ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Thought I'd share this with you.

I was driving north of Marysville this afternoon - towards Lake Mountain - and came across this dead lyrebird on the road.

A car rally had just passed through a few minutes before. The road had been closed, and we had been asked to wait by the side of the road for a few minutes until it was re-opened. We were one of the first cars through, and came across the dead bird only a few minutes later. It was still warm.

Makes me angry. I carried it to the side of the road, but there was nothing else I could do.

Unless we ban cars completely we will always have roadkill Stephen! Best you don't do any road trips up through the centre if you get angry at one dead bird. I must have killed hundreds of birds, animals and reptiles on the roads, it always makes me sad when a creature runs, flies or jumps out in front of me to meet its end but don't make the mistake many drivers do and try and avoid them!
I very recently went to Adelaide with my father to buy a wheelchair friendly vehicle for my mother, Dad and I met the young girl who owned the vehicle, (her brother had upgraded the car to a later model for her) She was a very pretty young girl about 19 or 20, she had swerved to miss a bird that flew out from the side of the road and rolled her car, she is now paralysed from the shoulders down, it broke my heart. I would much rather see a dead bird or animal than that!

Yes, that's a fair comment. Mind you, I do wonder how our roadkill will be viewed in a hundred or two hundred years' time. I would not be surprised if society then is quite aghast - much as we feel now about public lynchings and floggings and the like.

It doesn't take too much imagination to envision a society struggling to hold onto its last vestiges of wildlife, and quite appalled at our cavalier attitudes.

I agree it's a very thorny problem that is extremely difficult to imagine any solution for, but I do suspect nonetheless that we will not tolerate it forever.

I'll be interested to check out the law in this instance. The lyrebird, from memory, is a protected species. What are your obligations as a driver? I'd also be very interested to know how fast these cars were going.

The fact that it was a lyrebird certainly upset me much more than if it had been a currawong, say, or even a magpie. Lyrebirds seem almost sacred to me, which is a bit silly, I know. Also, the fact that the death had been so recent - the bird was still so soft and warm - and almost certainly related to the rally which had gone through only so recently - made me very angry.

I drive a fair bit in the country, and I don't recall having ever killed anything. (Touchwood! Perhaps my time will come.) I did clip a wombat's paw once many years ago with my rear wheel.

Having said that, I seem to be a pretty slow driver - I'm forever pulling over to allow the backlog of cars behind me to get past!

Always sorry to see Stephen but Like Ross if you have not hit a roo or some other animal driving out west you are very lucky.

The only ones who seem to get out of the way are crows.


Bob

try Canberra and close surrounds Stephen ten to fifteen kangaroos are killed each week results about 2 million dollars damage a year and that is only 20 k diameter from parliament house we even have kangaroo dung on our front lawn and we are in the town.


bill williams

Yes, I guess we are all pretty much desensitised to roadkill. I'm not sure we will always tolerate it, though.

Are you sure it was dead? I never trust a liar bird.