Had a really relaxing couple of nights at Binna Burra – the kids totally loved it and it was a great way for them to experience the rainforest with relatively accessible tracks etc. We stayed in an apartment with an amazing view, and part of it was generously paid for by the wonderful members of our research lab at UQ, who kindly contributed to a voucher as a get-well present for me earlier in the year. A really touching gift from a brilliant group of people.

Yesterday, Steve Murray had gone on a commercial sightseeing tour to Moreton Island, and while the seawatching from the Cape was unproductive, he did see two different Brown Boobies from the ferry. This is a very rarely recorded species in Brisbane, with only four previous records in eBird. One bird, a juvenile, was just off Tangalooma, but the other, an adult, was not far off the Port of Brisbane. This latter bird made me think about going to Nudgee Beach to scope into the Bay and look for it maybe sometime next week. The other big highlight of yesterday was Rick Franks and Felicia Chan’s Black Falcon sighting at lunch time at Kedron Brook Wetlands. One or two Black Falcons had been around for weeks now, but very mobile and seen only briefly every time – just not twitchable. Very frustrating for me, but also good to know the birds are still around and that a chance of connecting still remains.

We arrived back at home about lunchtime, and almost immediately Michael Daley put his list from this morning onto eBird – a couple of Black Falcons circling over Sandy Camp Road Wetlands and drifting off towards Lytton. This was too much – the first record of the itinerant falcons south of the river, and I had to act on this. I decided to go to Kedron Brook Wetlands, reasoning that the birds had been seen there a couple of times and it would be wiser to be there than at either of the extremities of their sightings so far (Tinchi Tamba and Sandy Camp). I arrived at Kedron at 1420 and spent an enjoyable 45 minutes watching from the yellow gate, but no sign of any Black Falcons. I decided to bolt to Nudgee Beach to have 20 minutes’ scoping into Moreton Bay to look for Brown Booby in the afternoon light, but no such luck and I was soon back at Kedron, where I bumped into Brad Woodworth and his partner Emma out for a spot of gentle birding. I disturbed their peace, charging about and stressing about falcons, but they gamely put up with my wittering on. Eventually they wandered into the grassland, and Louis Backstrom turned up – quite a party here today, and quite a few raptors put in an appearance (Australian Kite, Brahminy Kite, Whistling Kite, Nankeen Kestrel, White-bellied Sea-eagle, Swamp Harrier) but again no Black Falcons. Dusk was approaching, and the four of us gathered at the shrine of the Grass Owl and waited for nightfall. I was running out of time, and the bright sunset took ages to metamorphose into darkness. I eventually had to leave just before darkness fell, but there was to be no sign of any Grass Owl tonight.

As Louis pointed out, there have been relatively few recent records of Grass Owl here, and it is possible that the species has become erratic or maybe even disappeared from this location. There are 135 eBird records of this species in Brisbane, 127 of which are from Kedron, so at present it’s the only game in town. I wonder if there are other locations for this species in Brisbane? Parts of Boondall look good, for instance. Records at Kedron have been erratic over the years, but there were rather few records in 2016 and 2017, and only one so far in 2018. Rather concerning. Still, June and July are key months for this species, and so come on Brisbane – let’s put in a concerted effort and try to find these birds this winter!

With no year ticks today my year list remained on 268 species. I spent 2 hours 32 minutes birding, walked 1.5 km and drove 45.7 km. My chronological year list is here.

Grass Owl reporting rate by month – winter is a good time to look for this species.

Grass owl records have been erratic over the years, with rather few since 2015.