Lyrebird

We were so lucky to see it, shortly after I took the photos three cars with tourists pulled up to have a BBQ. That was the end of any bird photography. The place changed within seconds. Kookaburras, King Parrots , Rosellas and Currawongs turned up in large numbers. There were signs :do not feed, but nobody cared. I saw a Kookaburra take off with a BigM. 

Any time later, and I wouldn't have any photos.

I saw two of them, unless it was the same one running down the road later. If you would visit the Dandenong Ranges (Melbourne), you could most likely see some.

Here is No2 running away from me

Thanks shoop, I use a Sony SLT-A77V,  and a Sony 70-400mm G lens.

Hi Tim, I hope you had a good laugh about that

The lyre of classical antiquity was ordinarily played by being strummed with a plectrum, like a guitar or a zither, rather than being plucked, like a harp. The fingers of the free hand silenced the unwanted strings in the chord. The lyre is similar in appearance to a small harp but with distinct differences.

Vertical harps with 2 arms also known as lyre harps or "lyres" also began appearing in ancient Sumaria by 2800 BC. Some of the oldest carvings of harps were discovered in Phoenicia with marble harp statuettes found dating back to 3,000 - 2,300 BC. The development of the lyre harp in Greece also coincided with the development of mathematical musical scales. By the 6th century BC, Pythagorus discovered numerical ratios corresponding to intervals of the musical scale.

The Greeks are also credited with inventing the Aeolian harp, a harp played by the wind. The Romans Ancient Rome did not seem to place as high an importance on music compared to other ancient civilizations. With the decline of the Roman Empire, music seemed to have died out and there are very few historical references for a half millenium. In early European society following the fall of Rome impressions of lyre harps were found on the coins of pre-Christian Gauls. The harp and musical culture in general seems to have disappeared in the Dark Ages. These centuries are shrouded in mystery.

The Lyre Harp In Western Europe After those centuries of obscurity in the historical record, the lyre precursor to the triangular Medieval harp reappeared in Western European civilization. In the fourth century AD, monk vocalizations predating Gregorian chanting were used in worship services in the Christian Church. The harp became a preferred instrument for accompaniment for the monks' voices. The harp was one of the few instruments allowed in the early church where the horn, drum and rattles were considered the devil's instruments. During the fifth century, the Papal Music School was established in Ireland where the lyre harp was taught. Fragments of a six-stringed lyre were found in the 7th-century burial ship unearthed at Suffolk in England. The remains of several Germanic lyres, dating from the fifth through the tenth century, have been found in Saxon and Frankish graves in Germany and England. The Triangular Harp It is not known where or how the fore-pillar or upright column that created a triangular-framed harp body came into use. The earliest drawings of triangular-frame harps appear in the Utrecht Psalter in the early 9th century. It was the appearance of the harp column possibly during the early Christian era that marked the advent of the modern harp. It solved two problems. It allowed the harp maker to increase string tension without distorting the instrument which also made the harp easier to tune as changing the tension of one string no longer affected the tension of all the other strings. Harps could then be built with more strings with higher tensions, better volume and tone.

http://www.alisonvardy.com/harp-info/early-harp-history.htm

Thanks Peter, I didn't know that. So mine is just an ordinary one?

Around here they do mainly Kookaburras and Eastern Whipbirds, but much louder than the original, that's how you can find them.