I dragged my poor, suffering son out again to join me in a walk along two of the trails at the lovely Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, just south of Canberra. The two trails I chose were Cascades Trail and Lyrebird Trail, two connected trails in the west of the park, starting from Mountain Creek car park. Both trails meander through some very dense vegetation, and that Sunday’s nice weather had brought a few people out to the trails, so I was not able to photograph many birds. I was not too disappointed as I did get to photograph a Golden Whistler and just walking along the trails in the warm spring sunshine with my son really made my day.
We began walking from the carpark, just behind a family who had arrived just before us. We gave the family some time to get further along the trail than us in the hope the birds would be back to normal as we came along. The bush was alive with calls, which would draw my eye to a bird darting between the thickly clumped young trees but with no time, and normally insufficient light, to take a photo. Just after crossing a small stream I could hear the call of a Golden Whistler, which my son spotted first. The male was easy to tell in his stunning golden yellow plumage. He was moving through the low canopy pausing to make his call. There was no sign of a female bird. He did not stay long, so I was happy to take the few shots I was able to.
The only other bird I was able to photograph was a Striated Thornbill who was moving around a tree in one of the more open sections of the trail. There were a few other thornbills with it but I could only get a photograph of one of them.
