Monday morning visitor

This morning from the kitchen window I caught sight of a dear little fellow that I hadn't seen for some time – the banded rail. This is a ground-feeding bird that usually forages in damp places for insects and seeds.

I first saw rails here in 1999 when two parents with 7 offspring strolled past the glass doors of my studio-office. Since then I've only seen an individual rail very occasionally – and none for more than a year.

Yesterday I watered profusely and raked up dead leaves and sticks blown in by big winds in the past week. And this morning there he was, scratching around in the damp mulch and apparently getting a good feed. I snuck outdoors and came around from the other side of the house hoping for a photo. Far from being concerned, the little fellow strolled right past me, no more than a metre away, crossing from one garden bed to another.

I made a nice little video of the rail picking over the mulch in one spot right near the back verandah, but after waiting for many hours for it to be loaded up on this page, I had to give up. Anyone know how to speed up the process of loading videos onto a blog page?

Here's a list of the birds we've recorded since moving here in 1996.

Frequent visitors

Sulphur-crested cockatoo (l.), Kookaburra, Noisy miner, Rainbow lorikeet, King parrot, Crested pigeon, Bar-shouldered dove, Peewee, Australian crow, Magpie, Scaly-breasted lorikeet, Blue-faced honeyeater, Purple swamphen, Common koel, Bush turkey, Green catbird, Lewin's honeyeater, Pale-headed rosella (r.).

Occasional visitors

 

Tawny frogmouth (l.), Crested hawk, Welcome swallow, Azure kingfisher, Wood duck, Galah, Wonga pigeon, Musk lorikeet, Channel-billed cuckoo, Emerald dove, Pheasant coucal, Banded rail, Willy wagtail, Figbird, Eastern whipbird, Pied currawong, Corella, Black cockatoo, Scarlet honeyeater (r.).