At The National Museum of Australia

["Philip Veerman" <>]

On Friday I attended an event at The National Museum of Australia, Lawson Crescent, Acton Peninsula, Canberra. Some of you may be interested that the gift shop is having a sale of 50% price on books. I didn't notice many bird books but guide books to frogs, snakes, mammals are included.

From the entrance I was drawn for quite some time at what appears to be a loud but fairly reasonable approximation of the calls of Peregrine Falcons coming from the roof of the building, combined with what appears to be from a distance sort of like an oddly coloured tethered Black-shouldered Kite (maybe sans the black) hanging tangled by a string from a pole on the roof. Hard to reconcile these. I noticed someone else (who was in the courtyard much close) watching looking concerned. After a while of wondering what is going on, I realised the tethered bird is not a bird but a model and the absence of views of Peregrine Falcons indicates the sound is also fake. (I had heard these noises on another time last year and wasted good observing time trying to find the birds.) I went inside to comment, as it seems to me a pretty poor joke or bad taste display. I was informed that both are there to discourage the aggregations of various birds from blocking the air conditioning units that are on the roof. I wonder if it works.

Philip