Yay, I finally saw it............A Rallus philippensis Buff-banded Rail
Something has been darting from my vision for a few weeks, but today it was standing very still in the garden pond. The pond is a disused swimming pool with water less then 30cm deep. It has many frogs & dragon flies breeding in it, so a good food source for the rail & several reeds within which to nest.
I am excited as this is Lake Macquarie suburb
Good to hear, i saw my first for the season at my local wetlands in Canberra 2 weeks ago.
Shorty......Canon gear
Canberra
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rawshorty/
I was hoping to clean up the garden behind the pond but I dont want to disturb the rail
Exciting news for you, leebr0wn. I'm curious about what would need cleaning up in your garden. If it's a mess could the mess be part of the attraction for the buff-banded rail?
The mess is a very old Wonga Wonga vine over the fence which is fine but in the forground is about 10 x 2 ft strip of Boston fern. The buff-banded rail's needs is now the priority. Ive seen it run through a gap in the ferns but it was so fast I couldnt identify it. It was when it was standing on a platform in the pond surrounded by reeds that allowed me to identify it.
I wanted to plant shrubs along that region to attract spiders etc . The Blue cheeked honeyeaters have all but exhausted my community of spiders . The Pee-Wee is still sitting on the nest & there wont be many insects left to feed those chicks when they hatch