Every now and then we have a report of ‘great
views’ of some crake or rail at ‘Norgrove Park’ and the cry
goes up ‘Where is Norgrove Park?’. It is easier to say WHERE
Norgrove Park is [see ‘Village Cmn’ Yellow Pages map 69 N2] than to say WHAT it is. It is an open space
(perhaps not actually the claimed ‘common’) for the residents of
the burgeoning apartment complexes in the
area, and also a sieve for the large number of plastic bottles etc that would otherwise come down with the storm
water at that point into Lake Burley Griffin. The lush marshy plantings
have attracted quite a bit of bird life to the area. Over the last year
the veg has got a lot taller and denser, and soon walkers on the pedestrian
bridges will not see much except veg. However the dense plantings verge
on well-tended lawns, a sign (among many others) warning (one wonders whom) that ‘the
sprinklers are activated at 2am’. So the early morning lawn-walker will probably still be able to see the odd crake or rail having
a skulk at what I think, but am not quite sure, is called by the serious biologist the ‘ecotone’.
In other places crakes and rails can be surprisingly confiding around human
activity, so who knows what might turn up there over time, given the predictable
stream of observers. The cryptic Painted
Snipe might be in there somewhere. See if you can find it.
