Bird Sightings

I took my first commuter trip on the train from Geelong to Melbourne yesterday. And for my trouble, I got to enjoy some different views of the same landscape. A closer view of the You Yangs and the flat country that borders its foot. A colony of sacred Ibises that reside in a natural swamp bordered by the Princess Highway, an over pass in Hoppers Crossing,  and a  housing development mushrooming up from the North East that was literally being concreted up tothe swamps edges as the train hurtled past. The beautiful grafitti and city decay. The poor and desperate. The mad. A magpie lark sitting stock still on top of an electrical box on St Kilda Rd. That was a poignant bird sighting. He was grubby and looked very tired and sick. On his right foot, a large growth or tumor of some sort protruded, and his feathers were scruffy and grubby. The city went on with its business all around him, heedless of  the sad truth that the poor thing was in all likely hood, going to die soon.