A story:
A few days ago, when I was doing my GBS count, I heard strange sounds in a low thick bush – no more than a metre off the ground. I have never heard those sounds before as far as I can remember. I tried to peer into the bushes and to move
them to flush the perpetrator but no luck.
Tonight, just after 8pm, I heard a female Koel call once, close to the house, so I hot-footed it outside to inspect. Up in the cedar where they have been roosting, or loafing, I saw the male which then flew off. I followed its flight
a few doors down the road and saw movement in a tree which turned out to be the female. She spooked as I approached and flew straight into the same low bush I had been observing the other day. As I went close to observe, I heard what I could only describe
as a sequence of yelping calls, not like anything I have heard before – some sort of alarm response. I tried my male-call whistle and got movement in the bushes but in the crepuscular gloom, I couldn’t be sure if I had seen the male or the female or both.
So perhaps the low bush is some sort of roosting site.
I am not sure what it is that I am observing but it is interesting and a different experience from the loud calls and lots of chasing around that one usually observes.
David Rosalky
