Brisbane

Asian House Gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus)

Well, what news of the weekend in Brisbane? How many new birds for the list? In short, none! What a disastrous trip it turned out to be! I've calmed down a bit now though and am starting to see the funny side to it all.

Rainy rainforest

It all started to go wrong on the flight north when I forgot to take my Swiss army card out of my wallet. Its true that I could have taken down an airliner with a 3 cm blade so I had to make the decision to lose the knife or check in my cabin baggage. I'm sadly attached to the wee knife so I checked in my bag only for the Virgin Blue baggage handlers to get into it and steal my sat nav and car adapter from deep inside. Virgin Blue staff at the airport in Brisbane were useless and helpfully suggested that both items could have just fallen out of the bag. Presumably by unzipping two compartments and climbing their way up from the bottom!

No joy in the rainforest canopy

Unfortunately all of my birding locations were programmed into it and so on arrival in Queensland, I promptly headed off north missing the appropriate national park by about 80 kms. Although we had a couple of nice walks in the rainforest of the D'Aguilar ranges, no new birds turned up.

Land Mullet (Egernia major)

A potentially deadly Eastern Small-eyed Snake (Cryptophis nigrescens)

On the second day we headed south of the city to Mount Tamborine and got into the jungle in time to experience Brisbane's wettest day for 100 years. Very wet, no birds. At least the motel had Fox Sports so I could settle down for a bit of Premier League footie in the evening. Not quite as the motel was promptly hit by lightning and as I recovered from the explosion, the telly sat there destroyed!

What could have been a Bush-hen was just a baby Turkey

Desperate times call for desperate measures and so there was nothing for it the next day but to go to a mangrove boardwalk in search of honeyeaters. I promised myself never to go to one again as they have no wildlife, they stink, and are usually infested with mozzies. Nothing's changed. A final search for Bush-hens in a city park and the Grass Owls by the airport also proved wet and fruitless. Time to get back to Sydney.

No joy in the mangrove swamp

No joy in the wetlands by the airport

In the middle of it all, Ricky got married though, and there were a few good critters about. Mount Tamborine is home to the huge Land Mullet and Emily also found a good snake which required prodding with a stick to make it look at the camera.

Major Skink (Egernia frerei)