Chifley Chronicle #14

Crimson Rosella at one of my feeders
August 2008

Not a lot happening this month. Several species of parrot have been visiting whenever I put out sufficient seed for them in the feeders! There is always a bunch of Sulphur-crested Cockatoo that spot a free feed almost immediately. Uncanny! They are dominant bullies by virtue of their bulk but otherwise I have a group of Crimson Rosella with splendid coloured adults and a group of young in transition plumage between the green of the immature and the full red and blue of the adult. Maybe these are a family party with late young from last season still associating with parents.

Crimson Rosella in transition plumage

A small band of about half a dozen Gang-gang call in some days, usually late in the afternoon. A pair of Eastern Rosella in spectacular plumage zip through hastily now and again. Their stay at the feeder is short. They rarely seem to hang about for long and appear to be more nervous than the Crimsons. Also regular at the feeders are several King Parrot - maybe up to a 8-10 individuals. Again, their plumage at this time is immaculate. A few Galah occasionally visit the feeders, although like most of the species mentioned so far they do visit other neighbouring gardens and Galah, especially, can be abundant at times ( I mean up to 50+!)only a couple of blocks away from my place.

Male Gang-gang

Female Gang-gang

Two Crested Pigeon seem to be nesting somewhere close by but I haven't discovered exactly where. I take it they are nesting because a bird is often calling from an elevated spot in my garden; usually high up in my Tulip Tree. Much the same could be said about Magpies; they are now chortling away before dawn which is a sure sign that breeding is underway but I have not yet spotted them nest building. I may have missed it and if so then I am not aware of where they have their nest. Mention of spotting, it seems that the Spotted Pardalote that was often so noisy last month has gone. At least I have not heard it of late. By the end of the month at least one White-eared Honeyeater was seen in the garden on several days. Passing through no doubt. As was the occasional Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike. Pied Currawong do not now seem to have a territory that includes my plot but on several days the typical wandering mob of noisy birds has been in the area or passing through the garden constantly calling "see-you" along with other typical flock calls. Red Wattlebirds must be nest building or about to do so because they are becoming more aggressive, calling a lot - including loud duetting and giving regular pre-dawn calls at least during this last week or so. Other notable species include the regular occurrence of some Weebills in the front garden area and a party of Superb Fairy-wrens that visit often. Laughing Kookaburra call nearby most mornings early in the day but have not visited for a while. That just about sums it up.
No Magpie-larks, Eastern Spinebills, Silvereyes or whistlers this month that I can recall and the Australian Ravens never put in appearances these days. It's a long time since I saw a Blackbird in the garden and none are singing at present. My last observation must have been back in June or possibly in early July. House Sparrow were often in the garden last month but again this species seems to have passed on. They often occurred in numbers up to 15-20 on some days, particularly in the back garden, but have apparently abandoned my place of late. It is a long time since I last saw White-winged Chough in the garden and Noisy Miner have not been seen of late despite being regular visitors a month or so ago whenever they did their rounds of the district. They would seem to relish a wash in the bird-bath whenever they came into D'Arcy Place. Indian Myna are now infrequently seen in the garden - no doubt because their numbers have been reduced locally by the concerted efforts of a Canberra based group dedicated to their eradication. The local anti-Myna brigade work under the title of CIMAG - Canberra Indian Myna Action Group and I believe they have removed more than 20 000 birds over the last two years! They have been trapping them in the belief that they can be eradicated from the city. The Indian Myna is viewed as an unwanted introduced species and therefore a pest. It is supposed to compete for nest holes with other less able native hole nesting species. In the bigger picture I am unsure of this claim and I am not sure their persecution has any useful ecological value in the long term. About as useful as trying to eradicate Common Starling by the same method. Starlings also use holes! All too late to have any real chance of success anyway and without doubt recolonization will follow any down turn in the local population. Indian Mynas are not being targeted nationally and are now so widespread that this approach is obviously doomed. It seems about as pointless as trying to eradicate European Rabbits also by trapping.

Some of the gang of thieves! Cocky Sulphur-crested Cockatoos

Grey Kangaroos and Flame Robins

Eastern Grey Kangaroo - at rest!

Male Flame Robin

Yankee Hat

Afternoon walk on August 24th 2008

A pleasant afternoon walk across the grasslands from the car park at Yankee Hat, Namadgi Nature Reserve, to as far as a liitle beyond the first hill after the Gudgenby river crossing. Mavis Russell was visiting from Nowra and we decided to go looking for some robins. so we drove down to the bottom of Namadgi Nature Reserve.

Eastern Grey Kangaroo

A chill light breeze was blowing from the north but it was calm on the southern sides of the ridges. It was a cool (ca 9C) but sunny afternoon. Large numbers of Eastern Grey Kangaroo were grazing with many of them close to the trail. We estimated at least 300 but quite possibly there might have been more. However, we saw no robins until a Flame Robin was spotted at the point where we had decided to turn back. A brilliant male but he appeared to be on the move and quickly disappeared northwards. A lone Spotted Pardalote called briefly from the somewhere at the top of the wooded hilltop just before we saw this Flame Robin but precious little else was seen or heard except for a large mob of Yellow-rumped Thornbills (ca 20) nearer to the Gudgenby and probably three bands of Superb Blue Wrens, with only one definite male although he was only just beginning to colour-up. Surprisingly, we did not come across any honeyeaters or Silvereyes. A few Little Raven (ca 10) were foraging about in the marshy area upstream from the boardwalk across the river but at least two Australian Raven were heard calling in the distance to the east and a pair of Brown Falcon were noisily displaying far to the south of this point as we began to saunter back to the car. A few Crinia signifera were calling near the slow moving stream that was the Gudgenby and most of the extensive wetland area upstrwam from the bridge still looked very dry and brown.

Little Raven

We were perhaps 300 m from the trail-head when we came across a whole lot of birds ! A large party of noisy Eastern Rosella was moving about from tree to tree on the skyline to the north and we spotted at least three Common Bronzewings together on the ground but probably 5 birds in total if two others seen flying a few moments earlier were not part of that group. Suddenly we saw a male Flame Robin not far in front of us close to the path but he too was soon passed us going northwards. almost immediately we then came upon another three males and at least three females but these birds seemed to be more interested in feeding and behaved more typically as they foraged on the sloes near the trail.

Female Flame Robins

More male Flame Robins

We also recorded a Laughing Kookaburra, one or two Pied Currawong, a similar number of Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, a dozen or so Australian Magpies, a few Common Starling, a single Australian Pipit and a splendid party of 10-15 Diamond Firetail finches first noticed when feeding on the pathway a short way ahead of us. An enjoyable and rewarding walk. We had started a little after 1400 and we were back at the car shortly after 1700.

Diamond Firetails

Magnificent gnarled gums at the back of the car park

Green Cape 2008

The Green Cape light station from the headland

Sunrise from the verandah of Cottage 2

View at the Cape

Green Cape - August 4th to August 8th

Mavis Russell discusses some important point with John Disney

Visit by Mavis Russell, John Disney and PJF.

We arrived on Monday 4^th August in the early afternoon and settled into cottage 2, the northern cottage of the duplex. Monday was fine with cloud building in the late afternoon. The sea was calm and few seabirds were observed. Tuesday was grey, wet and windy all day and again few seabirds were to be seen. The cold wind blew at moderate strength from the south west and continued to blow from this direction for the next two days. Wednesday started overcast but cleared by mid day to give long sunny periods in the afternoon with wind strength easing but still persisting from the south west. Thursday morning was calm but overcast and by late afternoon rain and a strengthening wind returned. Friday morning was sunny but few seabirds were evident early in the day. The seas throughout this trip remained mostly placid with only moderate swell at times and there were few occasions when whitecaps were evident. The following map, courtesy of the CSIRO 'point n click sea surface temperature' website, shows the sea temperature conditions at the time of our visit.

Wave washed platform near Pulpit Rock

Rock platform at the bottom of the staircase - Pulpit Rock

We did not venture far on the Monday; visiting the point briefly in the mid afternoon. Wednesday afternoon we walked to the Pulpit rock and back from the main track and on Thursday morning we again left the car at the start of the Pulpit rock track and walked back to the cottages along the light to light trial. PJF had visited the point early in the morning from soon after dawn until 0800hr.

Heath formations at Green Cape and track to Pulpit Rock

Almost nothing was in flower on the heaths with very few Banksia sp. showing fresh flowering spikes and there was little sign of flowering in Leptospermum or Melaleuca. No butterflies were noted.

The following pictures illustrate some of the flowering plants we did find.

Old-man Banksia Banksia serrata

A Donkey Orchid - Diuris sp.

Silky Purple-Flag Patersonia sericea

Needlebush Hakea (sericea?)

Dwarf She-oak Allocasuarina nana - female flowers above and male below

Common Heath Epacris impressa

A small Boronia?

Names and order of birds follow Les Christidis and Walter E. Boles, 2008 Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds (CSIRO: Collingwood).

Birds seen:

Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche malanophris
Single adult birds seen on 5^th and 6^th. Not confirmed to species (melanophris/impavida)

Shy Albatross Thalassarche cauta subsp.
The most numerous species of albatross seen this trip with numbers up to 10-15 seen most days. Separation of Tasmanian Shy Albatross Thalassarche c. cauta and Auckland Shy Albatross Thalassarche c. steadi is not possible.

Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche chlororhynchos
Seen every day but fewer than Shy Albatross at all times. Two subspecies occur which are identifiable in the field. Western Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche c. chlororhynchos and Eastern Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche c. bassi. Birds seen were taken to be of the latter subspecies.

Giant-Petrel sp. Macronectes sp.
One immature seen on 5^th and a pale phase Southern Giant-Petrel M. giganteus was seen far out to sea the late morning on 6^th.

Fairy Prion Pachyptila turtur
Two birds identified feeding not far off the point, mid afternoon on 4^th.

Fluttering Shearwater Puffinus gavia
A few birds seen each day. Never in large numbers.

Common Diving-Petrel Pelecanoides urinatrix
Two or possibly a few more seen just before noticing the Fairy Prions on 4^th. They were sitting on the water and making short flights before diving into the face of the waves.

Little Penguin Eudyptula minor
A few heard at sea each day.

Australasian Gannet Morus serrator
Seen every day but not in large numbers and all plumage types from juvenile to adult seen.

White-bellied Sea-Eagle Haliaeetus leucogaster
Two adults and at least one sub-adult seen. Two adult birds calling and circling over the forest north of Pulpit rock trail in the area where a nest site is known to be present. For some of the time they were mobbed by an Australian Raven.

Whistling Kite Haliastur sphenurus
One seen moving down east side of the Cape towards the point in the late morning of 7^th.

Nankeen Kestrel Falco cenchroides
One bird seen near cottages on 6^th.

Brown Skua Stercorarius antarticus
One bird seen off the point during the morning on 6^th and another seen flying out from Disaster Bay early in the morning on 7^th.

Crested Tern Thalasseus bergii
A few passing back and forth each day at the Cape.

Pacific Gull Larus pacificus
One immature seen on 5^th flying north along the east side of the Cape and one adult seen rounding the point going south early on 7^th.

Silver Gull Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae
Present at sea each day but never in large numbers.

Superb Fairy-wren Malurus cyaneus
A group of at least 8 present near the cottages each day. At least two coloured males seen; one still obviously in transition moult.

White-browed Scrubwren Sericornis frontalis
One seen near cottages on 4^th.

Brown Thornbill Acanthiza pusilla
A few heard close to Cape 6^th and 7^th.

Little Wattlebird Anthochaera chrysoptera
Recorded each day. Often present in the large Coast Banksia Banksia integrifolia close to the entrance gate. Not very vocal. Not numerous nor conspicuous and not seen elsewhere.

Red Wattlebird Anthochaera carunculata
One seen at the end of the Pulpit Rock trail on 6^th.

The Tawny-crowned Honeyeater

Tawny-crowned Honeyeater Glyciphila melanops
One bird seen along Pulpit Rocks trail on 6^th.

New Holland Honeyeater Phylidonyris novaehollandiae
None singing. Seen on heath in small numbers during walks on 6^th and 7^th.

Eastern Whipbird Psophodes olivaceus
Heard in dense Melaleuca sp. scrub near Cemetery on several occasions.

Grey Shrike-thrush Colluricincla harmonica
Heard occasionally on heath and one seen during walk on 7^th.

Australian Raven Corvus coronoides
Two birds seen near Cottages and another mobbing the White-bellied Sea-eagles over the forest area on 7^th (see above).

Eastern Yellow Robin Eopsaltria australis
None seen.

Australasian Pipit Anthus novaeseelandiae
One seen near cottages 7^th.

No pigeons were seen, no cormorants, no Sooty Oystercatchers, no parrots, no Southern Emu-wrens and no Striated Fieldwrens. Several other species usually noted at Green Cape were also not observed on this trip.

Mammals and reptiles seen:

Bandicoot sp.
Numerous fresh diggings seen to the cemetery on 7^th.

Eastern Grey Kangaroo Macropus giganteus
One seen near cottages on 6^th.

The Swamp Wallaby at the Cape

Black (Swamp) Wallaby Wallabia bicolour
One seen near the Point on 7^th. Another seen on the walk on 7^th.

Australian Fur Seal Arctocephalus pusillus (doriferus)
The usual loafing group of about 10-15 individuals seen in the water off the Cape every day

European Rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus
None seen.

Common Dolphin Delphinus delphis
None seen.

Bottlenose Dolphin Tursiops truncates
None seen.

Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae
Two seen moving north on 5^th during the afternoon. No others seen.

Amphibolurus? Sp. (a Dragon sp.) found on Banksia serrata during the walk on 7th.

Tidbinbilla Lyrebirds

Start of the Camel Back trail at the bottom of our study area
View south in July 2008

July has been a busy month for the 'Lyrebird Team' at Tidbinbilla. Chris Davey, Ed Slater and I have been mulling over how we should best continue with the studies we have been carrying out at the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve and we have decided it is now time to revise some of our methods and move to other ways of monitoring the Tidbinbilla Superb Lyrebird populations. In particular we have been thinking about better ways to account for the number of lyrebirds on our main study plot.We do not have the time nor the energy to search each spring for all the active nests but we ought to be able to account for the number of singing and territory holding males present in the breeding season. Our automatic sound recording station can no longer provide the necessary data for this purpose but it has fulfilled its role splendidly as an early detection system during the first few years of the re-establishment of the lyrebird population. Multiple stations might solve the problem but that idea is not practicable with our limited resources and time. We need to keep it very simple but robust.

Superb Lyrebirds are spectacular songsters! Their song output is all high energy stuff and is commonly sustained for long bouts of singing, particularly at dawn but again at dusk. In their song they mix distinctive lyrebird elements, including regionally characteristic territorial calls, along with huge amounts of mimicry. They sing in the depths of winter and they sing from within dense mountain forests where the reverberation of sound is magnificent! There are few other birds calling at this time of the year. Listening to lyrebirds is a truly unforgettable experience.

Click the following to hear a short segment of Superb Lyrebird song:

TNR%20hut%20sample.mp3

This recording was made in territory 6 (see later) early in the morning on 29th July this year.

By way of introduction it is probably necessary to mention a few other important features of lyrebirds. First, there are two species. A northern Albert's Lyrebird Menura alberti which is restricted in range to a relatively small area of mountain forests in South-eastern Queensland and far north-eastern NSW. The second species, the Superb Lyrebird Menura novaehollandiae, has a much larger distribution in south-eastern Australia extending within the Great Dividing Ranges and associated coastal wet forests from northern NSW to Melbourne. Superb Lyrebirds have been introduced successfully to Tasmania. This occurred in the 1930s but they are still restricted to the few areas near where they were originally liberated in the south of the island. In Canberra we are near to the western limits of the range of the Superb Lyrebird but, nevertheless, they are widespread in the ranges to the west of the city, at least they were until the disastrous fires of early 2003! It is also important to remember that lyrebirds breed in winter. Females lay a single egg and perform all of the incubation and chick rearing duties. Males indulge in long periods of singing, mostly, in the case of Superb Lyrebirds, from specially prepared stages or courts or mound courts. Again in the case of Superb lyrebirds these are cleared, roughly circular patches of raked soil on the forest floor that are constructed by the male and are kept clear during periods of use. This sort of breeding strategy is often termed lekking and the system of courts spread across a territory, as used by Superb Lyrebirds, has been termed a dispersed lek (see Paul A. Johnsgard 1994 Arena Birds, Smithsonian Inst. Press).

Landsat images of the ACT from before the fire (left) and on the 26th January 2003 (right) when the fire was still burning to the south in the Namadgi National Park (plumes of smoke visible drifting SE). Our study site at Tidbinbilla is marked by the blue arrow on the left-hand image. The white lines indicate the ACT borders with NSW and shows that most of the western half of the Territory was destroyed by this fire


Superb Lyrebird display mound or court - July 2008

Now back to our studies!

We have been trying to follow the recovery of the population of Superb Lyrebirds in the forests surrounding the Tidbinbilla valley following the wildfire that burnt out the whole area in January 2003. In part we have done this by annual one day co-ordinated surveys along all the regular trails within the Nature Reserve. These one-day surveys have been organized each winter since 2004 and have depended on the help of a bunch of enthusiastic volunteers from the Canberra Ornithologists Group. The method certainly gives us an overall idea of distribution and with it some idea of the relative densities of lyrebirds across the valley but to look at population recovery in more detail we decided to concentrate our efforts within an area that had been studied in great detail nearly 50 years ago.

A diagrammatic representation of the Superb Lyrebird territories found in the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve during each of the three winter surveys of 2004 (red), 2005 (blue) and 2006 (yellow). The main ridge lines are indicated in brown and the walking trails used for surveying the whole valley are shown in green

Norman Robinson at the weather station near the CSIRO hut on the study site in the 1960s
Our automatic recording station was set up near this point.

Another view of the Tidbinbilla hut. This site was referred to by Norman Robinson as the High Camp. Note the microphone cables running off into the study area. This array of microphones was used to sample the song output from lyrebirds occupying several surrounding territories. Associated cables also lead to thermistors that were used to record air temperature close to selected display mounds in the same territories

Norman Robinson at a Superb Lyrebird's display mound - October 1964

Jim Bell and Charlie Kogon with piles of microphone wire during a clean up at the hut site in September 1967

In the early 1960s Harry Frith and Norman Robinson carried out innovative studies on Superb Lyrebirds at Tidbinbilla. Norman, in particular, developed an interest in the mimicry content of lyrebird song and by applying new techniques of field recording coupled with the newly emerging technologies of bio-acoustics he made significant advances in the understanding of Tidbinbilla Superb lyrebird song structure and particularly the role of mimicry. A newly aquired Kay-elemetrics Sonagraph permitted the spectral analysis of sound samples. Being able to graphically view the frequency and amplitude structure of sound was crucial in characterizing song. This had not been possible before. It was cutting-edge science at that time. Norman worked for CSIRO and with Harry Frith, who was the Chief of the Division of Wildlife Research they established what at the time was a world class wildlife sound laboratory equipped with one of the very first Sonagraph machines. This laboratory was the starting point for the extensive archive of regional wildlife sound recordings that has been inherited by the Australian National Wildlife Collection. With this background it is by far the largest and most comprehensive collection of Australian wildlife sound recordings and, of course, includes an enormous collection of lyrebird material!

Vertical aerial photo-image of the study area at Tidbinbilla taken shortly after the wildfire in January 2003. The main creek lines are highlighted in blue. The Camel Back fire trail is also clearly visible

Again, returning to the Tidbinbilla of today it is important to realize that our present studies have developed from these important earlier investigations. Using information from the CSIRO studies (Robinson and Frith 1981 Emu 81:145-157) and Norman Robinson's preserved field notes (now in the ANWC sound library) we have been able to delineate their original study area above Mountain Creek with some confidence and with this as the starting point we have tried to follow the re-occupation by territory holding males within this particular area. Our aim has been to see how long it takes for numbers to return to those observed years ago by Norman Robinson and Harry Frith.

The creek system in the study area. The altitude difference between the upper and lower sides of this image is a fall of more than 200m. The dots indicate the positions of nests found during the study by Robinson and Frith in the early 1960s

A view in the area where the CSIRO hut had once stood. Remains of the galvanized water tank can be seen. This picture was taken on 8th May 2003 four months after the wildfire. The hut and most of the other associated materials had been removed from the site many years before the fire

The old hut site on 8th May 2003 - four months after the fire. The remnant base-plate for the weather station (see picture above from the 1960s) is visible in the left foreground

Panorama at the hut site (Norman Robinson's High Camp) taken a year after the fire (January 2004). The slow regrowth of ground cover or dense shrub layer is evident

Unfortunately, we were unable to gain access for several months after the devastating wildfire of January 2003 because of the danger of falling burnt timber but eventually we were given permission to make short visits. Initially, the lyrebirds occurring on the study area were easy to detect. This was especially so during the first year because during that time there was almost no ground cover. It was abundantly obvious that few birds were present. Signs of lyrebird activity were found immediately we inspected the study area. Our first question was - where did these surviving lyrebirds come from? Did they survive as residents within the area or were they immigrants from some more distant refugia? We have no idea. Because the wildfire was so widespread and so intense it is difficult to see how they could have survived much better elsewhere. We may never know the answer to this critical question but we have some clues in that the song structure does not seem to have altered very markedly when compared with the recorded songs of earlier years. This suggests that the cultural characteristics have been maintained. For example, the highly distinctive whip-crack call of the Eastern Whipbird Psophodes olivaceus is not included in the list of mimicry we can recognize today nor was it in the past. This is unusual in that Superb Lyrebirds elsewhere throughout their wide range frequently include Eastern Whipbird mimicry but not at Tidbinbilla! There are no Eastern Whipbirds in the Tidbinbilla Valley catchment.

A view into the weather-proof box containing the automatic sound recording equipment used at Tidbinbilla


The gear in the box in July 2008
Some technology improvements and some compromises!

Back to our survey methods. We set up an automatic sound recording station which we then ran for a week each month for the next five years. These 50 or so week-long samples form the basis of our observations on the return of lyrebirds to the study area. Each sample contains a series of 10-second long sound clips taken at half hourly intervals night and day for the whole week. This gives us 48 acoustic samples per day. The analysis of these data is still in progress but it has certainly provided us with a good measure of the intensity of lyrebird calling month by month through this period of five years.

In addition, we have done ground searches across the area to detect lyrebirds. In the early days this was relatively easy and we considered it a reliable method of finding where lyrebirds were active and indeed most times we were pretty sure that all birds were seen. As the vegetation thickened it became increasingly difficult to move about the study area and to see lyrebirds or even find the evidence of their scratchings in the soil which would confirm that they were foraging in particular areas. Ground cover became very dense and this method was clearly becoming impracticable.

We thought about plotting the distribution of display mounds. We tried a transect surveys method to plot sample segments of the area but this proved to be too time consuming and in any event was considered it to be inadequate for determining the number of birds in any reliable way.

The transect trail (2km of the Camel Back Trail) along which we counted singing Superb Lyrebirds in July 2008. Change in elevation from bottom to top was approximately 900m to 1000m ASL.

In July 2008 we decided to do some count surveys along the main trail that leads up through the centre of the study area. We planned to start at dawn and run the trail up and back two or three times. By taking GPS (Global Positioning System) fixes each time we heard a calling lyrebird and by noting the compass bearing to each singing bird from two or more Waypoints we would plot the positions of each singing individual. Numbers of birds detected each transect fell off remarkably quickly after the first two hours following first light and we concluded that it was unrewarding to do more than a single run up and back down the trail. The climb involved a 200 metre difference in altitude so the less often it had to be done the better! We did four consecutive morning counts with two ascents and two descents each morning, thus giving four transect counts per day. The results were spectacularly convincing that we could detect practically all birds in a single run up and down! The following map shows what we concluded to be the distribution of singing males in July 2008.

Waypoints used on the first ascent transect 20th July 2008. Note that waypoint 1 is missing on this map but was at the start point

Plotted positions of singing Superb Lyrebirds across the study site at Tidbinbilla in July 2008. Colours signify plots from different transect runs and different days

Deduced Superb Lyrebird territories constructed from field data (above) collected 19th -22nd July 2008. The size and shape of these territories is arbitrary and does not necessarily represent the true area for any one of them. These representations are purely to indicate the distribution of discrete male territories. Numbering is also arbitrary

To finish here are three more cuts of Tidbinbilla Superb Lyrebird song. This is the male from territory 9 (on the map above) singing at a little after 0800hr on 29th July this year. The three cuts follow in sequence and are continuous but the original was slightly edited.

These recordings, by the way, and the one earlier, were made on a minidisc (Sony Recording MD Walkman MZ-R900) as compressed files, expanded to AIFF files, edited in Peak 4 and then re-compressed to MP3 format using Amadeus ll so they could be added to this blog. Not much loss of detail despite such treatment!

Lyrebird%201.mp3

Lyrebird%202.mp3

Lyrebird%203.mp3

Roll on 2009 and our next Tidbinbilla lyrebird surveys!

Frozen trail-side pool - 24 July 2008