20190414-MMPI0053 - Bribie Island
On Sunday14th April 2019 I travelled to the mainland side of Bribie Island, Queensland, Australia, a distance of around 75Km from Brisbane CBD. I visited two locations - Kakadu Beach at Banksia Beach, and Buckley's Hole at Bongaree. Kakadu Beach did not provide me with much that day, a pair of Pied Oystercatcher sleeping, a pair of Maned Ducks looking at possible nesting holes in a tall Eucalypt tree, and immature Pied Butcherbird and Australia Magpie posed nicely for me. Moving on to Buckley's Hole, I found the small lake right beside Pumicestone Passage to have a good array of waders but most were too far from the bird hide for good photos. A single Black Swan saved the day there, giving their usual "how beautiful am I?" look for the camera. A small Green Tree Snake cruised by me, giving the normal moment of panic when spying it out of the corner of my eye and instantly thinking it was one of the many species of deadly snakes I always try to avoid. Moving on to the beach behind the lake I managed some nice in flight shots of a Whistling Kite and some Tern species as they flew along the beach. I spent some time lying down on the wet sand for some reasonably close some static shots of Greater Crested Tern, Caspian Tern and Gull-billed Tern that were standing in a large group, trying to isolate individual birds. I missed photos of a beautiful Brahminy Kite that took flight as I moved closer, that was a big disappointment as I have only seen a couple and never been close to one. As I drove off in the car, another big disappointment as an Eastern Osprey flew past really close with a large fish (a few expletives may have escaped my mouth at that point). All in all a very enjoyable morning, nice light and lovely weather to be on the beach. One new species (Gull-billed Tern), as I haven't spent much time with shorebirds I improved on a few species. The young Magpie that let me lie down in the grass nearby and continued looking for food was really enjoyable for me, sometimes the younger birds have no fear of people and getting down to their level and close up is just wonderful.
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