Much excitement today.
Today we paid the nest our third visit after leaving it alone for a few weeks.
We knew there was a bird in residence and we had guessed it was a Lyrebird. This time we were trying hard to be really quiet in the hope that we would get a close look at her.
A couple of weeks ago we tramped up to visit the nest and surprised her. She in turn surprised us because she let out a blood curdling scream and dashed into the scrub. All that was left behind was an echo in our ears, along with the impression of a streamlined dark bird with a tail as long as her body.
Naturally we didn't want to poke around her home without her permission so I stayed where I was and Frank crept up and peeped in. He saw no eggs, but the nest certainly looked as if it was being made ready for such an event. There was the beginnings of a layer of down from her body to help keep her egg warm.
Today’s excitement was due to us spotting the nest occupant peeking her head out to see what on earth was making the racket in her usually quiet peaceful neighbourhood.
Again she beat a hasty retreat though this time without so much as a peep, again I stayed where I was and Frank peeked in and quickly snapped a couple of photographs. He was pretty sure he had seen an egg and when we looked at the photographs we saw he was right. He had.
We were really, really excited. Lyrebirds are such shy beauties that we haven't seen many in our 20 years of residence. A couple on early morning horse rides, and two feathers once left behind in one of our gardens. We often heard them calling, at least we figured it was Lyrebirds by the different bird calls in quick succession we were treated to on our walks.
Her nest is constructed with largish sticks, bigger than twig size but not branches if that helps. It is quite large, about a metre across, placed carefully on an embankment. There is a lot of leaf litter on the forest floor which she has obviously scratched around in for food.
David Attenborough included a segment on Lyrebirds in one of his Wildlife programs. It shows the wonderful mimicry they are known for.
Further information.
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