B is for Bushwalking: finding a Bowerbird and a Pitta

Female Satin Bowerbird.

Blue eye of the Satin Bowerbird

Guy got us going early this morning and we drove across the headland, down Patonga Drive and we all went walking through the Patonga Creek Wetland.

It was buggy, enormous spiders and their vast nests, huge biting fire ants and we were following Guy as he tracked off path through the mangroves and the adjacent forest with its thick understory.

We all stopped dead at one point having heard a loud hissing noise which we hoped was not a snake. To my amazement it was the alarm call of a Satin Bowerbird, a female or perhaps a young adult, we had great views as the bird warily kept an eye on us.

The birding bonanza continued.

Guy noticed a colourful bird hopping through the leaf litter along the path, I could not believe it, a pitta, my first ever! We had a Noisy Pitta in our scope. Fred was just a little frustrated with not having brought his main camera along, but at least these photos can tell the story.

The Noisy Pitta creeping among the leaf litter, still grinning from this amazing sighting.