A Sunlit Forest Clearing.

Just before going overseas recently, I visited the Wielangta Forest. My main interest was in the extent of the damage caused by last Summer's fires. Certainly there are extensive areas that were burnt, mainly on the eastern side of the road as you enter from the South, but not as bad as I feared. Since returning from overseas, I've made 2 further visits, and on both I stopped off at the picnic huts at the southern end of the Sandspit River track. As usual, I made a 'bee' line for a clearing among the rainforest. I've found this to be a good spot for photographing some of the more elusive rainforest species. It's here that I've photographed Scrubtit and Tasmanian Scrubwren. It's not that these species regularly occur here, it just has more light to work with, and if you're patient, you might just be lucky.
Well on the first trip, I patiently waited, and as nothing stirred, as I so often do on these occasions, my mind wandered off. I was abruptly brought back to the real world by a movement far to my right. A Bassian Thrush running along the fallen tree only a few feet in front of me! I hardly dare move for fear of scaring it off, and was torn between putting my camera up to my eye or not. As you can see by the upper image, I eventually managed a shot, and that's virtually the full frame. Shortly afterwards, it flew to the forest floor and raked around, before moving off. I'm sure they're not that uncommon here, but I've not seen one previously at this spot.
A few days later I made another trip to The Wielangta Forest, and the self same clearing, hoping to get the chance to see the thrush again, and improve on the photos. That wasn't to be. After a moderate wait, in which I had a visit from a lone Scrubwren and a group of Tasmanian Thornbills, neither presenting a photo opportunity, and as I was about to leave, I caught a glimpse of a darkish bird in the nearby scrub. Expecting it to be the thrush, I was a little disappointed to see that it was an, as yet, unidentified Whistler--both Golden and Olive occur in the area. As you can see by the lower shot, it was an Olive Whistler. Most of the time, it preferred the dappled light among the scrub, as from my experience they often do. Fortunately, it finally, all too briefly, came out of the scrub, and the dappled light, and allowed a few shots. I've attempted to photograph 'Olives' on several occasions recently, but they're generally much shyer that 'Golden'. A search for images of Olive Whistlers on the internet, would suggest that they're photographed infrequently.
I'm sure I shall be returning to this clearing!