One July Tony and Jannah were out photographing the rainforest when Tony stood on a log to get a better look at a staghorn high in a tree. There was a very loud screech which seemed to come from nowhere, but it was incredibly loud. They looked all around but saw nothing to indicate where it came from. Tony decided to get on with his photography, stepping back onto the log, when there was another ear piercing screech. Suddenly Tony recognised a little untidy clump of sticks at the end of the log as a lyrebird’s nest! The nest was being disturbed slightly when Tony stood on the log.
To determine what it actually was, Jannah leaned out from the log with her digital camera and took a photo. When they looked they saw that there was this tiny baby lyrebird in the nest. It was an incredibly loud noise for such a tiny baby bird! The first set of photos is from the first day. The little lyrebird did not see them and nor did they directly see it. All it saw was a blue camera!
Over the next few weeks they came back and took more photos, till one day it had left the nest to follow it’s mother in the forest. On the final day they took photos, Jannah and Sue had noticed how big and strong its feet were and they wondered whether it would soon be out of the nest.
They named the baby bird Leonard though they did not know whether it was male or female.
Often now when they hear the call of the lyrebird in the rainforest they wonder if it is Leonard dancing and singing to attract his mate for the season or whether it is a female lyrebird being wooed by a male.