I have an idea that Topknot Pigeons are mis-named 'Flock Pigeons' in
SEQ. They certainly come in flocks but when a Grey Goshawk frightened
the flock I was watching out of its treetop, they left with a roar of
wings like surf - about 100 birds, certainly over 80. Perhaps in steady
flight they are silent?
Perhaps this misnomer is a counter attack against the majority of the
inland people who always call Crested Pigeons 'Topknots'.
Anthea Fleming
in Ivanhoe - where we have Spotted Doves in plague proportions, plus a
few Common Bronzewings in the parks, and now and then a few Cresteds.
Andrew Stafford wrote:
>
> Birders in other parts of Australia must think there's something in
> the water up here for the number of bizarre, and apparently
> unsupported claims that have been made in the past few days.
>
> The most outlandish is Judith's second-hand report of Flock
> Bronzewings passing annually over Mt Mee in the state's south-east
> from 1998 to 2004. Judith, if this claim has any merit I will
> personally walk backwards to Birdsville, where hopefully I will
> finally see one. I can't say what I think they are, because if the
> observer noted that they fly in an "eerie silence", they obviously
> aren't pigeons.
>
> The report of an Australian Bustard near Caboolture is marginally less
> unlikely - a bird lobbed into Lytton in Brisbane's bayside some years
> back - but such discoveries should be reported immediately with
> supporting details, not published uncritically in a newsletter after
> the fact.
>
> I can think of a more likely candidate than a Grey Goshawk at Yowah in
> the state's south-west also.
>
> Andrew
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