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Message: <blockquote data-quote="podargus" data-source="post: 2935510" data-attributes="member: 109359">04/11/11 – wild Pygmy-goose chaseI got a bus over to the uni’s Gatton campus which is about an hour inland in the Lockyer Valley. Although it’s close to Brisbane, there are a number of species here which are rare or absent from the coastal areas.Gatton also has a couple of good lakes, with a completely different suite of species to the St Lucia campus. Plumed Whistling-duck and Magpie Goose were common, and there were also a few Pink-eared Ducks as well as the scarce (particularly in Queensland) Blue-billed Duck. My first Little Grassbirds, along with some Superb Fairy-wrens, were in the scrub around the lake and there was a colony of Eastern Cattle Egrets in the trees here.Birds of prey were also fairly obvious, and as well as Brown Falcon, Nankeen Kestrel, Whistling Kite and Black-shouldered Kite I had very good views of a Black Falcon gliding low over my head – this is another scarce bird so it was very pleased to see it.After spending a bit of time on the campus, I decided to walk to Lake Clarendon in the hope of finding Cotton Pygmy-geese, which had been reported from there recently. The lake was a lot further away than I’d realised, and on reaching it I found that there weren’t any drinking fountains (at many Aussie sites there are), and as I was just about out of water I didn't get to spend too much time there before heading back towards campus. The perimeter of the lake was mainly fenced off too, so there was no opportunity to walk round and get closer to the birds. There were some big rafts of ducks out on the water, but they were very distant and there was a strong heat haze, which meant that picking out, and positively identifying, one of the smallest ducks in the world was not going to be possible. Whiskered Terns were nice to see though, and as I started walking back a couple of Cockatiels flew over. After walking for a while, a chap pulled over and kindly offered me a lift back near to the campus.Birds245. Plumed Whistling-duck246. Blue-billed Duck247. Little Grassbird248. Black Falcon</blockquote>

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