While walking my dogs this morning my attention was drawn to what I thought
was a rather loud begging red wattlebird fledgling. However, almost
immediately I saw a parent RWB several times feeding a bird much larger than
itself in a surprisingly open position.
Of course once I fetched my binoculars it proved much less willing to show
itself, calling from within a dense exotic tree. However, after about 20
minutes it emerged and then flew into a gum 30-40 m away in an open perch from
which it was very easy to confirm as an Eastern Koel, probably a bit older than
first thought given it flew well.
This happened in the path between Themeda and Mentha Places, at the rear of
Tobias parents’ house. This is the first observation in my local area this
year, and as far as I’m aware only the second record after Barbara Allan’s very
early fledgling posted on 21 December (I may have missed some?). So please
keep an ear out for them, the next 6 weeks till the end of February seems to be
the peak Koel fledgling season.
Jack Holland
