Buff-banded rail

Image: www.aviceda.com
My early-morning drive to work has been enlivened over the past couple of months by scatty buff banded rails which run, full bore with their heads and necks down, from the dangerous middle of the road back to the safety of the scraggly vegetation along its edge. This morning I counted seven of them which I think was a record. They seem to manage to zip back into the safety of the vegetation pretty well judging from the lack of dead rail bodies on the road. They nearly always run back to safety, in fact I don't think I've ever seen them use their wings.
The first time I can remember seeing this species was in the Myall Lakes National Park, north of Newcastle, back in 1984. I was walking through a freshwater swamp, intent on trying to spot a red bellied black snake when this little woodhen-like bird with the colourful face and breast zoomed across the leaf litter and into the shelter of a reed-bed. Luckily they are so distinctive looking that I could easily make a positive ID when I consulted my Slater and Slater.