JUNE

Not a lot to report of late... The mornings are algid enough to have you thinking of yourself and not getting ill. There's been the odd frost - one feels as if one is treading on Rice Bubbles... The other morning there was a waning crescent moon in the rising sun's sky - gorgeous... I went for a lengthy jaunt (Gambells Rest - Fairy Bower Falls - The Amphitheatre - Mark Morton Lookout - Gambells Rest) about ten days ago. The walk was demanding in certain sections as there were fallen trees (courtesy of recent high winds) and sodden paths of fallen fern fronds. Happened across a male Superb Lyrebird flapping his wings, shimmering and in full song. I didn't get to see the breeding display though. Something I'm looking forward to witnessing... For a few minutes I found complete silence in-between The Amphitheatre and MML. Not a bird calling. No wind disturbing the canopy. It was surprising, spooky even. Real silence, intense silence, is so, so rare, so, so necessary... A fox has been around home. I heard it uttering its wheeze-yap out in the bleeding pitch on two nights. Its calls to the moon, Morton and man, had my Cocker Spaniel crying back... I crushed a Funnel-web at the backdoor recently. The second I've seen: the other was during July, 2011... Last Sunday, just before dusk, my boy and I searched in vain for the Little Bittern that is seen irregularly about the dams and swampy bits of Peter Lach-Newinsky's grand property. Such a phantom-thing. I've only seen one once, years ago, at Eastlakes Golf Course in Sydney. It is rarely seen, most probably overlooked. The bird could well be a lot more plentiful than people believe. At the end of the day, how many birders are really putting in hrs searching for them? LJ, June 21 2012.