A Sulphur-crested Cockatoo screamed its hideous song as it took off from a perch high above my head. I heaved a sigh as my heart began to beat again and kept moving. I cautiously picked my way through the tall, dry grass of the Queensland outback, avoiding the taipans and brown snakes that lurked within. So far I’d only heard a few of the slithering beasts as they made their way through the forest scrub, and always away from me. Yet I feared them all the same, knowing they were potentially very dangerous. One small bite meant big trouble, especially if you were an hour away from the nearest hospital, which I was.
I'd been hiking for over an hour and still I hadn’t come across the group of Red-backed Fairy Wrens I sought. I was hired by the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology to monitor these black and red songbirds and keep track of breeding behaviour. But the breeding season had not fully commenced so rather than sticking to defended territories, the birds were travelling around in lose foraging groups. In the meantime myself and four other field technicians recorded their daily rituals and banded rogue birds.
I had arrived at the Moomin field site at sunrise and it was now half past seven. My stomach pleaded to be fed so I modified my search and looked for a place to dine instead. I found a large fallen eucalyptus and climbed up to sit and eat the rest of a peanut butter and banana panini I had grilled earlier that morning. The peanut butter had since hardened and now stuck to the bottom of the plastic container. I slowly picked at the sandwich and ate it piece by piece, savouring it for as long as possible. As I ate I observed an army of black ants, abdomens poised, marching along the bark. They avoided my leather boot and followed one another down a narrow stick towards the ground. I harrassed the small soldiers and prodded at them with a twig to see how they reacted. Ants usually fled with great haste, but the individuals of this species turned on the twig and attacked.
I grew bored and slid off the tree. I dug-out the bright green Nalgene from my field pack, unscrewed the lid and swallowed half my water supply before continuing. I had become familiar with the lay of my field site over the last few weeks and searched several promising spots. Unfortunately, my birds were not cooperating today and I was growing frustrated. I made it to the end of my territory and turned around. I revisted a few spots in vain.
I paused on a large boulder and scanned the meadow before me. A flock of Rainbow Lorikeets descended into a tall Casuarina pine and foraged on its small cones noisily. Bits of cone, now robbed of their seeds, landed in my hair as I watched the colourful parrots high in the canopy. Several friarbirds, treecreepers, robins, and cuckoo shrikes also made their presence known, but the fairy wrens were still nowhere to be found.
Just as I was about to admit defeat, I heard a familiar high-pitched descending trill. I stood perfectly still and listened, trying to determine the general direction of the song. I inched a few feet further then stopped dead in my tracks as the bird sang again, not too far away. I silently made my way towards the sound through a patch of tall ferns, my eyes wide and my ears pricked. I stood quietly behind the trunk of a giant gum tree and waited. Suddenly a shape flitted up and then down again. I carefully drew my binoculars up and focused on the patch of grass where I had seen the parabolic movement. Nothing happened for a few moments as I scanned the general area. My attention was drawn to a thicket of Lantana. Another bird flew up and then down. My heart was pounding with excitement as I stood and watched as four fairy wrens hawked for insects.
I focused on the individuals as they eagerly chased their prey. It took about ten minutes before I was able to identify them all. It was the pair HGY and HYG, and their helpers -Z- and ZLZ. The fairy wrens were all banded with colour- and numbered identification rings. The colours had letter codes and I remembered each individiual by creating names with the letters. This group in particular (Huggy Bear, Hyena G., Zebra and Zulu) was notorious for fighting with the pair GZZ and WRW (Giselle and Woodrow) but today they were foraging intently, moving from one Lantana bush to the next.
There was no significant breeding behaviour to note, but I watched the voracious little birds for a long time before setting off to search for the next group...
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