Before we have the annual ‘early koel’ discussion,
may I recapitulate the following from last year.
On 25 Sept Geoff Duggan relayed a report from Yass. This
led Barbara Allan to advise that the earliest RP record was 8 Sept 1989 and
that ‘there were very few records before November’. Martin B
contributed that there were several GBS records in 2002 for the second week of October
but in most other years they were ‘a week or two later than that’.
In the same exchange I drew attention to a report that year by
Stu Harris of one in Hughes on August 11.
The usual stream of reports began with a bird in Hawker-Macquarie-Weetangera
on 25 October.
Ian’s report may be the earliest yet, perhaps indicating a
new trend, and it would be useful to have it confirmed. Also any news of
what it can find to eat at this time of year.
Most of the above is gleaned from the chatline archive, which
exists for such purposes.
From: Ian Hodgson
[
Sent: Wednesday, 30 July 2008 10:02 PM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Koel
I
have just rejoined the list after a 6 week holiday absence, so don’t know
what the recent sightings have been, but we heard a koel calling last night in
Weetangera. That seems very early compared with last year, when I think we
first heard it at the end of November.
Ian
Hodgson
Weetangera
