Wednesday 6 August 2008

You can't see me

Some of the bird books state that the Bush Stone-curlew can be seen around resorts in Queensland, when ordinarily it is a shy, nocturnal bird. I commented several weeks ago about a pair that we were shown in Airlie Beach township.

My son-in-law Adam, at Airlie Beach, has sent me a photo of some that he saw this week in the middle of the construction works associated with the new marina at Airlie Beach. He commented, "It was amazing - they were in the middle of our job site with people walking past them and no one noticed them, they just stood really still and they blended into the background." There are three in this photo.

5 comments:

Mosura said...

That's fantastic, although you are kidding about the three aren't you? Did you not see the 4th one?

Boobook said...

I still only see three Mosura - tell me where I'm going wrong. Click on photo to enlarge.

Mosura said...

LOL - Just my odd sense of humour given the title is "You can't see me". Definitely only 3. - sorry about that :-)

Gaye said...

The first time I heard these creatures was in the night when we were camped at Seaforth in North Queensland. What an eerie sound. I didn't know what was making the noise, and stopped to ask other campers on the way to the toilet in the morning.

Cheers
Gaye

Denis Wilson said...

Nice to see them so calm at Airlie Beach. Posted a story a few weeks back about a single Southern Stone Curlew, at Narooma (South Coast, NSW). But it was very nervous - and "froze" at first, before sneaking off (as quickly as it could) but walking, not flying.
I understand their survival in north Qld is to do with the relative lack of foxes, north of the Tropic of Capricorn.