With a few meetings cancelled today, I decided to get up early, work like crazy all morning and then head out birding at lunchtime. I probably should have gone to Tinchi Tamba (chance of Black Falcon and Little Eagle), but instead I went to Shelley Road Park. Winter is fast approaching, and it is time to be looking for overshooting migrants from the south (robins, swift parrots etc) and stragglers from the drier country out west. I’ve been looking forward to this period all year, and although I didn’t discover any rarities, I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon on the western frontier of the city.

I was fortunate to “discover” Shelley Road Park from a birding perspective a couple of years ago. It has already turned up some great birds and is becoming a regular feature on the Brisbane birding agenda. Today, as well as searching for rarities, I was keen to connect with one of the Little Eagles that had been repeatedly seen here over the past month or so. To this end, I spent much of my four hours there with my eyes glued to the sky, and preferring to stay in open country where I had a good view of the sky.

I wasn’t disappointed, with a veritable cornucopia of amazing raptors – EIGHT species, with the highlights being both Swamp and Spotted Harriers, a Square-tailed Kite and a pale phase Little Eagle. I had to work pretty hard for this lot, with long periods of waiting between raptor flyovers, but the strategy of focusing on the sky had well and truly paid off – several of the birds I only found because I was actively scanning the sky with binoculars, i.e. they were too far to easily pick up with the naked eye. It was a lovely sunny afternoon with scattered cloud – good weather for raptors to be up, and a truly magical birding occasion.

With one year tick today my year list edged up to 269 species. I spent 4 hours 10 minutes birding, walked 4.393 km and drove 156.7 km. My chronological year list is here.

I couldn’t get pics of the Little Eagle or Spotted Harrier, but the Square-tailed Kite obliged – what a beauty!

Square-tailed Kite records generally increase through the year, presumably associated with breeding time, when the birds become more obvious. There is curious peak in May, to which my record today will contribute.