Hunting Lyrebird music
We set off early to catch the song of the Lyrebird at Yarriabini Mountain.
It was 3 degrees C and the landscape flowed with mist.
We heard the song, but only a single male and not close, but still exhilarating. We were here some years ago and a male gave a concert from just metres away.
‘For about six weeks, males sing intensely from dawn to dusk. You might hear them at other times of the year, especially if it’s raining, but winter is when their vocal chords get a real workout. The males build several mounds on the ground, and use these as a stage to put on their extraordinary vocal and visual displays.’ See Abbie Thomas, ‘Winter call of the lyrebirds’, ABC Science https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2011/08/04/3284076.htm
This mountain Yarriabini translates to “Koala rolling” in Gumbaynggirr. is part of an important cultural Koala Dreaming story and very significant to the Dunghutti, Ngambaa and Gumbaynggirr Artists, Richard Campbell and Sharon Smith.
For a visit a year earlier, see July 3 2020
The Hoop Pines are festooned with epiphytes, the rainforest this early is dim, cold, a light drumming from water droplets tumbling down onto leaves below. The towering giants, Carabeens, Booyongs and Brush Boxes are in many cases being slowly strangled.
Then it was off to Scott’s Head for breakfast. Very quiet on the water, and this time no Gannets diving in between the surfers. A Gannet was diving, a bevy of Crested Terns were resting and a couple of straggling whales were blowing the horizon.
This much beauty is important. Yet our bias toward the visual means that the natural environments that have been conserved is because they are considered beautiful, not for ecological reasons, thus wetlands have been ignored.
