Koels have certainly been more conspicuous in
my local area this year, with the one in Rivett calling much more than in the
last few years (any part of the day from as early as 4 am) and moving closer and
closer to my GBS site. Unlike previous years I also managed to get a
number of sightings, often surprisingly close in open situations where it paid
no attention to me at all – subscribers may have seen Tobias’ post with the male
holding a cherry a few weeks back – he’s about 400 m from my place and in the
area where it often was seen/heard.
So it was only a matter of time before I
could put it on my GBS chart – this occurred on Sunday evening 16 December, when
first it was calling from a very open position about 200 m away, and then in the
next 30 minutes twice briefly from trees around our house. On each
occasion the bird made a very different call from the two standard ones I’d been
hearing, and flew off back into Rivett with Red Wattlebirds in hot
pursuit.
Surprisingly he’s been much quieter since and
has hardly been heard in the past week while I’ve been home all day.
Jack Holland
From:
Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2012 8:48 AM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Koel in Weston
Since returning from Xmas interstate, a Koel has been calling
early in the morning close to my Weston house, Ko-el, and wirra calls, yesterday
morning it was in Chevalier Street in a large broadleaf street tree. Ive
also heard it in the evening. Since the Koels came back to the area in
November, calls had been regularly heard, mostly coming from the direction of
Waramanga across Hindmarsh Drive. Several neighbours have trees fruiting
now.
cheers
Jenny
