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From:
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2011 2:08 AM
To:
Subject: One more galah comment
Hi Michael and Janette,
One more galah comment- below is
the initial message that sparked the discussion at the end of 2010. I was
thrilled to see this message. BX and TO were by far my favorite pair of
galahs; they nested in the same tree (on the path reached from Philip Ave in
Ainslie or Hackett) all three years of my study (the first year they were
unbanded but had very distinctive behavior, so I am only guessing it was the
same pair the first year). This was the most coordinated pair of galahs
I'd ever seen. The male (BX) and female (TO) shared the incubation duties
more equitably than almost any other pair of birds. One would leave the
nest just as the other was flying in- perfectly timed with only very quiet
vocalizations to engineer the switch. Their nest was perfectly placed in a
very sturdy tree, with several good look-out perches nearby.
One of the
things that fascinated me about galahs was that their "romantic" lives were
total soap-operas; one male, RX, had a different female with him whenever I saw
him before settling down my third year; one pair, the female would leave the
male to incubate for hours and hours while she disappeared; another pair, the
male met up with his "other woman" while his sick mate (who eventually died)
incubated the eggs. BX and TO were almost always together when they were
both off the nest, and they were precisely coordinated when incubating their
eggs. I try not to anthropomorphize, but I was very impressed by these
upstanding citizens and wonderful parents!
Best,
Judith
Dear
COG Team,
I have a question about some birds I saw this morning. I was
riding my bike along Northbourne Ave today and spotted two galahs at the side of
the road. I thougt I saw some numbers on the side of their wings and indeed when
I stopped and went back, I saw that both birds had round tags wired to both of
their wings. They were round, approx 2-3cm diameter and had letters on them: BX
and TO. I assume they are part of some tracking survey. What's the story there
and is it helpful to report these sightings to you?
--
Dr. Judith Scarl
Vermont Center for Ecostudies
P.O. Box 420, Norwich, VT 05055
(802) 649 1431 x7
m("vtecostudies.org","jscarl");">
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