Leigh Wilson had an absolutely cracking male Red-chested Buttonquail yesterday in the car park at Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens! The bird was nonchalantly wandering along in the open by a flower bed outside the administration building!!! She had had the bird at 0700, and I simply couldn’t resist trying for it early this morning, even though my brain told me there were next to no chance.

I arrived in the car park at 0445 and immediately zeroed in on the spot where the bird had been seen, marvelling at how open and how close to areas of human activity the bird had been seen. I wandered around for a while, but I’ll be honest my heart wasn’t in it and I knew I was going to dip. Presently Louis Backstrom turned up, and we both desultorily finished checking the area not long after 0600, when I headed home.

Later in the afternoon, news broke that a Black Bittern has been seen again this morning at Sandy Camp Rd Wetlands – this is course a nemesis bird, having eluded me on 14 occasions so far this year! Will I try at dawn. At this point, I really don’t know…

With no year ticks today, my year list surged remained on 303 species. I spent 1 hours 32 minutes birding, walked 1.06 km and drove 39.6 km. My chronological year list is here.