birding yesterday, but in the afternoon Rick Franks found a Cotton Pygmy-Goose at Dowse Lagoon. Cotton Pygmy-Goose is another one of those species that isn’t super rare, but it’s a winter visitor, and very erratic between years (e.g. didn’t show up at all in 2009 and 2010, and very few in 2016) and I was keen to connect as soon as the opportunity arose. I decided to try for the goose this morning in the brief time I had available reasoning that Mat and Ben would have given Gold Creek a thorough search yesterday and that in any case it would need longer than I could reasonably give it.

About 30 minutes into my search for the goose at Dowse Lagoon, I was beginning to regret this decision. I had opted to start the search from the platform at the end of Alexandra street on the west shore, reasoning that I’d be able to see most of the lily-covered areas from there. I searched and searched but couldn’t turn up the bird. In the end I gave up and moved to the platform along the southern shore of the lagoon, off Hoskins Street. Almost straight away I got onto a female Cotton Pygmy-Goose, and then a male popped up nearby – I was well pleased that not one, but two birds were still there! Later in the day, a number of other observers had three birds (two females and the male). Also notable there was 7 Plumed Whistling-Ducks.

In the afternoon I went with family over to North Stradbroke Island, which is of course in Redland City Council, beyond the Brisbane frontier. Didn’t have any birds of note, but enjoyed the day very much.

With one year tick today, my year list rose to 248 species. I spent 44 minutes birding in the Brisbane region, walked 0 km (stationary counts at Dowse) and drove 70.2 km.

Cotton Pygmy-Goose is a winter visitor to Brisbane, although there are at least a few records from all months, apart from March! This graph includes data from 2005 to 2017.

Cotton Pygmy-Goose is erratic from year-to-year, with good numbers in 2007 and 2013, but few in 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2016.