I’ve just returned from Lake Ginninderra
peninsula – my first visit for a while – and encountered a slightly
wrong koel call in trees to the west of the Diddams Close picnic area at about
9:20. A kind of ku-ko-el – the first note brief and higher. On
inspection, I saw a bird preening itself, and fluffing out its feathers as if
it had just had a dip. Koel size – a BFCS nearby for comparison – pale
buffy beige with white spots on the brown wings, but so far as I could see, not
the dark head of the female. Of course it fled as soon as it saw binoculars but
remained calling, in a second row of gums behind the first. I tramped through
the long dead grass past a very dead dog and endured the smell and the prospect
of snakes for about half an hour but didn’t find the bird again, though
it kept calling. If anyone checks this out, pls let me know what you think. Loads
of Magpie-larks around, as possible foster parents. b
