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
