Three Rainbows and no rain....

....how is that possible I hear you cry well read on!
A superb mornings birding today at Holmes Jungle. I was a bit unsure as to what to expect today after the weekends fires at Shoal Bay Rubbish Dump which over looks the reserve but even I was not expecting the extent to which the area had been affected. Probably 70% of the swamp and its adjacent grassland had been flash burnt (which meant there were no quails or buttonquails around my target for the day) and it had extended into the forest itself.

parts of which were still smoldering!
I walked through the swamp first before it got too hot. I knew that there had been a bit of an arrival of Brolga from an e-mail the previous week but I was not expecting there to be over two hundred of them dancing and calling away. I crept through the juncus and managed to get some great views but as I had not taken the digiscoping kit I was only able to get these poor photos of a few birds in flight (although it does show the extent of the burning)

Pictures can never do cranes justice in my opinion as the noise is one of their greatest features. Whilst creeping through the swamp I was surrounded by birds - golden headed cisticola, australian pipit, horsfields bushlark and double barred finches all presumably pushed out of the burnt grasslands into the centre of the swamp.
Any areas of water had a few passage waders such as greenshank and common sandpiper

whilst watching these three a white-browed crake wandered along the far edge before vanishing back into the vegetation.
Having got myself plastered in mud up to the knees decided it was time to go for a short walk round the forest to see what was around although given the extent of the burn was not expecting too much. It was a pleasant surprise then when the first bird I flushed as a Rainbow Pitta. I have seen them here before but I was not expecting to do so today as they are very elusive at this site normally. I carried on through a more open area and saw two Rainbow Lorikeets drinking from a hole in a tree - I had seen several flying over already today but I don't usually get the chance to take any half decent photos but these two were far more obliging..

There was not much else showing although on the way back to the car I watched this group of Red-tailed Black Cockatoo feeding in a recently burnt area

In the car park there were the ubiquitous Rainbow Bee-eaters hunting from the trees making it a three Rainbow day with no rain!
As the tide was dropping and as I had completed the housework yesterday I went to Buffalo Creek to have yet another attempt at seeing Chestnut Rail. This secretive rail lives in the dense mangrove swamps and is most easily seen on a falling tide first thing in the morning - well the tide was falling and it was still morning but only just. I was not expecting to have any luck having sat on the boat ramp many times to no avail, but today was my lucky day and within twenty minutes one was feeding on the other side of the creek. I was so surprised that I dropped my digi camera in the excitement, luckily there was no damage but with the poor light conditions the photos are not good!!

You can just about make out the yellow bill and chestnut body on this one!