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Paul,
Not sure where you live but a bit after my return
from the COG meeting on 8/8 to my abode in Griffith on the Red Hill side of the
suburb, I heard magpies calling and responding at about 10:45pm.
At first I thought it might be one of those ads
running on 666AM at the moment with Yellow-Tail Black Cockatoos in the
background which have given me pause to look out of the window. Then I realised
that the radio was not on and the sound was not media-enhanced.
The magpies, as you observed, were singing in
the dead of night i.e. without any moonlight. (Settle down Beatles fans...)The
song seemed muted but persistant with a reply from a tree about 150m away. I
went out to check that the calls were coming from the eucalypt I suspected. For
about 5 minutes I witnessed calls echoing from the one tree to the other, then a
rush of beating wings signalled a magpie flying in the dark to the original tree
and back to its perch in the other tree.
Still don't know whether this was a bird from the
same local group or an interloper making a statement as spring looms.
What I do know is that this is the thid night this
month magpies have caught my attention singing in the night though previously
the warbling has been on moonlit nights as I expect from prior
experience.
Regards
Shaun Bagley
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