Birding Bloopers #18

Over recent weeks I have been highlighting a number of birding bloopers. These have been shared on the Birding-Aus forum and the contributors have agreed to let me publish them here.

Today I feature another one – this time one of my own experiences.

In the year 2000 my wife and I were visiting our son and daughter-in-law in Sydney. We had planned to visit various national parks near the city during our stay. A park high on our list was Royal National Park just south of the city. Established in 1879 this was Australia’s first ever national park and only the second such park in the world, Yellowstone being the first.

In preparation for birding while on my holiday I bought a book called “A Birdwatcher’s Guide to the Sydney Region”. This book had sections on different parts of the region, maps, how to get there and what to expect to see. In the section on Royal National Park it states that walking down Lady Carrington Drive is a good place to see Lyrebirds.

Yeah – right. Have the birds read this guide?

We parked in the car park and started our walk along this drive. Naturally my eyes were focussed up in the trees, looking for birds. I was quickly adding many species to my notebook. My wife, some 15 metres behind me, gave a sudden urgent call for me to look around. I was being followed by a male Superb Lyrebird!

We had excellent views of this bird only metres away. It was obviously quite used to having people on his territory.

This was before we had a digital camera so I can’t show a photo of said bird. Somewhere, however, in our vast collection of slides and prints, we do have a photo. I must search through and scan it on to my computer and then show it here.