The Bush-hen began calling this-evening around 6.10pm. Michael Atzeni and
his son Ged arrived shortly after and we followed the call until we were
standing on the creekbank, opposite the source of the call, but the bird was
of course hidden.
While we scanned the vegetation, it switched briefly to a new raucous yell,
which we later found replicated on the BOC tape labeled as its territorial
call. Fingers crossed!
Lots of scanning for a couple of minutes, but not a glimmer of a bird in the
undergrowth. Then it appeared in the open on a bare strip of creekbank,
walking delicately along parallel to us. The views were so good, that to
describe what we saw would almost be to give an account of what you'll find
in the field guides. Suffice to say the bird was handsome, a soft
olive/brown with buffish undertail, and greenish-yellow bill & legs.
A short stroll of perhaps 30 seconds in the open, then it walked higher up
the bank and under cover again.
Our disappointment at losing sight of the Bush-hen was mitigated when we
realized a platypus was floating on the surface of the creek just in-between
us and the now disappeared rail - and when the platypus rolled under the
water and out of view, we were further compensated by an Azure Kingfisher
dropping onto an adjacent frond, before zooming away upstream.
Five fantastic minutes!
As we left, we scanned the creek in case the Bush-hen had reappeared further
along, only to find an immaculately nankeen and black-capped Rufous
Night-heron standing in the shallows closer to the house. A fantastic 10
minutes in fact!
Bill Jolly
"Abberton",
Lockyer Valley, Queensland.
Visit our website at http://www.abberton.org
Email:
Ph: (+61) 7 4697 6111 Fax: (+61) 7 4697 6056
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