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Message: <blockquote data-quote="podargus" data-source="post: 2935466" data-attributes="member: 109359">24/10/11As buses stop quite early, I walked up to Mt Coot-tha to do a bit of spot lighting in the evening. I hung out in the JC Slaughter Falls car park, and was eventually put off by some dodgy looking cars showing up around 9pm, and then rapidly speeding off when they saw me... I heard both Southern Boobook and White-throated Nightjar (although I didn’t know it at the time – I was expecting a call vaguely similar to European Nightjars, but they sounded more like Kookaburras) which would’ve been new species, and I did have very good views of a couple of Tawny Frogmouths. There were a few Common Brushtail Possums around too, and on the walk back through town I saw a Common Ringtail Possum working its way along a telephone wire.29/10/11I bit of twitching took me to a new spot, Minippi Parklands. There are a couple of large lakes here, as well as a nicely vegetated creek. It’s possible to get reasonably close by bus, but it still requires a bit of walking to get to the site.Along the entrance road there was a Forest Kingfisher, and on the Lakes there were a couple of Comb-crested Jacanas among the usual waterbirds. I could hear an Australian Koel calling from some dense scrub, but I didn’t get to see it despite waiting around for a while. I’d been hearing them quite frequently in Brisbane over the previous few weeks, but they were invariably calling from cover in people’s front gardens, which meant I couldn’t really stake them out without looking suspicious! Other summer visitors included Channel-billed Cuckoo and Dollarbird and I also found an Eastern Blue-tongue basking by a patch of long grass.Getting back to the lake I started looking for my main targets, and after hearing a sharp ticking noise coming from the grass at the water’s edge I got very good, although fairly brief views of a Spotless Crake. Shortly afterwards there was another individual further along the same bank, and then my second target appeared, as a Baillon’s Crake wandered out from the bank over some water lilies. The Baillon’s Crake continued walking towards me until it was actually underneath the viewing platform that I was sat on, a really nice little bird. 02/11/11A visit to Oxley Creek Common brought me my first Painted Button-quail.There was also an Eastern Osprey fishing over the lake, giving excellent views. This apparently upset one of the local White-bellied Sea Eagles, which appeared from nowhere to launch itself at the Osprey before chasing it around for a while. The Eagle was easily outmanoeuvred though, so eventually got bored and left.Birds242. Spotless Crake243. Baillon’s Crake244. Painted Button-quailMammals19. Common Ringtail Possum</blockquote>

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