Thanks John. The closest Superb Lyrebird records to Barmah State Park are:
* East: at the Eskdale Spur / Timber Reserve and near Lucyvale (both south of
the Hume Reservoir).
* South East: Mt Buffalo NP.
* South: Mt Samaria SP and Powers Lookout SR, near Mansfield; and sites between
Yea and Alexandra on the Goulburn River.
In terms of a dead bird floating down stream from further up the Murray,
anything is possible but extremely unlikely. Quite apart from the body
deteriorating (which they do very quickly) I'd suggest that the Hume Res
complex would stop it flowing down stream.
Considering that the identification was based on a few tail feathers, and some
associated feathers, I'd say that they probably belong to another species. For
instance an Emu, a waterfowl i.e. Freckled Duck, or even a large hawk or owl,
whose feathers look somewhat similar to Lyrebird feathers.
It's a pity they didn't take some photos, it would have been a very interesting
sighting. Good stuff.
Tim Dolby
-----Original Message-----
From: on behalf of John Boyce
Sent: Wed 6/11/2008 5:11 PM
To:
Cc:
Subject: Lyrebirds along the Murray
Yes I thought the record seemed highly unusual. They are pretty
confident on the identification and one of them has photographed many
lyrebirds before around Kinglake and the Dandenongs so is reasonably
sure of the ID. But it was not a live bird just tail feathers and some
associated other feathers so could have come from somewhere else I guess
and a you can never be sure of a second hand sighting. Unfortunately
they didn't take a picture so I can't confirm the ID.
John
wrote:
> John Boyce wrote:
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> Some friends just returned from a canoeing weekend along the Murray around
> Barmah and said that they had found a dead lyrebird by the river near one
> of their campsites. I was surprised to hear there were lyrebirds that far
> west along the Murray but some of the maps in my field guides suggest that
> they can maybe go even further. So are lyrebirds regularly reported in
> this area and has anyone seen them any further west along the Murray?
>
> John
> there is no lyrebird population anywhere near Barmah - they do not inhabit
> River Red Gum Forest. My guess is that the nearest populations would be in
> the Mt Samaria State Park or thereabouts, about 140 km to the south-east
> of Barmah on the north-western slopes of the Great Dividing Range. Along
> the Murray itself you would have to go upstream of Albury before finding
> lyrebirds.
>
> How sure are your friends of the identification? - hard to mistake a
> lyrebird, but its a very odd record.
> Peter Menkhorst
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