I had planned to go to Gold Creek Reservoir to look for Black Bittern and Emeland Dove this morning, but following Mike Bennett’s excellent find of two Yellow Thornbills at Oxley Creek Common yesterday afternoon, I changed my mind and decided to go there and look for the thornbills. It wasn’t clear exactly where the birds had been seen, so I arrived early (failing to find Grass Owl) and covered the entire area. There were lots of Brown Honeyeaters, but not a sniff of any Yellow Thornbills. Mike later told me the birds were near the second dip. I bumped into Chris Barnes, who had seen two mobile Black-necked Storks, but I didn’t get onto those either. All a bit miserable really, and I retired home, tail between my legs.

With no year ticks today, my year list remained on 269. I spent 3 hours 5 minutes birding, walked 5.94 km and drove 29.0 km. My chronological year list is here.