Can confirm that Mr Koel of the
the Griffith address has a penchant for clearing his throat early in the
morning, though I would add that it seems to be well before first light and he
also seems to move around a bit, given that Geoffrey and I do not live within a
full Koel of each other.
From: Geoffrey Dabb [
Sent: Saturday, 14 November 2009 10:54 AM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Early morning
About 5 years ago I found it almost impossible to get a
clock radio with an earphone to replace one obtained long before when such
items were commonplace. The only unit I could get was a DIGITAL model, a
German product, in advance of its time in Australia. The digital function
was superfluous because then, as indeed still in Canberra, I believe, no
stations transmit the required digital signal. This piece of equipment
worked well enough, even if I had to get out the manual every time I needed to
set the time after one of Canberra’s frequent power interruptions.
However, it had one serious defect. Groping for the station button to
catch the news in the middle of the night I would often press some hidden
control that triggered a time-delayed alarm. In due course this would
start with a soft ‘beep’ the beeps gradually increasing in volume and
insistence until loud enough to wake anyone. If temporarily silenced,
this sound would begin again after an interval of about 30 minutes, until I
tore the power cord from the wall.
Naturally, I came to exercise extreme care in operating this
device. However, this morning I was a bit careless, and the ‘beep’
problem re-occurred. It was 5am (the offered bulletin, I might add, not
being worth the trouble). However, the interesting thing was that
the moment I had silenced the radio I heard the local koel giving voice at
almost exactly, to my ear, the same tone and tempo. I can therefore add
to the record that koels call at 5am. It might well have been calling
earlier. If it had not been doing so, there are two possibilities.
One is that the very first lightening of the eastern sky had been the cue for
Mr K to begin clearing his throat. The other is that my alarm had roused
the bird to respond to a perceived rival, the kind of challenge that in my
experience members of the cuckoo tribe are quick to take up.
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19:50:00
