Hello all,
Whilst driving on the tablelands some years ago,I pulled off the road in
response to the excited call from my son Nicholas, to the effect that there
was something odd peering out of the solid wall of green at the roadside.
The mystery creature was an adult Southern Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius)
which strided over to the car and coolly looked us over. He then noticed
this other bird in the side mirror and studied it intently for some minutes,
turning his head from side to side.
The next thing that caught his eye was a second bird watching him from the
hub cap to which he gave the same attention. By this time traffic was
building up behind us so I reluctantly decided to move off , but this bird
which seemed bigger than the small car we had, was taking this movement as a
sign of cowardice on the part of all these other birds and ran along beside
us pecking at the hubcaps.He kept it up for a couple of hundred metres and
it was only by carefully accelerating that I was able to get away.
The Ranger's wife at Lake Barrine later identified him as Henry, who
sometimes visited her garden and who was maybe a bit too familiar with
humans and should be treated with care.
Reg
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