What Was that Noise?
A rough dirt track led out to Two Peoples Bay.It is December 1961 and Mr. Harley Webster, a school teacher and naturalist, is vacationing near the Bay.
Suddenly Mr. Webster hears something he has not heard before.A sharp, clear and unnaturally loud call from the bush – perhaps a bird – so clear it made his ears ring.He starts looking for the source of the call.A day later he found a small brown bird in the bush.It was a noisy scrub-bird, a bird thought to be extinct.The previous recorded observation was in 1889.
Elizabeth Sinclair was trapping small animals at Two Peoples Bay in 1994 hoping to find a quokka.The next morning an unusual specimen was in one of her traps.A Gilbert’s potoroo.The potoroo had last been seen in 1879.It too was extinct or at least presumed so.
Two animals, both presumed extinct, both rediscovered at one place has placed Two Peoples Bay on the map for many conservationists.
Today I returned to Two Peoples Bay in hopes of hearing a noisy scrub-bird.I had a lead that a breeding male territory was along one of the trails.Maybe I would be lucky enough and hear one of these rare birds.
Leaving my camp high on the hill overlooking Two Peoples Bay Reserve and the sand dunes I made my way back onto the main road and into the reserve.I was going to walk along the trail.The flowers were impressive, a scrub wren chattered from a tree.A New Holland honeyeater sampled the nectar of a Banksia.
I emerged from the forest into the shorter, but thicker heath.A few taller bushes grew in the draw.As the trail rounded a bend I heard something – something I’d not heard before.Two sharp and loud notes seemingly right next to the path.I stopped to listen.The notes were followed by a strong and penetrating, but melodious song emanating from the hillside – not nearly as close as I had initially thought.
Tiptoeing, I moved forward.Rustling in the brush, a small brown movement with a little white on the breast moved through the shadows.Again it sang.Clear, penetrating notes.After a few minutes I walked on.
Reaching the end of the trail at Little Beach I turned around and quickly retraced my steps.Approaching the area I’d heard the song from I slowed down hoping to hear the song once more.The bird did not disappoint.I sat down in the trail with my camera ready, hoping the scrub-bird would step onto the trail.
About every three minutes I’d hear the song again.I’d catch an occasional movement in the bush.I remembered the statement published in the mid-1800’s that “it was, ‘destined to rarely meet the gaze of civilised man.’”At that moment I was hoping against the odds the bird might consider me uncivilized and make a full appearance.It wasn’t to be.
While sitting in the trail a couple walked up.I rose to allow them to pass.They hurriedly continued on down the trail.Eventually I moved on from my post.I had some distance to cover today.
A little ways down the trail I found a beetle in the trail.I sat down to take a picture.A few minutes later the couple found me – again sitting in the trail.As they approached they commented, “There is nothing out here.This walk wasn’t even scenic” as they sped on by.I didn’t state my feelings, but I disagreed on both counts.I had fully enjoyed my morning stroll.
In 1961 there were estimated to have been about 100 individual scrub-birds.Today, through reintroductions, there are about 1,500 birds in a couple different populations.
The area Harley Webster found the scrub-bird at in 1961 was then proposed for a community.If Webster had not found the bird on his Christmas holiday the small, remaining population would have been destroyed.There would be no noisy scrub-bird today.
Despite the discovery of a bird thought to have been extinct the State still gave approval to develop the townsite with only a small scrub-bird preserve proposed.
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh became aware of and interested in the plight of the scrub-bird.He requested the State government reconsider its decision approving the townsite.With time the townsite development was cancelled.Instead, in 1966 the State approved a nature reserve for the scrub-bird.
How many other species await discovery or rediscovery in Australia – a country with vast region which people rarely take time to get to know.
