Did you just read the scientific name for the little Grassbird? That’s outrageous, I wouldn’t tolerate that if I was a Little Grassbird, poodytes indeed! It is apparently derived from the Ancient Greek poa, meaning grass and dutes meaning diver. Go figure! An occupant of vegetated wetlands it is a bird not often seen, even by birdwatchers like, umm, ho hum, yours truly! 

Extremely cryptic but often heard, it is an unusual sound to say the least. Pizzey and Knight describe it as ‘a mournful, trisyllabic ‘p-peee-pee’ (wait up, a scientific name of poos and makes a call like pee, I don’t like where this is going) which in my books gives a good description of the call but not a good description, if that makes sense. It is a sound you really have to hear to get across it. Mournful, yes very much so, penetrating yes, ventriloquial at times too! I have several times over the years fallen victim to this magician’s trick, it’s calling from over there, no, over there, noooo, over there, it does your head in believe me!

It is an extremely secretive bird, but if you’re patient and sit and listen to the call and wait, an occasional cameo is given, but don’t hold your breath! Not exactly striking in appearance, little Grassbirds are simply a good get just to say you saw one! About ten years ago a bird called the Tawny Grassbird was discovered at the Liverpool Road Retarding Basin, which at that stage was only the second record of this bird in Victoria.

Common in Northern Australia, it set twitching records for photographers at the venue, they say everyone has 5 minutes of fame in their lives, for me this was it. I thought it was going to be about my clandestine affair with Elle Macpherson, glad that never got out into the public domain, le wife would definitely have left me over that.