No one in Victoria, Australia has heard the White Bellied Whip bird for almost 40 years. Have a listen
I briefly lived in Nhill & knew the man who started this wildlife park.
3
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.These birds look very cute. I'm glad they're back in this ecosystem again.
MartinaPerez
Level 4
Feb 22, 2023
1
I like to read this kind of post. Thanks for sharing this, man. Few people are interested in wildlife. I've never had to see white-bellied IRL whips. But they seem nice to me. I have read on guidethepublic.com that these birds make nests close to the ground. This means that Mallee chicks can even be eaten by an Australian spider. It's sad, but it's nature. Maybe that was the main reason they were missing for 40 years. For 40 years, different types of animals atypical for these places have been imported to Australia. This could change the local fauna and the number of species.
packsmen
Level 4
Feb 22, 2023
2
I remember back in 1960, fresh out of the immigration camp, Bonnagilla, My father bought a new car, we drove through the Gembrook forest near Dandenong. There was a strange noise which bothered my father. It stopped as soon as he stopped the car. I was in the back, wound down the window and knew what the noise was. I tried to tell my father it was a bird, but I was told to shut up and let his sort it out. This stop start procedure went on for about half an hour. I eventually got bored and told my father to stop the car and wait for 5 minutes and wind down the window.
I Will never forget his blush of embarrassment and anciently he kept quiet for a record of one hour before speaking, a feat he was never been able to repeat.
vocaloldfart
Level 7
Nov 16, 2022
3
For six years I lived below the woods at West Gosford where Kendall listened to bell birds that he based his poem on. I frequently heard them first thing in the morning and then throughout the day.
[allpoetry.com]
Henry Kendall Follow
Bell Birds
By channels of coolness the echoes are calling,
And down the dim gorges I hear the creek falling;
It lives in the mountain, where moss and the sedges
Touch with their beauty the banks and the ledges;
Through brakes of the cedar and sycamore bowers
Struggles the light that is love to the flowers.
And, softer than slumber, and sweeter than singing,
The notes of the bell-birds are running and ringing.
The silver-voiced bell-birds, the darlings of day-time,
They sing in September their songs of the May-time.
When shadows wax strong and the thunder-bolts hurtle,
They hide with their fear in the leaves of the myrtle;
When rain and the sunbeams shine mingled together
They start up like fairies that follow fair weather,
And straightway the hues of their feathers unfolden
Are the green and the purple, the blue and the golden.
October, the maiden of bright yellow tresses,
Loiters for love in these cool wildernesses;
Loiters knee-deep in the grasses to listen,
Where dripping rocks gleam and the leafy pools glisten.
Then is the time when the water-moons splendid
Break with their gold, and are scattered or blended
Over the creeks, till the woodlands have warning
Of songs of the bell-bird and wings of the morning.
Welcome as waters unkissed by the summers
Are the voices of bell-birds to thirsty far-comers.
When fiery December sets foot in the forest,
And the need of the wayfarer presses the sorest,
Pent in the ridges for ever and ever.
The bell-birds direct him to spring and to river,
With ring and with ripple, like runnels whose torrents
Are toned by the pebbles and leaves in the currents.
Often I sit, looking back to a childhood
Mixt with the sights and the sounds of the wildwood,
Longing for power and the sweetness to fashion
Lyrics with beats like the heart-beats of passion --
Songs interwoven of lights and of laughters
Borrowed from bell-birds in far forest rafters;
So I might keep in the city and alleys
The beauty and strength of the deep mountain valleys,
Charming to slumber the pain of my losses
With glimpses of creeks and a vision of mosses.
Bellbirds by Henry Kendall is one of Australia's best loved poems, and almost every Australian has at one time or another heard or repeated its melodic phrases, so evocative of the cool, dim blue and green of the Australian mountain country. This poem was first published in a work entitled "Leaves from Australian Forests" by Henry Kendall in the year of 1869.
The Bellbird itself is a very small greyish bird. Its call or melody is simply one singular chiming note which seems to ring through their environmental habitat - the mountains and the hills of Eastern Australia. They may be heard clearly in the quietness of the mountains and hills, although are rarely seen, unless an attitude of patience is adopted.
It is clear that to Henry Kendall, the mountains were a place of refuge and beauty. The Australian mountains are concentrated in a reasonable narrow band known as the "Great Dividing Range" which runs from the tip of Cape York in the north, down the eastern coast - over 3000 kilometres - through the Snowy Mountain region and all the way to the Dandenong Mountain Range in Victoria, and no doubt the same range extends under the Bass Straight and down into the wilderness areas of Tasmania.
@FrayedBear Thank you muchly appreciated.
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