I was sitting in Campbell Park early yesterday morning
watching not very much happening and thinking the locals had all decided to
stay away from me, when a magpie came and sat a couple of metres from me and
made some unmagpieish sounds. Within minutes four magpies, four crimson
parrots, a magpie lark, a grey butcher bird, a black-faced cuckoo shrike and a
willie wagtail all assembled in the semi dead tree in front of me, and created
a cacophony of squawks, warbles and chatters. Most of them fixed me with
their eyes and the magpie swooped me (or more correctly, my hide) a couple of
times. The whole show went on for almost ten minutes, after which they
drifted off and left the scene for the grey fantails to come and have a look.
I can only liken this behaviour to what I have seen with
cattle, when they will race across the paddock bellowing to inspect a new apparition
of some kind, then mill around not knowing what to do next. The kangaroos
are a bit like that, though they just surround me at about 12-15 metres and
silently stare. I often sit quietly in our reserves like this, but it is
the first time I have ever witnessed this behaviour with birds.
Margaret Leggoe
