A pleasant surprise
Superb Lyrebird
More than four years after the Black Saturday fires we thought we would set up remote cameras on a couple of the larger patches of bushland in private ownership. Paul’s 360ha bush property in the middle of Flowerdale was severely and totally burnt out in 2009, but the regeneration is quite impressive, especially in the moister gullies, with dense regrowth of a range of eucalypts, Silver Wattle, Blackwood, Hazel Pomaderris, Prickly Currant Bush, Victorian Christmas Bush and numerous other shrubs and ground flora.
Checking the cameras’ SD cards the other day, we scrolled through lots of shots of the expected wombats and wallabies, and, (ho-hum) the usual suspects among feral pests – foxes, Sambar, rabbits – and then a pleasant surprise … a Superb Lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae) (pictured above).
Walking around the property, it is clear that many other bush birds are returning – and last year a Long-nosed Bandicoot was recorded on remote camera.
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- Black Wallaby
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- Sambar – a voracious browser of regenerating plants and spoiler of revegetation efforts
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- Common Wombat
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- Red Fox – a significant threat to recovering wildlife
