canberrabirds

Nocturnal Glossies?

To: <>
Subject: Nocturnal Glossies?
From: "Steve Holliday" <>
Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:28:44 +1000

Saturday was a  rather weird evening here in Ainslie. About 6ish, half an hour after sunset, a Tawny Frogmouth was calling from the nature reserve behind our house, only our 3rd or 4th GBS record. 15 minutes later I went outside to see if it was still calling and was astonished to see what seemed to be a large fire burning some 150 metres away in the nature reserve. I called Prue outside to look at it, and as we were standing there watching we heard the unmistakeable calls of Glossy Black Cockatoos. Quite a surreal moment. There were about 3 calls and then silence. Fortunately the fire died down quickly and what was left was sorted out by the Ainslie Fire Brigade, who no doubt would like to get their hands on the idiots who lit it.

 

On the subject of nocturnal Glossy activity, HANZAB says “rarely fly after sunset, even when moon full”, based on a study on Kangaroo Island. Even though it was a near full moon, while it is possible these birds were moving by night on purpose, perhaps they were roosting close enough to the fire to be disturbed by it. I have never previously seen or heard Glossies, or any sign of them, on this side of Mt Ainslie, despite looking regularly, and despite having stands of casuarinas maybe 500 metres from our back fence in the nature reserve. We did a search of the area on Sunday and failed to find birds or feeding sign.

 

Cheers

 

Steve

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