Birdwatching – 2020 – Nudgee Waterhole and Nudgee Beach -23rd Feb

After weeks of hot humid weather, eleven NPAQ members met on an overcast cool day for our month’s birding. We were greeted by a glass top lagoon with beautiful reflections of the trees and vegetation from the opposite bank. Flowering water lilies were spread around the lagoon. Numerous large turtles clambered around the observation platform for a food handout. The boardwalk across the swamp flat through the towering Melaleuca trees was full of water, different to the dryness of four weeks earlier. Birds were hard to observe in the high canopy until we walked out into the nearby bushland. The variety of birds kept everyone occupied. A special interest was a Mudlark in its nest out on a high lonely limb. This little piece of paradise so close to the rushing traffic along the Gateway Motorway. 24 birds sighted and 2 heard.

We moved down to Nudgee Beach for morning tea followed by a walk around Nudgee Beach Wetland Boardwalk. This was just after the top of a very high tide which had forced a fox to higher ground. As the tide retreated the fox darted from its hide back into the dense mangrove covers. 15 bush birds sighted; wader birds not recorded.