Today was my last full day at O'Reilly's before I head north. This means it was my last chance to find a couple birds that I have yet to see, namely the Albert's Lyrebird, an endemic to a very small region in southern Queensland. I had talked to several different people who had seen birds along the Border Track, and even thoughI have spent quite a bit of time in this area, I decided I would give it one last shot. I spent nearly the entire morning along the border track and while I did get another shot at photographing a Southern Logrunner, this time getting better but still not great photos, and other birds like Wonga Pigeons, I was without a single Lyrebird, again.
I spent the early afternoon organizing my car, drying out some of my wet clothes, and basically getting ready for travel. Since I haven't been on the road, everything was a bit disorganized so that took a while but was nice to have done. After finishing up that, I headed back to the Border Track with two destinations in mind where lyrebirds had been seen by others that morning. Sure enough, within about the first 500m of the track, I could hear a bird scratching in the leaf litter and after a few minutes I spotted the lyrebird, just down the hill from me. Like the logrunner, it was difficult to photograph because of the chaose of the environment and the wariness of the bird, but I did manage to get fairly close and captured a few frames that showed the bird fairly well. The above images is my favorite from the series. While the entire bird was never unobscured by underbrush, I was pleased to show the bird scratching and have a relatively clear view of its face. Iwas amazed at how much richer brown it was compared to the Superb Lyrebird of farther south. After this bird wandered into a denser thicket and on to parts unknown, I headed on to the second spot where Isaw a second bird quickly scamper across the path and shortly after that heard a bird singing its wonderful song. It may have taken 5 days, but finally I was able to see two birds, photograph one of them, and hear a third bird displaying. It was worth the wait.
Tomorrow, I am set to leave and head into Brisbane to get a lens fixed and finish outfitting before heading north to head up the Cape.
|
