Well, I just finished eating a bowl of Ramen noodles and drinking a coke under a nearly full moon while sitting on a beach, just inches from the Pacific Ocean. While maybe not the culinary experience most are looking for, the setting was hard to beat. As you might guess, I have escaped Brisbane and I am now up along the coast farther north at Inskip Point. Inskip's claim to fame is that it is the point where you get the barge to Frasier Island, the largest sand island in the world. In the birding world, it is a good place to see the elusive Black-breasted Button-quail. As you may guess, I am here for the quail and not Frasier, though I would love to visit Frasier and may try and get over there on my way back south next month.
I had a productive morning down in Brisbane where I was able to drop off my broken lens, do laundry, buy the rest of the required gear for the vehicle in case I get stuck, buy groceries, have a cup of coffee and a danish and pick up my fixed lens by 2:00. While the camera company could not honor the U.S. Warranty, they were able to fix the lens in about 6 hours and I was grateful for that. If anyone is ever in S.E. Queensland and need a camera fixed, Irecommend Anderson Camera Repairs in Capalaba, just southeast of Brisbane.
On my way out of town I stopped at a wetland park that I knew nothing about and ended up picking up several new species and finally hitting species #200, a Rainbow Bee-eater. It was quite windy and the birds were fairly distant but I did manage to stumble across a pair of Chestnut Teals in a small pond by the carpark and while I was positioning myself to get a better photo, I spooked a Buff-banded Rail which ran to a different corner of the pond but not before I snapped a single image. I figured I would post it, not because it is an endemic (it isn't), but because it is a bird from one of my favorite families, Rallidae. Tough birds to see, much less photograph so this was quite a surprise.
Anyway, with all my gear working and finally all my equipment purchased, I am now back on the road, working north towards Kingfisher Park and then on to Cape York. At the moment I don't have any firm plans as I am just taking it easy and working north. As of the now Ihave about 1,500 km to Cairns and then a bit more after that to Kingfisher Park and the Mt. Lewis area. Ithink I will probably arrive up there late this weekend or early next week
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