Week 1 + 2 of the big year

The big year has begun


This year i have decided to attempt the infamous big year, inspired partly by the awesome Owen Wilson / Jack Black / Steve Martin movie, but mostly as a really good excuse to get out and see some new places. With our push into robotics the amount of field work we get to do has been less than would be ideal, for a biologist like myself whose main training has been out in the field.
But the year started with a bang. With the Help of Taylor Dick (UQ) I managed to see 50 species in the first two weeks.
Week 1 was helped by a trip to Oxley Common. Taylor and I were crook from a flu we had picked up in the cold wasteland that is canada (no offence canadians). I was feeling so weak that i didn't bother bring along the DSLR camera to get any good photos. Could barely carry the bird field guide. BUt lucky we did. The highlights were the red-backed fairy wren, and the superb fairy wren.



numbernamesiteweek
92pelicanStrathpine1
323Crested pigeonOxley Common1
526Noisy minerOxley Common1
685Australian MagpieOxley Common1
636Willie WagtailOxley Common1
453Red backed fairy wrenOxley Common1
446Superb fairy wrenOxley Common1
564Brown honeyeaterOxley Common1
730Red browed finchOxley Common1
723Double bar finchOxley Common1
754Common MynaOxley Common1
8Brown QuailOxley Common1
693Torresian CrowOxley Common1
228Masked lapwingOxley Common1

Week 2 was much more successful. This time we managed a trip to the Enoggera Dam. I finally took the DSLR out and got some great shots. The bird of the week was the comb creasted jacana! 

Comb crested Jacana












Australasian Grebe























leaden flycatcher 


















little shrike-thrush














grey shrike-thrush














Fan-tailed Cuckoo



129Australian wood duckLandsborough2
166Australian white ibisToowong2
698welcome swallowLandsborough2
420laughing KookaburraLandsborough2
522Blue faced honey eaterBeerwah2
344rainbow lorikeetglasshouse mountains2
113Black Swanlake Kawana2
154cattle egretSippy Downs2
649magpie larklake kawana2
153White faced Heronlake Kawana2
148purple swamphensippy downs2
167straw necked ibissippy downs2
149Eurasian cootsippy downs2
147dusky moorhensippy downs2
156little egretsippy downs2
341sulphur crested cockatoosippy downs2
120pacific black ducksippy downs2
312rock dovelake Kawana2
720house sparrowlake Kawana2
106little pied cormorantsippy downs2
111Australasian Grebe (728)enogerra reservoir2
638leaden flycatcher (674)enogerra reservoir2
620little shrike-thrush (715)enogerra reservoir2
108little black Cormorant (738)enogerra reservoir2
103Darter (739)enogerra reservoir2
623grey shrike-thrush (754)enogerra reservoir2
674varied triller (758)enogerra reservoir2
128hard head (white eyed duck) (691)enogerra reservoir2
645Spectacled monarch (756)enogerra reservoir2
222Comb creseted Jacana (659)enogerra reservoir2
605Eastern yellow robin (760)enogerra reservoir2
386Fan-tailed Cuckoo (767)enogerra reservoir2
529Lewin's honeyeater (782)enogerra reservoir2
586Eastern whip birdenogerra reservoir2
157Intermediate egretenogerra reservoir2
6Brush turkey enogerra reservoir2






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