Doyle Street in Bensville, NSW Central Coast, leads to a trail following electrical transmission lines and also serveing as a fire trail.

Walking along the trail yesterday was an outstanding experience. An abstract symphonic score of natural sounds dominated all. On the lower slopes of the trail, The Bell minor –  Manorina melanophrys – comanded the soundscape.

These small birds inhabit denser forest areas, usually eucalypt forest, the margins of rainforest and denser vegetation along creeks. Small they might be but their calls are uniquely beautiful.

Henry Kendall, the Australian poet wrote a beautiful poem about bellbirds. 

Further up the trail in less humid areas the rise and fall of a massed choirs of Black Prince cicadas dominated the

Heading along the fire trail