Day 52 of lockdown. I had visited Sydney Park at St Peters a few times recently for exercise and some bird photography, and one of my aims had been to photograph the elusive Lewin’s Rail. It is always challenge to spot and photograph these birds. This time I had reasonable success.
Lewin’s Rail
I cycled to Sydney Park and arrived in the mid afternoon. I walked around some of the pools looking at the Grebes and other birds. At 3:45 pm I spotted a Buff-banded Rail at a location I had seen one before. I was able to get some photos before it vanished into the tall grass tussocks.
Then as I continued watching, a second Buff-banded Rail emerged from the opposite side to where the first had gone. Some more photos. During the rest of the afternoon, I continued seeing these Buff-banded Rails for short periods until I left the Park at about 5:30 pm.
I saw them together twice, and on one of those times I got a photo showing both.
Buff-banded Rails are always nice birds to see, but I was after the Lewin’s Rail. On previous recent visits I had heard at least two in the park. They have a distinctive call. This time I had not so far heard one. But then, at nearly 5 pm, I did hear one. It was about fifteen metres away from where I was. I was not worth moving closer as I would not be able to see it in the thick bush. I waited to see if it would come closer. It did – but in a surprising way. I flew closer! I saw the very quick flight of the bird and it landed on top of a tussock and then slid down below it out of sight. I think it may be have been spooked by one of the Buff-banded Rails. But now it was closer at least. Then at 5:04 pm it appeared suddenly, only about 3 m from me. It looked around a bit and four seconds later went back into the undergrowth. In those 4 seconds I managed to get some photos of it. The very first photo in this post is probably the best I got. Here are some others –
I waited around to see if it would come out again. It didn’t. But one of the Buff-banded Rails lurked around until I left around 5:30 pm when the light was becoming too dim for photography.
The small open muddy patch where I had been able to photograph these birds was a lot wetter than it had been on other recent visits. Water had been flowing out of a sluce nearby. I think this was one factor why the Rails had appeared in that spot. The water may have made the ground softer for them to probe for food.