While walking the dog this morning I was more than surprised
to see a female koel on the ground no more than two metres from me in the
little park at the western end of Hannaford Street (Page). At first I wondered
if she was injured but after a couple of minutes she flew off strongly to a
liquidamber on the other side of the park. Silent the whole time. While the
local Page/Scullin male koel (he of the stutter) wasn’t calling at the
time, he has been, on and off, since. Interestingly, the female was of the pale
form shown in HANZAB, while all other female koels I’ve seen have been
the dark form. Any comments on how usual it is to see koels on the ground (I
never have before). Or the ratio of pale to dark females? b
