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Actually "piping shrikes"...Further to my earlier
post, the magpies are in fine form tonight in a large eucalypt opposite my abode
in Griffith (Red Hill side of Capn. Cook). Calls, carolling but somewhat muted
are being answered from another magpie, as best as I can locate it several
hundred metres away towards Rocky Knob, or as Geoffrey would put it ,"UN".
That's Upper Narrabundah for the uninitiated...
Acronyms aside, why would a magpie feel it's
important to sing, albeit muted, at this time of night in this season. Gisella
Kaplan (Australian Magpie) reports it is a contact call between members of
a group. I wonder if it is not contact between different groups
establishing territories in spring without the confrontational aspect that
physical contact brings?
Cheers
Shaun
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