canberrabirds

Early morning

To: "'Geoffrey Dabb'" <>, <>
Subject: Early morning
From: "Shaun Bagley" <>
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:49:51 +1100

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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