Lockyer Valley Visit

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gileas
Posts: 81
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2010 10:31 pm
Location: Brisbane, QLD
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Lockyer Valley Visit

Post by gileas »

Hi all, I had a busy couple of days this weekend, with a whirlwind visit to the Lockyer Valley, plus a Southport Pelagic to try and wrap up some winter species.

Lockyer Valley was a great morning. Andrew Stafford and I started at Highfields to get him the Powerful Owl (which I already had in my backyard earlier in the year!). Fortunately, armed with Rod's great directions, we found one high up in an acacia over the lantana by the creek. We couldn't see it coming down the hill, so thought we'd missed it until we started heading back to the car. At that point it stood out against the sky as a massive black silhouette. We also had an Owlet Nightjar calling, plus a pair of Crested Shrike-tits were a highlight. Musk and Little Lorikeets were common and vocal in the surrounding forest.

A quick visit to the Helidon Spa netted a slight surprise for me. There were a pair of Mallards at the ponds, one of which was a wild-type male, complete with green head, yellow bill, and curly tail. I've agonised over where/how I would go about finding one of these for the year, but I think this bird was within the bounds of what I'd be willing to add to the list.

From there we headed out to Lake Apex, which was extremely disappointing. Not sure if the management practices are deliberately making the area poor for birds, but the lake is a shadow of its former glory. Next we hit up some bush birding sites in the area, but added nothing of substance to the day's list, except Jacky Winters at the closest distance to Brisbane either of us had seen them.

At Lake Clarendon we tried once again for Blue-winged Kookaburra, and once again failed. These birds are rapidly becoming a bit of a bogey for me, so I'd love to hear about sightings people have as I may even nip out on short notice to grab one for the year. Clarendon did produce a pair of Black Falcons, a pair of Brown Falcons, and a pair of Black Kites. Only the Black Falcons were new for the year, but it was great to finally have some good raptors in the Lockyer after a slow start to the year.

With our Lockyer trip over, I had one final place to check for the day. I ducked out to Daisy Hill to once again check the Square-tailed Kite nest for activity. Fortunately for me, the pair were finally in attendance, and I managed to tick these amazing raptors for the year! Also in attendance were about 200 Musk Lorikeets roosting for the evening!

Regards,
Chris
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