I must say, Bob, I gave some thought to
that possibility. The young koels I’ve seen down the coast were never
close enough for such a good view and all the females I’ve seen to date
have had distinctly black caps. So when we came back from our walk I rushed
straight to HANZAB to check. But unless my memory fails me completely (not to
be ruled out!) the bird I saw had no buffy white cap and was distinctly and
neatly spotty, unlike the juveniles depicted in HANZAB. In any event a male
koel is still around. He chorused briefly from a neighbour’s gum in Carron Street
during the 1pm news, his red eye glaring all the while. b
From: Sharon Rusk [
Sent: Friday, 2 January 2009 6:43
AM
To: ;
Barbara Allan
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] a
good start to 2009
I was wondering if it could have possibly
have been a young Koel as these are a quite a bit lighter than the adult hen
and are silent except for the begging call. I've seen 2 or 3 of
them on the ground after chasing moths or whatever and tiring
themselves out in a clumsy prolonged effort to catch it. They can sit there
for a quite a while until they, or some other circumstances deem it's
time to move on. That circumstance is usually a Red WB or some other bird
objecting to their presence. Just in case, I want you to put in a form to the
rarities committee of a possible breeding record of the now famous
"Page" Koel"
PS I wonder if it was maybe that
sculking "Scullin" Koel's progeny
-------Original Message-------
Date: 1/01/2009 8:51:35 PM
Subject: [canberrabirds] a good start to 2009
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
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