A cool-temperate morning in Sherbrooke Forest, beneath the mountain ash and
southern sassafras. Follow the stream. Listen for mimicry. Six superb
lyrebirds forage somewhere in the fern gullies.
Aim the camera at an animal and press the shutter. Photographs are from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA).
Field guide — life of the Dandenong Ranges
Every species here is native to the wet forest around Sherbrooke. Tap a name for its Wikipedia entry.
Fauna
Flora — ten trees to identify with the plant scope
Moonrise · Sherbrooke Forest
The mountain keeps nothing back
Six lyrebirds found and five field notes filled — every shy thing on this
ridge has let you look at it once, and not one of them was made to run.
Now the moon comes up over the ash and the forest steps out of hiding:
the deer at the water, the wallabies on the flat, the owl down from its
high branch, the platypus writing slow circles in the silver pool.
This is the mountain's whole secret, shown only to the patient.
The glow-worms will light you home, whenever you choose to go.
Dusk · Sherbrooke Forest
The mountain settles
All six lyrebirds are found, and none of them are kept. The whip-cracks and
rosella chatter you followed were only borrowed voices, returned now to their
owners. The stream goes on rehearsing its one soft argument with the stones,
and wins it, as it always does. Glow-worms are lighting their small lanterns
in the fern gully. Nothing here was ever lost — only quiet, and patient,
and very good at hiding. Walk home slowly, and leave the songs where they live.